Sunday, July 5, 2009

Aviation Stuff

This grass airport, which is maybe ten miles WSW of the Great Barrington Airport, is not on the aviation charts. From another angle (which I didn't photograph), it is more obvious that they had to cut away part of a hill and then dump the fill to the right side in order to lengthen the runway. It had to cost a frigging fortune to do that, which is why I call it Big Bucks Field. It is adjacent to a golf course and a lake resort. I have never seen an airplane on the field. (If you want to see another shot, go to Goggle Earth and insert "42.17, -73.6" into the search box, it is at 42-10N, 073-36W. You can see the rip-rap at the south end of the strip.)


This is an inland lake with a beach. I've not driven by there, but I suspect that it is a state park of some kind. The hills in the background are the Catskills.



This is a racetrack in upper northwest Connecticut. It may be Limerock.



This is a Marchetti SF.260. It's a pretty hot airplane. The military version has been in production for over 40 years. Some were sold to the civilian market. The Falco homebuilt is essentially the parent of the SF.260.


I'm not a big fan of painting airplanes in camouflage color schemes. VFR flight depends heavily on the concept known as "see and avoid." Back in the `70s, Grumman-American produced a run of trainers that were painted olive drab to imitate military aircraft. If one was in the pattern and you were descending to the airport, those trainers could be devilishly hard to spot. You may have noticed that most private airplanes are painted white and there is a damn good reason for it: Other than over snow, white is one of the easiest colors to see.
on or about

3 comments:

  1. Sarah7/05/2009 11:38 PM

    Oh good, aviation stuff!

    Interesting private airstrip. I presume it is for BigBuck visitors to the resort to use. Too bad the BigBuck's jets, Cirri and the like can't use a 2000 foot grass strip. Maybe someday it will be an airpark for J3s, Champs and Stinsons (see, I have been paying attention) that can make good use of a nice grass airport.

    Wow, a camo paint scheme for a civil aircraft is a spectacularly bad idea. We *hope* for see-and-avoid but have to rely on the "big sky theory" too often. I fly a pure white airplane ( a sailplane ), and it can be awfully hard to see too, especially if you're looking up at a clear bright sky or white clouds.

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  2. deadstick7/06/2009 12:00 AM

    Matter of fact, the German counterpart to the FAA requires a certain number of square meters of contrasting color on white sailplanes.

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  3. Sarah7/07/2009 3:41 PM

    I know, deadstick. We see imported German gliders all the time with blue or red noses, wing tips or the colorful Grob rudder.

    I'm not convinced it's all that helpful, but agree it wouldn't hurt. If I ever get winglets added, they will definitely be red. I've also thought about redoing my contest letters in mylar "mirror" foil.

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