Everyone enjoys a trip to the beach, but pilots have access to better beaches. This is what I was up to last week.

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At the north end there's a couple of small cabins just inside the woods with an orange float marker hanging up at the treeline. Stove and shelter if you come to misfortune, and also a frequent overnight stop by kayakers, so you may get some manpower to help push or pull. The journal inside the cabin logs a few aircraft overnight camping visits over the years, one by a couple with a Seabee heading up to Alaska.

The builder of the cabin recalls a helicopter slinging an airplane off the beach when he was there in 1999, and I've met the pilot of an amphib Turbo Beaver that got stuck in the sand after landing to look for glass net balls. He got out eventually. Another pilot denied landing a King Air there (although there were pictures), so it is pretty good sand most times.

I've got the two helicopter operators in Pt McNeill on speed-dial if I need them before the tide comes in. As my grizzled experienced mentors always said about off-airport landings: "consider the salvage effort".

Nice! I wish I could legally land on the beaches down where I live. Copalis is all we have, but that's 600+ miles away.

Karmutzen wrote:At the north end there's a couple of small cabins just inside the woods with an orange float marker hanging up at the treeline. Stove and shelter if you come to misfortune, and also a frequent overnight stop by kayakers, so you may get some manpower to help push or pull. The journal inside the cabin logs a few aircraft overnight camping visits over the years, one by a couple with a Seabee heading up to Alaska.

The builder of the cabin recalls a helicopter slinging an airplane off the beach when he was there in 1999, and I've met the pilot of an amphib Turbo Beaver that got stuck in the sand after landing to look for glass net balls. He got out eventually. Another pilot denied landing a King Air there (although there were pictures), so it is pretty good sand most times.

I've got the two helicopter operators in Pt McNeill on speed-dial if I need them before the tide comes in. As my grizzled experienced mentors always said about off-airport landings: "consider the salvage effort".

I heard about the a cabin at the north end, I tried to find it from the air, but to no avail. I landed somewhere around the middle. An overnight camping trip there would be cool, but I didn't see anywhere that I would be confident leaving the airplane overnight without worrying about a high tide getting it. That might warrant further investigation.

robw56 wrote:Nice! I wish I could legally land on the beaches down where I live. Copalis is all we have, but that's 600+ miles away.

Come on up North! There are a few decent beaches to land on in BC.

robw56 wrote:Nice! I wish I could legally land on the beaches down where I live. Copalis is all we have, but that's 600+ miles away.

I've seen the photos you guys have posted of your "north circuit", "west circuit", etc.
Quitcherbitchin!

hotrod180 wrote:

robw56 wrote:Nice! I wish I could legally land on the beaches down where I live. Copalis is all we have, but that's 600+ miles away.

I've seen the photos you guys have posted of your "north circuit", "west circuit", etc.
Quitcherbitchin!

Yeah but there's no nice sandy beaches! I like variety

I've been stuck enough times on beaches in vehicles, I've seen others stick their vehicles much worse than I have, and of course (this being an aviation forum), I've seen both successful and unsuccessful beach landings posted on line, and I've seen them on TV. But I've never landed on a beach, or a sand bar, or similar.

So how does one tell from the air that a beach is "landable" and "take-offable"? I know that the usual soft field advice is to make a pass which barely touches down, to "feel" the ground, but I also know that sand can be deceptive (that's why I've gotten vehicles stuck in the past). Any good ways?

Cary

Do a "long" touch and go. Circle back and look at your tracks. if they have a shimmer of water in them then it's no good. If the have little sand windrows where the tires kick up the sand on either side of the track, it's marginal. If all you see are faint tire marks its solid. There's a bit more to it than that of course, but that's a good place to start your assessment of a beach for landing.

robw56 wrote:
Yeah but there's no nice sandy beaches! I like variety

Rob, was it you, or Kev, who landed on that nice sandy beach at Walker Lake? Of course Bryan has his spot at Lahontan in the Mooney too!!!! [emoji12]



Glad I've never been stuck in the mud or snow! [emoji849]

Gump




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Great video.

I was trying to guess where it was and saw your home airport is good old PG. I was PGSS '83. Passed through there a few days ago.

Don't recognize the beach though. Is that Bear Lake? Purden? Cluculz?:-)

/a

It's the title on the video. 30 miles north of CYZT.

GumpAir wrote:

robw56 wrote:
Yeah but there's no nice sandy beaches! I like variety

Rob, was it you, or Kev, who landed on that nice sandy beach at Walker Lake? Of course Bryan has his spot at Lahontan in the Mooney too!!!! [emoji12]



Glad I've never been stuck in the mud or snow! [emoji849]

Gump




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah I found a nice sandy beach there.


I think Kevin was the one who found the not so sandy section one time!

northernguy wrote:Do a "long" touch and go. Circle back and look at your tracks. if they have a shimmer of water in them then it's no good. If the have little sand windrows where the tires kick up the sand on either side of the track, it's marginal. If all you see are faint tire marks its solid. There's a bit more to it than that of course, but that's a good place to start your assessment of a beach for landing.

Northernguy pretty much nails it. You can see the touch and go I did in my video. Always make sure you land on the wet dark sand, for the same reason the we make sandcastles out of wet sand. It's interesting, if you walk from the waterline up the beach you can feel the sand get progressively softer under your feet. Also be very aware of any driftwood or junk that the waves can wash up on the beach.

albravo wrote:Great video.

I was trying to guess where it was and saw your home airport is good old PG. I was PGSS '83. Passed through there a few days ago.

Don't recognize the beach though. Is that Bear Lake? Purden? Cluculz?:-)

You would have gone to school with my mother, she graduated there in '82. I graduated the same school in '01.

robw56 wrote:

hotrod180 wrote:

robw56 wrote:Nice! I wish I could legally land on the beaches down where I live. Copalis is all we have, but that's 600+ miles away.

I've seen the photos you guys have posted of your "north circuit", "west circuit", etc.
Quitcherbitchin!

Yeah but there's no nice sandy beaches! I like variety

How bout the sac river?


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These kind are solid...usually.

Boy that is a big door GB...wish I had that back in the day

That scheme on the S7 sure is sharp.