Originally Posted by
Rick Rademacher
A good friend of mine flew his Long-EZ on a 70-knotter trip many years ago. He landed at the 4,000 ft. long grass strip which was our starting point. For some reason, he was the last to leave this strip on a short flight to a refueling stop. As he didn’t show at this next stop, I returned to the grass strip to find him still trying to leave.
He had removed most of his camping gear to lighten the load.He had also drained fuel from his tanks. Some of the airport watchers at this strip had mowed a narrow path down the center of the grass runway that was cut shorter than the rest of the grass just for him. Everyone was taking bets on how many tries it would take for the front canard to reach flying speed and point the craft skyward before reaching the tall trees at the end of the long, long grass runway.
After removing everything from his aircraft and with just enough fuel to reach the next stop, he flew on his sixth attempt to vow never to land on grass again.