How long you got?

I guess my favourite "normal" approach is into a strip called Hidadipa. The strip itself isn't anything special but it's location is nuts. It's located to off to the side of a very steeply sided valley and aligned about 60 degrees off the valley side. You can fly overhead to see it's all clear (i.e. not another aircraft on the strip, as only room for one) but in order to get low enough to land you need to drop down into the valley about 3-5nm away (depending on the clouds/fog combo).

Once in the valley you're committed to the landing, and this is before you can even see the airstrip. You then fly along the valley reasonably low and hugging the right hand side as to make the landing you have to turn to the left due to the airstrip being aligned off to the side off the valley.

You see the airstrip at about 0.3nm on a left base join and you need to be low here to touch down at the start of the strip. There's also some really tall trees just off the right of the airstrip which you have to thread in-between, just to make the last little bit that bit more interesting.

Departure is the exact opposite

IndoPilot wrote:How long you got?

I guess my favourite "normal" approach is into a strip called Hidadipa. The strip itself isn't anything special but it's location is nuts. It's located to off to the side of a very steeply sided valley and aligned about 60 degrees off the valley side. You can fly overhead to see it's all clear (i.e. not another aircraft on the strip, as only room for one) but in order to get low enough to land you need to drop down into the valley about 3-5nm away (depending on the clouds/fog combo).

Once in the valley you're committed to the landing, and this is before you can even see the airstrip. You then fly along the valley reasonably low and hugging the right hand side as to make the landing you have to turn to the left due to the airstrip being aligned off to the side off the valley.

You see the airstrip at about 0.3nm on a left base join and you need to be low here to touch down at the start of the strip. There's also some really tall trees just off the right of the airstrip which you have to thread in-between, just to make the last little bit that bit more interesting.

Departure is the exact opposite

That would be really interesting to see on a video and even a 3D Animated video.

robw56 wrote:

blackrock wrote:Do night approaches in canyons count ?

I have one into Caveman

That counts in my book! I wonder how that factors into Galen H's RHI ?

All my approaches are unorthodox.

Other than the usual Idaho strips, the one that sticks out for me is my original TW instructor's home strip. He was a guy who worked summers in Alaska and lived in Spokane in winters, would do TW instruction while there. At the time I was a pretty new nosedragger driver and even big Forest Service strips with trees all around made me pucker up.

Looking at it now on Google Earth it's a bit longer than I remembered--about 1000 feet with obstacles close to both ends (thought I remembered about 600 feet). But you have to approach at an angle over the small lake and then through the gap in the taller trees, over the remaining shorter trees about 200' from the landing point, and then dogleg on short final. It was definitely unorthodox for me! Here it is (don't land there, don't know if he even still lives there):

47°52'29.24"N
117°42'40.50"W

That strip and a few others along the Spokane River are what made me veer off from the instrument rating training I was doing at the time (still do want to finish that) and get into backcountry and seaplanes. Had no idea that was possible in an airplane. I'm still a pretty low time taildragger pilot but I do enjoy it.

8GCBC wrote:Catalina Island airport is the inverse of a canyon airfield . Down slopping terrain can be the demise of an inexperience pilot. Does anyone remember the Learjet that overran the runway? We hiked to the wreck a few days later. Basically black spots spread down the hills.

Black spots? Piles of poop?

Rainbow Ranch is a private grass strip near Idaho Falls. South side is tucked up against the foot hills but the north side is open farm fields. Typical approach is either a right hand pattern when landing to the west or a left hand pattern when landing to the east. Nothing special.

During my last flight review we were out there doing landings at Rainbow when Bob, an 87 year old instructor, asked me to do some non standard approaches. Nothing too difficult, drop over power lines and a 100' bluff that were ~1000' from the threshold etc. After a couple of those he asks if I want to see a real fun approach. Heck yeah.

We we cross midfield at about 100' agl heading for a notch in the hills. He then banks left and flies between the high part of bluff that is off the east end of the strip and some trees. The bluff drops just as we need to turn short final; we are 300ft horizontally and 75' vertically from the threshold at this point. I think to myself, "there is no way we can turn final, drop 75 feet and still land at the threshold." Instead of coordinated turn Bob kicks the plane into a hard left hand slip and aims the plane at the runway. Just before touchdown he brings the plane out of the slip and sets it down perfectly at the threshold. Awesome!

The thing that amazes me the most is that he never looks at the airspeed. Aside from the few hours he logged in a Luscombe 50 years ago the only time he flies one is when he is giving me a flight review.

No sense looking @ the airspeed when flying slow &/or high AOA, it'll be lying to you anyway.
FEEL what the wing is doing (flying or mushing) & do what you need to do!

When I was taught to fly, it was all about set proceedures, "turn to base right here when the numbers are 45 degrees on the rear quarter - half flaps on base . . . stabilized approach" . . . all bunk! All of that goes out the window and is of almost no use for off field.

What IS important is becoming really comfortable with the plane. My goal is to arrive at a point (someday) where I instinctively know what the plane can do and how to get it to do just that. It's about the 3-P's: practice, practice and precision. The plane cares only that airspeed and altitude are both right on one nano-second before touchdown. Doesn't matter if it was a stabilizded approach or a decreasing energy approach as long as arrival is the same and makes you smile.

OregonMaule wrote:

8GCBC wrote:Catalina Island airport is the inverse of a canyon airfield . Down slopping terrain can be the demise of an inexperience pilot. Does anyone remember the Learjet that overran the runway? We hiked to the wreck a few days later. Basically black spots spread down the hills.

Black spots? Piles of poop?

No water up there, the buffalo stay down lower.

The aircraft exploded and left burning pieces scatter for about 100 yards. No overrun at the airport. Sad ending.

When I heard about the Lear at Catalina. Word was that the hump in the runway caused the illusion that the runway was much shorter and they panicked and tryed to go around and couldn't.
It looks pretty long from above and as soon as you are on short final you cant see the back half and it appears very short for a fast plane.
Rumors and stories are cheap at airports so I don't really know.

m7flyer wrote:When I heard about the Lear at Catalina. Word was that the hump in the runway caused the illusion that the runway was much shorter and they panicked and tryed to go around and couldn't.
It looks pretty long from above and as soon as you are on short final you cant see the back half and it appears very short for a fast plane.
Rumors and stories are cheap at airports so I don't really know.

Hi M7,

That is exactly what I was told too. The HUMP in the middle of the runway makes the runway look half it's length at ground level, which can prompt a late go around for a fast Jet. Another non standard approach illusion!

Another fun one, especially with unsuspecting pax was the old Lytton airstrip on the Thompson River, just a click northeast of the Frasier River on Hwy 1 in British Columbia. Especially if flying down the Thompson towards the Frasier.

Strip sits on the bluff above the river, and to land to the south you drop down closer and closer to the river, and then make a hard left turn, with the strip right under the nose. Always fun to watch pax squirm when I said I had to stop for a pee break flying down that canyon, and started powering down and pulling flaps, and all they could see was canyon walls and river rapids.

http://www.pilotnav.com/airport/CYLY

Last time I flew over it was 2006, and it had a couple mobile homes parked in the middle, with a bunch of junk strewn all over. Sad, because it used to be a nice spot to stop and take a break.

Gump

GumpAir wrote:Another fun one, especially with unsuspecting pax was the old Lytton airstrip on the Thompson River, just a click northeast of the Frasier River on Hwy 1 in British Columbia. Especially if flying down the Thompson towards the Frasier.

Strip sits on the bluff above the river, and to land to the south you drop down closer and closer to the river, and then make a hard left turn, with the strip right under the nose. Always fun to watch pax squirm when I said I had to stop for a pee break flying down that canyon, and started powering down and pulling flaps, and all they could see was canyon walls and river rapids.

http://www.pilotnav.com/airport/CYLY

Last time I flew over it was 2006, and it had a couple mobile homes parked in the middle, with a bunch of junk strewn all over. Sad, because it used to be a nice spot to stop and take a break.

Gump

There was a bunch of junk there last July, but the strip was free from obstructions.

Chuckar Flats, Bull run and all of the Hell's Canyon strips are deep in fairly narrow canyons. It would be an exercise in absurdity to fly a conventional pattern at most of those.

bumper wrote:When I was taught to fly, it was all about set proceedures, "turn to base right here when the numbers are 45 degrees on the rear quarter - half flaps on base . . . stabilized approach" . . . all bunk! All of that goes out the window and is of almost no use for off field.

What IS important is becoming really comfortable with the plane. My goal is to arrive at a point (someday) where I instinctively know what the plane can do and how to get it to do just that. It's about the 3-P's: practice, practice and precision. The plane cares only that airspeed and altitude are both right on one nano-second before touchdown. Doesn't matter if it was a stabilizded approach or a decreasing energy approach as long as arrival is the same and makes you smile.

+1!!

Thats so true!
I personally vary my approach during practice with very unstable approaches.

Short approach power off from a 45 degree angle, dragging it in power on, dead stick from downwind.
I think for backcountry flying in a light plane flying the numbers will never let you reach the level that flying by feel will.

GumpAir wrote:Gasquet (Ward Field) up on the Smith River by Crescent City, CA is like that. If landing to the west you don't see the airport till fairly short final as I recall.

Gump

Likewise Quincy also has an interesting pattern. The runway disappears on downwind and final has a hook in it.

Regarding Catalina, I think the story you guys mentioned is the one going around but the crew was in and out fairly regularly so they should have had the hump down pat. (Wrigleys?). Wasn't there a Citation Jet more recently that did the same thing?

Is it Garberville in Northern California that has the hill you have to go around in the pattern? Don't remember now. Same thing at Gillespie if you are in a higher performance airplane.
South Lake Tahoe is ok for landing but if you takeoff on 18 and want to go south or west you have to make a right turn into what looks like a box canyon from the ground but it turns out there is a golf course that you circle over to gain enough altitude to go west on hwy 50.
Got told to slow down at SFO years ago in a Cessna 210, apparently I was catching a DC8.
If anybody finds my oil dipstick at Green River Utah let me know.

I flew into Catalina last summer with my wife, it is a little weird because of the descending terrain and the hump in the middle and the approach to the West over the ocean with the strip up on the top of the island.

My favorite non-standard approach is Hidden Splendor in Utah, landing to the North. You can either fly through the canyon for a long approach, or drop into it closer, but either way it's a lot of fun.

Scolopax wrote:Chuckar Flats, Bull run and all of the Hell's Canyon strips are deep in fairly narrow canyons. It would be an exercise in absurdity to fly a conventional pattern at most of those.

That's a good time.

That's Chukar Flats airstrip in the video. The BLM closed that strip several years ago as part of a Wilderness Study Area. Does anyone have definitive information that it's now open?