Hi, my name is Tim, and I don't always look up when I hear an airplane, but...oh wait, yes I do.

Growing up underneath the traffic pattern for Lake Hood (LHD), airplane noise was the soundtrack of my childhood. I soloed gliders in the 90s as a CAP cadet, but didn't pursue powered flight.

College led to a job as a small-town air traffic controller, and I was privileged to occupy a front-row seat to the antics and skill of some of the state's best bush pilots.

My wife, after listening to years of puppy-dog longing and moping, told me I could either A. go get my PPL or B. please stop talking about it. So I went down to tarmac after work one day and met a flight instructor/mechanic who ran a little hole-in-the-wall flight school. Over the next ten months, I learned a remarkable amount of what not to do when flying and maintaining an airplane.

Example: while I had whole lessons on how to properly crash the plane, and how to remove corrosion from the airframe with an angle grinder and flapper wheel, we didn't really cover things like landings, at least not until after I failed my first checkride.

After a few more lessons and a second checkride the examiner finally signed me off as a private pilot.

Over the next ten years, still wary of the whole "landing" bit, I got behind the controls of an airplane three times. Two of those were with an instructor.

Last spring, I rented a 172 for a flight review. That led to twenty hours in a 7ECA and a tailwheel endorsement, then the purchase of a Piper Colt.

The little wheel is up front, but the story continues.

Good for you and welcome!

Flew to Tanacross on Sunday for the ASCC races on the airfield. I'm not a big car racing fan, but a good friend organized the event this year and made the invite.

My 7-year old son Caleb was navigator/photographer (though I did borrow the camera for a few shots).

3 hours from 0AK1 to TSG via Gulkana.


Trans-Alaska Pipeline north of Gulkana



Wrangell Mountains, looks like Sanford is the big one partially obscured



Still a wee bit of snow on the lower peaks


Tanacross. Airport was NOTAMed closed except for 15 minute PPR. I had coordinated via text before leaving an arrival to runway 24 (which was being used for drag racing) and final coordination on CTAF. On arrival we had no response from the ground crew (radio batteries dead) and found about a gusty 20kt tailwind. Coordinated via phone and made a short approach to the departure end of 06 instead.




The primary photographer would not take pictures through the plexiglass. The Colt has a door removal STC but I've never actually taken it off or flown without it. A compromise was mounting his GoPro to the outside and sending up a backup photographer who was OK with pictures through plastic. I've taken all my pictures from the inside, and that probably partially explains why they don't turn out well. Looking forward to picking up a GoPro and trying it out.



Tazlina Glacier & Lake on the return trip, after an unplanned stop at GKN.


Lessons learned:

Precoordination is good, but having a workable real-time contact on the ground for changing conditions is better (spare batteries for handheld on ground)
Practice basic things on the airplane before you actually need to do them (door removal, best places to mount a camera, etc)
Seven year olds, even if they go to the bathroom before departure, may need to go again (plan for adequate divert airports on longer trips)

Great story and great writing. Keep it up.

Grounded for the past several weeks for maintenance. I dinged the belly fabric with a rock while practicing at Butte Muni - about a nickel sized hole back near the tail. Also had a two inspection holes fraying under the wing, and a few spots of ringworm and cracking on the fuselage top and sides. Ended up working out the worst of the finish blemishes, patched the hole, applied new inspection rings and got it back in the air.

I'd talked to quite a few people before trying the "rejuvenator" method, and responses ranged from "Ah, just paint over it with Krylon (!)" "You'll be better off cutting out the fabric and patching (!!)" and "Rejuvenator never works, you'll ruin the finish and have to recover the entire plane (!!!!!)" After following the Randolph process pretty thoroughly (which involved a lot of sitting around waiting for coatings to dry) it looks pretty good.

Also managed to get the door off - the hinge pin was moderately rusty. A couple of shots of CorrosionX and it came out. Cleaned the pin and the hinge halves, rigged up a suitable strap across the door and went for a ride in the right seat.


Foraker, Hunter, and Denali


South end of Eklutna Valley


Bold airstrip (A13), south end of Eklutna Lake. 1000x15.


Bold airstrip, view towards the south.




Ridges north of the lake


The big three with Pioneer Peak in the foreground. Palmer airport visible in the lower right...


PAAQ from 6500'. Even this time of year it's pretty stinkin' cold with the door off that high...


Butte (AK1).


Knik river/glacier valley.

I'm apprehensive about off airport ops in the Colt. Not a lot of prop clearance...but I've heard that there are some strips in the valley that might be doable. Looking forward to exploring this summer!

Very cool. I hang out with a gang of Tri-Pacer guys and they are fanatical about them. It's a lot of fun.

Those pictures turned out pretty crisp!

Zzz wrote:Very cool. I hang out with a gang of Tri-Pacer guys and they are fanatical about them. It's a lot of fun.

My list of desirable airplanes did not include the Colt...but it came along at the right price and has been a blast to fly. I miss flaps, but operating costs are absurdly low enough to compensate. Perfect first airplane.

CamTom12 wrote:Those pictures turned out pretty crisp!

Amazing how much clearer they are without the plexiglass!

Today's jaunt: Picnic strip, Knik River Valley.

It was my 9-year-old daugher's turn to fly. Half fuel, so...not super heavy - but not super light either.

First time landing off an established airfield in the Colt, and some deep thinking on the way out...is this really worth it? Tri-gear and 6.00s all around, no flaps, shorty wings. Man, what am I doing out here...

Found the strip. Not too bad at first glance.

Standard high altitude pass, looking fine.

Medium pass, good.

Low pass in ground effect, a few larger rocks but nothing too bad.

OK, decision time. Going to give it a try.

Light winds, long final, slow and stable. A little turbulence close in, mountains off the right wing...Touchdown. Drag....lots of drag!!! Gravel. Digging in. Feels like we're gonna nose over.....POWER......full back elevator....then we're through the soft gravel and careening over bumps. Full back on the yoke. Seems like I'm hitting every rock in the known universe with the poor nosewheel. Slow to a stop and shut down.



My daugher spent the next twenty minutes delighting in the wildflowers. I wondered about the inevitable takeoff. A few Blackhawk helicopters flew over, on their way up the valley for the ongoing recovery operation. They've been constantly at work, slingloading parts and remains off Colony Glacier.

Gotta remember the TFR when we get back in the air.

We're going to get back in the air.

We got this.



Walked the strip, looking for obstacles. "No rocks today," I told my daugher. She had found several handfuls of interesting fist-sized rocks. After encountering a loose, unpacked surface for the first time, I was considering tossing out all the extra weight and draining half my fuel, and here my daugher wanted to load up the plane. Yeah, right. Flowers are light. We can do flowers. We loaded up a grocery bag.



It was a beautiful day. We could have spent a few hours more, but it was time to head out.

Buckled in, started up, taxiied back to take off the way we'd landed. Halfway down, we encountered the loose rocks again and had to add a troublesome amount of power to keep moving.

No way. We're not getting airborne in this stuff. I turned around. The wind was still light. A tailwind, but better to start the takeoff run on harder packed rocks, get some weight off the wheels before running into the loose stuff. The strip turned into an ATV trail and turned a corner. I kept going. Sort of a modified dogleg to takeoff. Powered up through the 180 and bought 30mph in the dogleg, hit the strip and got lined up right as the nosewheel came off. Then the mains, and...off in the first third of the strip. Whew.

Circled back over the strip. Yeah, we just landed there...and took off again. And nothing broke. Intimidating at first, even a little scary. But, absolutely awesome. Looking to my right, I saw my daughter grinning ear to ear.

And that's the reward.

Does it lose any of the thrill after the 200th time?

Glad that worked out. You should put on bigger tires if you are going to do that kind of stuff.

frozennorth wrote:My list of desirable airplanes did not include the Colt...but it came along at the right price and has been a blast to fly. I miss flaps, but operating costs are absurdly low enough to compensate. Perfect first airplane.

Many many moons ago I bought a Colt when I lived in Barrow. The guy who owned it previously flew it way too fast on approach and over the fence, and absolutely refused to fly it slower. As a result, he complained non-stop about what a "handful" and how "squirrelly" the airplane was.

Fortunately for me, he stayed deathly afraid of that airplane, and sold it for next to nothing. First thing I did when I had it, was to install toe brakes, and stick the Univair kit on it converting the airplane to conventional gear. That airplane was docile as a lamb to fly and ground handle when flown properly, and made for a whole lot of cheap, fun flying (relatively with fuel prices up there).

Like Troy says, put some tires on the thing at a minimum!


Gump

Troy Hamon wrote:Glad that worked out. You should put on bigger tires if you are going to do that kind of stuff.

Larger tires would certainly help! I have not found a lot of info on increasing tire size in the -22 configuration. Particularly the nose wheel - it's awfully close to the prop.

What do you have on yours?

GumpAir wrote:Many many moons ago I bought a Colt when I lived in Barrow. The guy who owned it previously flew it way too fast on approach and over the fence, and absolutely refused to fly it slower. As a result, he complained non-stop about what a "handful" and how "squirrelly" the airplane was.

Fortunately for me, he stayed deathly afraid of that airplane, and sold it for next to nothing. First thing I did when I had it, was to install toe brakes, and stick the Univair kit on it converting the airplane to conventional gear. That airplane was docile as a lamb to fly and ground handle when flown properly, and made for a whole lot of cheap, fun flying (relatively with fuel prices up there).

Right on! Nothing like getting a good deal on a great plane. The Colt glides like a piano at low power settings/slow speeds. After the first landing and the surprise of feeling the bottom drop out, I added 20mph (and 500 feet of stopping distance.) Took about fifty hours of practice to gain confidence with slow final and power to stop descent.

I would love to convert it to conventional gear - but my back-of-the-envelope calculations point towards leaving it as-is and upgrading to a Stinson or a full-sized Pacer next year. Those extra two seats would be awfully nice.

frozennorth wrote:

Troy Hamon wrote:Glad that worked out. You should put on bigger tires if you are going to do that kind of stuff.

Larger tires would certainly help! I have not found a lot of info on increasing tire size in the -22 configuration. Particularly the nose wheel - it's awfully close to the prop.

What do you have on yours?

GumpAir wrote:Many many moons ago I bought a Colt when I lived in Barrow. The guy who owned it previously flew it way too fast on approach and over the fence, and absolutely refused to fly it slower. As a result, he complained non-stop about what a "handful" and how "squirrelly" the airplane was.

Fortunately for me, he stayed deathly afraid of that airplane, and sold it for next to nothing. First thing I did when I had it, was to install toe brakes, and stick the Univair kit on it converting the airplane to conventional gear. That airplane was docile as a lamb to fly and ground handle when flown properly, and made for a whole lot of cheap, fun flying (relatively with fuel prices up there).

Right on! Nothing like getting a good deal on a great plane. The Colt glides like a piano at low power settings/slow speeds. After the first landing and the surprise of feeling the bottom drop out, I added 20mph (and 500 feet of stopping distance.) Took about fifty hours of practice to gain confidence with slow final and power to stop descent.

I would love to convert it to conventional gear - but my back-of-the-envelope calculations point towards leaving it as-is and upgrading to a Stinson or a full-sized Pacer next year. Those extra two seats would be awfully nice.

I have 850s on the main gear. I still have the 6 inch tire on the nose. I would like to get an 8 inch tire up there, but need to find a fork that can get approved.

Eddie Trimmer up in Willow did the field approval for the larger mains for me, so a good place to start.

Keep the greasy side down.

awesome stories! Just when I puled away from the idea of a pacer, you pull me back in with yours stories.

luckily, I can't afford any of it yet, so I'll just live vicariously through people like you.

keep it up!

Pacers are pretty great. Tripacers are 10k cheaper, and still awesome. I could stop flying for a year and get myself from the tricycle gear to a Pacer configuration...but thats not likely...flying is too fun.


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Troy Hamon wrote:Eddie Trimmer up in Willow did the field approval for the larger mains for me, so a good place to start.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I called Mr. Trimmer this morning - since I have the original wheels/drum brakes/Johnson bar, he would require new wheels and brakes before adding larger rubber. The stock brakes are not adequate for larger wheels.

Mr. Trimmer was very helpful and knowledgable; after our brief conversation and poring over his website, I would not hesitate to let him work on my plane. Unfortunately this sounds like a bigger (and more expensive) project than we're willing to undertake at this point.

His final recommendation was to enjoy the plane for what it is, or sell and and buy a full-size Tripacer if I want more capability.

Couple of trips in the past few days:

Knik river valley again - 20+ knots of steady wind made for very slow touchdown speeds and short ground runs. Landed on a few gravel bars and three more-or-less-defined strips.


View from several thousand feet, north towards the left of the photo. A gravel bar is on the left of the river's upside-down U (white dot is another airplane), strip 1 - middle of the U, strip 2 - left of the U. Gravel bar was most aligned with the wind.


Kiddo having a blast!


Went out by myself with half fuel to try two of the spots scouted the previous day.


Dragged the wheels on the strips and "grass" before setting down right of the "landing area," and was glad I did. Much smoother overall, and the boulders were easier to see and avoid against the green backdrop.


Another great day!

Looks fun. Best mod you can do is gas in the tanks anyway...

Mine went a lot of places on stock tires, yours weighs less so that is definitely in your favor. Keep the nose light as much as possible.

I know a guy with 850s and drum brakes but the approval was from more than 30 years ago.


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