Take offs and landing from grass runways require special technique and not all pilots are comfortable with that. Take-off at very low speed followed by acceleration in ground effect or approaches and landing with higher than usual nose-up attitude can seem impressive and require some training. I don’t have this problem. Not that I’m a better pilots than everyone else, but because I learned to fly on a 800 meters / 2600 feet long grass runway. Both thresholds were displaced, and the shortest landing distance was 520 meters / 1700 feet.

Is that short ? It certainly depends where you use to fly. I reckon to most US standards, this is short. I learned to fly in this environment where landing shortly after threshold and with accurate speed is important. Not that landing long on a 12.000 feet runway is good or acceptable, but it’s much less drama. The first time I landed on the main runway which is 12.000 feet long and concrete, I flared to high because of the well known optical illusions. My instructor was here and corrected for that. I learned to adapt my flare to larger runways, but my primary one remains soft and short making soft and short landings and take-offs non-events for me.

Similar considerations apply for different domains as well. I feel at home at controlled airports, and in low-wing tricylce aircraft. I have some experience in high-wing aircraft, none with tail wheel, and I’m not so used to navigate VFR “clock-and-compass” over flat land without major landmarks. Just like each pilot, I’ve my strengths and my weaknesses and I think it’s important to know them. I continue to extend my comfort zone, step by step. Sometimes with an instructor, sometimes alone on board. The place where I learned to fly the DA42 has more often crosswinds than Geneva, where the winds are almost always in the axis because of the surrounding mountains.

The pilot certificate is a license to learn, and we should never stop exercising these priviledges. The Flying Across America adventure I’m preparing for next year will certainly be a great opportunity to learn new things, in a completely new context. Not tail wheel or sea plane though… this will have to wait a bit.