I recently moved from Alaska to Washington State and understand the flying freedoms may be somewhat limited compared to what I was used to in Alaska regarding off airport operations.
Can someone shed some light on what is acceptable, what is frowned upon and what may get you in hot water with the law?
I read Copalis is the only beach in the state where we can LEGALLY land.
I would appreciate any input.

Copalis beach is actually an airport; therefore, it would not be an "off airport" landing.

It seems that any beach that you can drive a car on should be fair game, but I really don't know.

As someone said earlier. If you have permission to land on private land then it should be between you and the land owner. If you land without permission it will probably be between you, the land owner, and the local sheriff.

TD

When I flew to Copalis a couple weeks ago, there were a lot of clam diggers on the "airstrip" and no one a little further South so I landed South of the river where there was no one - all beautiful firm sand - and the local tribal police showed up. He didn't seem to have an issue with where I landed - only that someone had reported a plane going down and he was obligated to respond. I thanked him for checking on us but assured him it wasn't THAT bad of a landing.

fishdoc said,
- only that someone had reported a plane going down and he was obligated to respond. I thanked him for checking on us but assured him it wasn't THAT bad of a landing.

LOL fishdoc I'll have to remember that one.

There is a real mixture of "ownership" on the beaches in WA.

The tribes own a number of the beaches. I always thought the area 50ft from mean high tide was public, but evidently the treaties supersede this.

Often the tribal police really don't care and actually are a whole lot better to deal w/ than the local mounties who are brainwashed by HLS to think anyone doing anything the least bit out of the ordinary is a terrorist or at least should be treated as one.

Stay away from State or Federal parks!!! There are a number of those around, but are well marked on road maps.

Also remember tides are in the 8' to 9' range which can eat up a lot of beach in a big hurry. Copalis, for example, can go totally away on a bit tide.

Up here in the San Juans we are pretty careful, don't land on beaches if there is anyone around, and don't stay. The fun police are pretty observant. But mid week with a low tide after work and you might see cub tracks on some beaches. The County docent allow landing anywhere that is not an approved airport, but their are a lot of places that are grandfather in, if you know where they are. We still have a good time inspite of big brother.....

Glad the tribal fuzz was reasonable, Fishdoc. Quite a number of years ago, some friends of mine landed there (south of the river, instead of north) & some sort of cop came along & really got in their face for what was an innocent mistake. Even more innocent now that I found out that there was/is a mix-up on the lat/long for the actual airport location. Turns out my 9 year old Garmin GPS (along with a whole lot of others) thinks Copalis State Airport is south of the river.
Of course, knowing my friends, maybe their attitude wasn't too user-friendly either.....being nice generally has it's benefits.

Eric

I asked the Washington State directory of aviation about landing on gravel bars. He said the county had jurisdiction and I should call the county sharif and ask that question. He predicted that most would answer "Huh?", which means that they don't have a policy and in that case landing on gravel bars was permitted.

That's good news.
Maybe it's less restrictive than I thought.

Probably easier to get forgiveness later than permission first. As long as you don't do anything stupid aka dangerous, hopefully they won't pull out that old catchall "reckless operation".

Local law enforcement generally doesn't give a crap what you do, so long as someone before you didn't create a problem by doing the same thing. And as a rule, there are damn few deputies in any given county, so the chances of anyone showing up at all are slim. Don't behave like an ass and you shouldn't have any problem.

Well, just to learn a little more, where can you find out where you can and can not land. I guess nothing on private without permission, and no national parks of course, but there is public land where i know people use non-registered, street illegal atvs and 4x4 trucks where trucks shouldn't go. I used to land on frozen lakes in Michigan where people where driving trucks and drag racing snowmobiles. Good luck finding out i guess. Peter

Wasn't the "Big Rocks & Long Props" video shot in Washington? Those guys should be able to clue you in about the regs.

Phil

Hey fishy, I just seen that you're signed in from Puyallup. There's a few off-airport types based there at Thun that you could hook up with to find out some good places to go, and where to stay away from. I'll let them speak up for themselves....

Eric

Hey fishdoc, what size tires and prop (length/pitch) do you have?

I'm equiped with 180 gear legs, 8.50's and a 76 x 53 McCauley which I was told today is between a climb and a cruise - the prop shop book showed a 52, 53 & 54 pitch for the O-300B in the 1A170
model McCauley.