I’m sure you’ve learned more about short grass strips from your actual experience in Europe than from that CFI. And while flight training in Europe may be awful, it must be especially good at short grass takeoff and landing instruction at least - I assume the accident rate is not awful in and out of those strips.
As I understand it, in Europe pilots are attracted to short grass strips to avoid user fees. In the US, pilots have no such incentive, and don’t. Leaving out the bush pilots in Alaska who would not be much help to a guy learning to land on a short grass strip in Florida, I’d wager that the percentage of SR22 pilots routinely landing SR22s on short grass strips in Europe is significantly higher than in the US.
In Florida’s six rainy summer months, the high temps typically exceed 30C and rain is often a daily occurrence. At 32C, using a G2 POH and some interpolation, the hard surface takeoff roll of an SR22 at max gross is about 1170 feet. Plus 30% for wet grass is 1,520 feet to break ground. To clear a 50 foot obstacle, 2,140 feet. So at the departure end of the runway (the beach at either end) you’d be at about 25 feet, or less than 20 feet over the heads of the people on the beach. I don’t call that a 28% margin. And these are Cirrus test pilot numbers, with a new engine and prop adjusted exactly right to produce full power, with factory new and clean wings, and nothing but an estimate of 30% to account for the length of the grass and runways bumps.
As for landings, the ground roll at 32C is 1,210 feet for this Cirrus test pilot and new airframe. Plus 60% for wet grass is 1,936 feet, putting the pilot in the water at past the departure end of the runway with brakes smoking and/or tires skidding more than likely. And that’s assuming a touchdown in the first foot of the runway, just past the beach sand. A skilled pilot might not want to decapitate a person on the beach, and may not want to touch down a bit short in the sand and rip his gear off, so figure such a pilot may be able to touchdown 100 feet past the approach end (basically, commercial pilot PTS standards, something a typical GA pilot cannot do every time, or even half the time), leaving him further in the water. Even with dry grass, the landing distance is 1,450 feet. Landing 400 past the end of the runway (not too bad for a typical airport) puts you into the water at the other end, standing on the brakes. Again, I don’t see the 28% margin. And while neither end or the runway is a cliff, a beach full of vacationers and salt water just beyond is not much better than a cliff at either end.
This comment is what I would expect, and is contrary to the sense of your earlier point that the US has many more experienced “light bush pilots” than Europe, and that European flight instruction - at least for short grass strip operations - is “notoriously bad.” You Europeans might be able to handle this Florida strip in a max gross SR22 if you were careful about the weather conditions and ready to cancel a flight or on return go somewhere else. I’m not so sanguine about the typical US pilot’s chances.
To that, I can only say that you are speaking for European pilots, who obviously with the necessity of their practice under such conditions find max performance takeoffs and landings so easy. I’m truly impressed, and would love to fly with a competent European pilot into such strips - an experience I’m sure I’d hardly believe. I think that is way beyond the skill level of the typical US pilot, and can be expected only of CFIs who teach the maneuver a lot, and of SR22 owners who apply themselves to the challenge. For the rest of us, it’s not necessary, and why put that kind of wear and tear on the airplane to practice something you never do.
Finally, we’re not giving advice to Bob Hoover or even Thomas Borchert here. This is all intended for a guy who hasn’t bought his Cirrus yet, and has no experience at this airport, nor anything like it.
