Landing on Grass

We found Carleton Place airport after our initial navigation difficulties (see earlier post).

CNR6 has 2200 feet of nice rolling turf, although it can be a little soft and wet in spots, especially in the Spring. Each year I phone before landing there, since it is a "Prior Permission Required" (PPR) airport.

There was an ultralight Challenger on the frequency in-bound when we checked in, but we were closer and travelling faster. I let Lauren fly the approach while I made the radio calls. I pointed out the power lines and the displaced threshold, and she came in low over the hangars and touched down at the threshold. There was no hard bounce and no fighting to keep the aircraft lined up like when we land on asphalt, just a gentle bump and a slide. The grass slowed us down quickly, and we only used a few hundred feet of runway. We turned around and Lauren was surprised by how much power it takes to keep the aircraft rolling on the grass.


CNR6 - Carleton Place, Lauren's first landing on grass and Wonder Woman is still pumped about her landing


CNR6 - Carleton Place, Challenger C-ILPM followed us in

After taking photos to celebrate her best landing yet, and a chat with one of the ultralight pilots, it was time to go again. We did several more "stop and goes" on the grass, hopefully not too many because we don't want to annoy the airport neighbours on a Sunday morning. Lauren experimented with forward slips to lose altitude coming over the trees, and worked on her directional control on the rolling grass runway. Then it was time to leave Carlton Place and go to Gatineau Airport and have lunch at the little restaurant "L'Aileron" in the terminal.


Enroute - Look, it's the Palladium. Wait, it's the Corel Centre. No, it's called Scotiabank Place now. Look for the Ottawa Senators to host another Stanley Cup final series here soon.


Enroute - An eye-catching tennis court in Kanata


Enroute - Canadian suburbia in Kanata

My Aviat Husky has a cousin at Gatineau - this Pitts Special (built by Aviat). He was going up to practise in the aerobatic box as we were getting ready to leave Gatineau. I wanted to tell him that his engine had swallowed a valve but he looked like he was having too much fun.

Pilot Navigation

Lauren has been working on her landings at Rockliffe and Gatineau airports. They have paved runways, fairly long, wide, and flat. For a change, I wanted to give her the chance to practise on a nice grass strip - CNR6 Carleton Place, about 10 miles South West of Carp.

First, we did a little navigation exercise to find the field. She flew West from Carp, at 1,200 ft above the ground. We overflew a small town and I passed her the map and asked her to identify the town. Her first guess was "Carleton Place", simply because she remembered where I said we would be going.

Dad: "How do you know this is Carleton Place?"

Lauren: "I don't know ... it has a road, and a railway, and a river ... ???"

Dad: "Check the map. Is Carleton Place on a river?"

Lauren: "No, it's near a lake on the map. So this is Almonte, it has a road, and a railway, and a river."

Dad: "It seems a little small to be Almonte. Does Almonte have a ski hill - do you see those ski trails and lifts over there?"

Lauren: "Umm. I Dunno."

Dad: "Do you see Mount Pakenham over there? With the ski trails?"

Lauren: "So this is Pakenham? Pakenham has a road, and a railway, and a river too?"

Dad: "Yeeeesss. Now where should we be heading to go to Carleton Place?"

Lauren: "I don't know. I thought you knew where it was."

And this is how pilots learn to navigate. My daughter inherited her map reading skills from her mother. I think I will show her how to program the GPS before she does her solo cross country trips.


This is Almonte - a nice little Ontario town with a road, and a railway, and a river too.