Hi y'all. First post on this very interesting forum. I usually hang out on PPRUNE.com, but my heart lies in taildragger backcountry stuff, and I just dicovered this site recently. I feel like I've just come home I live in New Zealand, where I do some great wilderness flying in my Harmon Rocket, Citabria, and Spezio Tuholer - but I have an FAA license too, and fly a lot in the US. The only little (!) problem with NZ flying is that most of the country is National Parks, and it's illegal to land ANYWHERE that is publically owned, except below the high tide mark on the beach. I'm coming over to the US later this month to do some flying with a friend of mine, in his Spezio Tuholer. (Spezio is a 135 hp taildragger that has OK short-field performance - she's no Supercub, but I've operated my own Spezio at MAUW in and out of 900 feet, no problems.) My SFO-based friend and I are putting together an itinerary for a week long trip, looking for interesting airstrips between SFO & Vancouver, with a big detour into Utah, Idaho, possibly Montana, and so on. We're looking for challenging strips, and, for context, I'm a newbie on this site, but have enough experience to not kill myself on short and rough stuff, so if you recommend any tough strips, I promise you won't be reading about me and my friend in the Darwin Awards I have searched the FAQs & the site, cos I'm sure this has been covered, but can't find anything, so I apologise if my questions have, indeed, been covered ad nauseam:

1. Anyone have any specific recommendations for interesting places to land?

2. Where could I find a concise list of the backcountry airstrips & areas of the US's Northwest & Western states?

3. Any idea how you know exactly where it is legal to land, and where it is not? Are there any simple rules?

(For instance, I have seen a lot of talk of landing on river banks, landing on roads, and so on, on this site. I'm jealous - it would ALL be illegal in NZ. Any pointers on where to start figuring out what's legal and what's not? (eg, USFS land IS OK to land on (?), US National Parks are not (?), BLM? I get the impression Idaho is perhaps more aviation-friendly than other states (?) etc) It's muc easier in NZ - it's ALL illegal, unless it's private land and you have the permission of the landowner. And even then it's 50:50 that it's illegal cos of zoning laws.

Any pointers on where to start looking, to plan this trip? Thanks in advance....

Hey there,

Sounds like a really cool trip you and your pal will be doing.

Just a thought off the top of my head:

Two up + 135 HP Spezio + August + High elevation or short airstrips=

Marginal performance.

But, there are lots of great places to go where this is less of an issue, and I'm sure folks will let you know all about 'em.

Have fun!

Yup. I'm not talking about challenging ourselves on 300 foot river banks or anything. Not on this trip, in this aircraft. Another time, another machine....maybe - but this trip is intended to be an interesting recce, nothing more. Hopefully flying into some beautiful spots, camping under the wing, etc....

This trip, we're looking for interesting airstrips that fall short of "airports", but nothing too serious for this, our first trip to Idaho/Utah etc. At the risk of repetition, we've flown a lot in the US, and I personally have about 1500 taildragger hours, nearly all in the mountains, on short airstrips. (This doesn't include heli time and spamcan time.) So please don't be scared to tell me about interesting airstrips - this isn't some crazy foreigner turning up to make a fool of himself. I hope I'd like to believe I'm neither inexperienced nor overconfident, and I don't intend to overrate the abilities of pilot(s) and aircraft. I'm pretty sure, though, that we can check out a few interesting airstrips, and make a decision on the day, given the conditions, as to whether it's appropriate to attempt to land there at all. If it isn't, we won't....and we'll make sure we have lots of safe alternates, sufficient fuel to get there, and so on...

PS My friend is very keen to get a lesson or two from a solid backcountry T/D CFI somewhere in, well, the backcountry. Any suggestions on that would be welcomed as well.

Sorry, don't know how to delete the whole thread.....but I think I'll trawl a lot deeper, and lot harder, through the site, then post more specific questions. The stuff I was looking for doesn't come up if you SEARCH or look in FAQ's, but upon further reading I've found quite a bit of info sort of scattered around in various threads.

I'll come back later with more specific questions...

(Unless anyone can tell me if there's a specific principle, in the US, about what sort of public land is, generally speaking, available for private aircraft to land on? I'd sure like to know that....)

Mod, please feel free to delete the whole thread, with thx to "onthegas"...

Dude, sorry, I guess my reply sounded a bit preachy and didn't even help you a bit. Maybe I think our Nevada and Idaho sheep are scared enough without some Kiwi getting around 'em!

Nah, not preachy at all. I mean, frankly, I expected someone would say something like that, which was why I gave an abbreviated 'flying resume'. And I would too, if someone said they were going to come down to New Zealand from the US and fly around the Southern Alps, and for all I knew they were some big-concrete-runway 172 driver from LA, and their idea of "short" was El Monte's 2500 feet! No-one wants to see some flatlander out his depth get killed, right? So, um, if offence was meant, (which I doubt ) then, um, I must be a bit thick, cos none was taken!

I just realised it might be more efficient if I spent a few hours carefully going through this kick-ass site you guy guys have, and then come back with more SPECIFIC questions...

lostpianoplayer wrote:Nah, not preachy at all. I mean, frankly, I expected someone would say something like that, which was why I gave an abbreviated 'flying resume'. And I would too, if someone said they were going to come down to New Zealand from the US and fly around the Southern Alps, and for all I knew they were some big-concrete-runway 172 driver from LA, and their idea of "short" was El Monte's 2500 feet! No-one wants to see some flatlander out his depth get killed, right? So, um, if offence was meant, (which I doubt ) then, um, I must be a bit thick, cos none was taken!

I just realised it might be more efficient if I spent a few hours carefully going through this kick-ass site you guy guys have, and then come back with more SPECIFIC questions...

So I'll try....not a BCP, but a writer with a genuine interest in it all, not a total know-nothing, and can at least steer you toward some valuable reading ~ although this site IS kick-ass and a wealth of information ... which is why I hang around and read a lot.

So seems to me three must-have books: Galen Hanselman's "Fly Idaho" and "Fly Utah" ... find here http://www.flyidaho.com/catalog/index.php and Sparky Imeson's "Mountain Flying Bible" ... find here http://www.mountainflying.com/ Galen's books will give you the specifics you're looking for re "interesting places to land" - along with that concise info you're looking for - at least for Utah and Idaho.....Sparky's book isn't called that for nothing (and forgive me if I'm preaching to the choir & you're already aware of these.)

That's about the extent of advice I feel at all savvy enough about all of this to offer .... give me a few years (working on the ticket) and then I can hopefully add some "been there, done that" perspective (or amusing anecdotes about things I did once and will never do again )

Sounds like a fun trip you're planning ... good stories should come out of that (says the writer ~ wink, wink )

The search tool attached to this site sucks, but Zane pointed out that you can use Google and search only the "backcountrypilot.org" domain. You'll find that works a lot better. I'll second Flywriter's suggestion of the Hanselman books. He gives you flying tips, description of the strip, and some history of the area.

Don't worry about onthegas, he's just jealous the sheep will dig your accent.

tom

So what is with this interest in sheep lately? Did the FAA thread get you guy's thinking of sheep?

Nevaadaa: so many sheep, so little time. They're pretty cute right now since the've been recently sheared...

Does anyone know where I can buy button down pants??

58Skylane wrote:Does anyone know where I can buy button down pants??

Go get Levi 501s. Any farm store will have 'em.

I have seen some of the strips on the South Island and some of those rank right up there in pucker factor to things you see in Idaho. Some of the "strips" on the sheep stations are "interesting".

Here is a nice site for the State of Washington:

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/aviation/Airports/default.htm

While these are State airports as some in Idaho back country are, there are some nice locations Stehekin, Copalis, Lake Wenatchee, Sullivan Lake, etc.

I am guessing the State of Oregon has a similar site.

TD

TomD wrote:I have seen some of the strips on the South Island and some of those rank right up there in pucker factor to things you see in Idaho. Some of the "strips" on the sheep stations are "interesting".

Here is a nice site for the State of Washington:

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/aviation/Airports/default.htm

While these are State airports as some in Idaho back country are, there are some nice locations Stehekin, Copalis, Lake Wenatchee, Sullivan Lake, etc.

I am guessing the State of Oregon has a similar site.

TD

The state of Oregon site is http://www.oregon.gov/Aviation/municipal_airports.shtml the interesting airports are the state "warning" airports

WrenPilot wrote:The state of Oregon site is http://www.oregon.gov/Aviation/municipal_airports.shtml the interesting airports are the state "warning" airports

Good reading in there.

Savannah-Tom wrote:The search tool attached to this site sucks, but Zane pointed out that you can use Google and search only the "backcountrypilot.org" domain. You'll find that works a lot better.

Keep in mind that this site now has the shortfield explorer airstrip database. You can search for specific airstrips or just pan around the map and click on the map marker. Example:
[airport]8u2[/airport]