Don, If I had to do it over again in the same spot, I would have preferred the hard-packed dirt paths/roads between some of the fields that are meant just for farm machinery. The real roads, those which have car/ truck traffic, often also have power lines, phone poles, road signs, and other hazards that are hard to see from altitude, in addition to the vehicle traffic.
The field I landed in was bordered along one side by Highway 140, the route to Yosemite: one fairly busy paved lane in each direction, total width =24' (Ercoupe wingspan = 30'). It had dirt shoulders that were wider than the paved part, though. To avoid the car/truck traffic, at first I aimed for a dirt shoulder, then saw large mud puddles in it and switched over to the plowed field. A good thing I did, as it turned out there were not only mud puddles but road signs and several waist-high posts in that shoulder that were not obvious from the air. The recently plowed field was otherwise empty of hazards at least, although it was so soft it took all afternoon to get the plane out of it. Yes, the furrows were pretty deep grooves & ridges, though of course their depth wasn't obvious to this city girl from the air. Visiting the area 2 months later, I learned from Rick Eason that all the fields which now looked green have either corn growing or something (I think he said rice), which grows in ~3' deep mud slush. So if I couldn't find a hard-packed dirt farm path, I think my 20-20 hindsight 2nd choice might now be a dry, brown field that looks like a vacant lot, in preference to a plowed field with furrows. (If one has choices...) Linda On Aug 27, 2010, at 1:25 AM, [email protected] wrote: > 2c. Re: Corny Landings > Posted by: "Donald" [email protected] dongeneda2000 > Date: Thu Aug 26, 2010 7:29 pm ((PDT)) > > > > As an old farm boy, I am very familiar with plowed fields and > furrows. If someone was taking bets on your way down, I would have > bet that you were going to flip in your back. > Down in my part of the country (south Texas) I have lots and lots > of paved roads without much traffic, still my first choice despite > the experts that say never use a road. We have lots of sugar cane > and cotton fields, have no knowledge of success or failure on > them. Our "plowed" fields are not conventional plowing, but are > grooves and ridges that would surely dump anyone trying to land > across the "furrows". I am thinking S CA may do it that way as well..
