That does bring back a memory a few years back, for me as well. Although I'm not a pilot, and while flying with a friend in a Piper, he made the comment; see that clearing down there. It was nice green grass with trees on both sides of the clearing with trees also at each end; clearing was fairly long, and had some cows there.
He said, we'll land there for a few minutes. I said, why? Come to find out, it was a landing strip for small planes and was a pasture. I was amazed at how you can land in those small areas and take off just as easily. He made it look like a cake walk, both landing and taking off. He's still flying.
Sorry about the thread drift. flintsghost.