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Be careful parking in the grass at Loyd Stearman Field

Tankerpilot75

Well Known Member
Flew up today for lunch at the Loyd Stearman Field restaurant. This airport has very limited ramp parking so I taxied north of the restaurant and turned off the taxiway to park on the grass. This looked like a good area and other folks told me that they?d used this area for parking in the past.

Well no one is obviously maintaining that grassy area now because it?s full of holes just off the taxiway. My RV7A nose wheel fell into a hidden hole and immediately broke my nose wheel skirt.

Great little restaurant at this airport but not worth the potential of damaging your aircraft. With so little ramp parking available I will not take my airplane back there for lunch until I hear they?ve addressed their limited aircraft parking area. Let the locals support that restaurant!

Replacing the skirt won?t be that bad but having a new one painted to match the other two will be costly.
 
Sorry to hear about the trouble while visiting 1K1. The ramp was pretty full today yesterday as this was the first nice flying day in a while. While I wouldn’t expect or request compensation, I’d be sure to contact the airport owners at http://www.flystearman.com and let them know of the incident.

Besides the much too small main concrete parking area, there are also concrete parking pads along the taxiway just South from the gas pump and the main parking area. Some of these have tiedowns already. When using these spots, you pretty much need to shutdown and push your plane into the spot by hand. Keeping your main wheels on the concrete and your tail over/in the grass leaves the taxiway clear. Overnight visitors in particular will use these spots.

Steve
1K1 Resident
 
Steve,

Thanks for your concern. Yesterday the concrete pads south of the restaurant were also occupied. It was a nice day for flying.

I do not expect the owners to compensate me for my loss but I sincerely hope they will checkout the grass areas around the restaurant for parking suitability and establish a ground maintenance program to ensure incidences like mine are eliminated. It?s a shame to have such a nice fly-in destination and risk it?s reputation on poor field maintenance. Limited ramp space is one thing but dangerous grass parking options are quite another.

It will be a very long time before I will subject my RV to this airport.
 
Followed your suggestion - he could care less

Sorry to hear about the trouble while visiting 1K1. The ramp was pretty full today yesterday as this was the first nice flying day in a while. While I wouldn?t expect or request compensation, I?d be sure to contact the airport owners at http://www.flystearman.com and let them know of the incident

Steve,
I used the above web address to contact the owner by email. He subsequently called me and started out by saying ?we don?t advertise grass parking.? He went on to say, ?he has numerous aircraft and when he parks on grass he assumes full responsibility.? I told him I also assume responsibility for my own aircraft but that if he wants people to fly to 1K1 and eat at their restaurant then he either needs to address his limited ramp space or at least setup some type of ground maintenance program to ensure people who fly there to eat at his restaurant have a safe place to park. I suggested he might want to add to his AWOS message something that addresses the poor grassy areas that are unsuitable for parking along with his current one about having to back taxi for runway 35 departures. He strongly disagreed because he doesn?t advertise grass parking.

He felt people should assume full responsibility and that he has no responsibility to provide adequate safe parking space above the limited ramp space he currently has, BUT he still wants people to fly into Stearman to eat.

He did not like me saying negative things about his airport. He can?t have it both ways. He wants people to fly into Stearman and eat at the restaurant but does not feel responsible for adequate, safe parking sites.

We both agreed I will not return. I don?t like saying negative things about airports but at the same time people should know about hazardous environments and the attitude of those who operate them.
 
Signs, signs, everywhere should have a sign....

Mr. Stearman will find that one hour of his lawyers time will cost a lot more than a few caution signs and a comment in the "remarks" section of the AFD. I see there is no such comment in the Airnav entry, much of which it taken from the official AFD.

And, there are no comments from pilots on Airnav either. Zero. Perhaps you can post something in the form of a warning about the taxi area, and maybe the post-incident service you received if you are so inclined. (Be fair.)
 
I have a feeling Mr Stearman has no idea how fast info about customer service travels in the airplane world.
 
Mr. Stearman will find that one hour of his lawyers time will cost a lot more than a few caution signs and a comment in the "remarks" section of the AFD. I see there is no such comment in the Airnav entry, much of which it taken from the official AFD.

And, there are no comments from pilots on Airnav either. Zero. Perhaps you can post something in the form of a warning about the taxi area, and maybe the post-incident service you received if you are so inclined. (Be fair.)

Accurate comments in ForeFlight would be great too. The most recent 1K1 airport comment in FF is over 6 months old.

Carl
..
 
Ugh, sorry to hear about the response that you received when you notified the airport owner about the incident, but it doesn't surprise me.
 
Accurate comments in ForeFlight would be great too. The most recent 1K1 airport comment in FF is over 6 months old.

Carl
..
Probably more important than AirNav, as AirNav is reputed to delete negative reviews of advertisers. To be fair, I?ve written a couple of negative reviews which haven?t been deleted.
 
Probably more important than AirNav, as AirNav is reputed to delete negative reviews of advertisers. To be fair, I?ve written a couple of negative reviews which haven?t been deleted.

In looking at their AirNav page, I see that comments are disabled by the owner... which kinda indicates to me that they've had their share of negative comments and the owner/manager just doesn't care enough to hear about them. Nice.:rolleyes:
 
An additional warning posted on FATSCS might garner more experiences from others that have had issues... Plus, social media always seems to get a response a bit different.
 
"I suggested he might want to add to his AWOS message something that addresses the poor grassy areas that are unsuitable for parking along with his current one about having to back taxi for runway 35 departures. He strongly disagreed because he doesn?t advertise grass parking."

Interesting that even your suggestion that wouldn't cost a dime was rejected. It's amazing when some businesses have customers despite themselves. Thanks for sharing this.
 
Bummed to hear about your wheel pant :(
I flew up last year for the cars and planes fly-in and had a good time. They had folks directing parking into the grass, and they were very cautious about avoiding the pot holes. Apparently caused by CH-47?s that like to drop in for lunch.
I look forward to returning there, but hopefully your comments will help prevent the issue from happening again.
 
Thanks Keith

I did post a comment on ForeFlight and I noticed someone else added a follow on comment. I?ve started repair/replacement work on my nose wheel skirt. Not being the original builder or having build experience I?m finding the process both challenging and time consuming - but also a little enjoyable.

I don?t know the name of the field owner who called me but he was definitely initially rude and only got worse after I hung up on him. He even called me back three times to finish his comments.

I agree the on field restaurant makes Stearman a nice ?$100 hamburger? destination but as I previously said the lack of adequate safe parking also ruins the experience when something happens. I was fortunate that it wasn?t worse. If I?d fallen into the hole a couple of more inches it would have resulted in a prop strike - a really expensive problem.

Just be careful there. The owner only wants your money and doesn?t care about airport parking. Are you back from the Mideast?
 
Haha hey Jim!! I didn?t even notice who the original poster was! Surfing VAF from my iPhone can be a challenge.
Nah still out here in the sand box. Hopefully back mid March!
Can?t wait to get back and catch up with y?all!
 
Just an FYI that they’ve recently poured some more concrete to roughly double the ramp parking here at Stearman.The parking issues should be addressed.

Watch out for the VASI lights on the East side of the runway that poke up through the center of the new concrete area between the restaurant and the runway.

This was done due to all the jet traffic that is here during the week. They were always short on overnight parking for the jets that would get staged on the ramp for early morning flights.
 
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