I think too many pilots see the back country as just another place to go to and venture forth without considering the more demanding parameters involved. It seems every dumb move I've seen in the back country involves someone who decided this was a good place to go and flew into the back country cold. I was on the strip one year helping Gene, the caretaker at JC. We were moving the sprinkler pipes on the runway when a beautiful Turbo 182 came on final. He kept coming and stayed about 50 feet above the runway all the way All I could think of was"Power!!!! Go around!! Well he stalled 50 ft up and pancaked down bouncing up again and nosing in. End of vacation. It was a guy and his wife from texas who wanted to vacation in the back country. THey were pretty shaken and were Air taxied out to Boise a couple hours later. Seems they were both pilots and were arguing over go around or not when physics won the argument. Well JC is one of the easiest longest strips up there and I figure the approach up a canyon and inexperience in Mtn flying is what did them in. Plus a debate over who was flying the airplane. Anyway my point is too many, like the Yankee pilot I described, and this guy think flying in the back country is no different than where they live. They get up in those canyons and the site picture is totaly different than what they are used to and fear starts to set in. THen they don't think clearly and start making bad decisions. Mtn flying seminars and schools are the best thing to do before venturing out. I sadly admit I have never attended one but I always flew with a wingman who had way more experience than I did till I learned the Ropes, so to speak. Knowing the area is also a biggie. If you don't know the drainages and which river or creek is flowing under you it could get ugly real fast. I suspect that's what happened to Berk last year. He was enroute to Big Creek from JC and turned up a box canyon. He didn't know the drainages or area he was flying in. I now know at least three ways to get to JC from McCall through the mtns without going over at high altitude. It comes from studying the maps and knowing the area. Maybe some of the Idahoans,(No Offense) can expand on this for you.

iceman wrote:I think too many pilots see the back country as just another place to go to and venture forth without considering the more demanding parameters involved. It seems every dumb move I've seen in the back country involves someone who decided this was a good place to go and flew into the back country cold. I was on the strip one year helping Gene, the caretaker at JC. We were moving the sprinkler pipes on the runway when a beautiful Turbo 182 came on final. He kept coming and stayed about 50 feet above the runway all the way All I could think of was"Power!!!! Go around!! Well he stalled 50 ft up and pancaked down bouncing up again and nosing in. End of vacation. It was a guy and his wife from texas who wanted to vacation in the back country. THey were pretty shaken and were Air taxied out to Boise a couple hours later. Seems they were both pilots and were arguing over go around or not when physics won the argument. Well JC is one of the easiest longest strips up there and I figure the approach up a canyon and inexperience in Mtn flying is what did them in. Plus a debate over who was flying the airplane. Anyway my point is too many, like the Yankee pilot I described, and this guy think flying in the back country is no different than where they live.

Good morning .... JC is Johnson Creek right?

I'm thinking just from that first example that it's naive maybe then to think that the risk factor negates how many are just destined to test the limits of luck are out there flying in all disciplines to some extent. After I posted that last night, I got to thinking again about some stories told me by the aerobatic pilots along the lines of "what are these people thinking ... flying like that, with that kind of attitude."

So this from a backcountry flyer is definately as wise a statement as I thought it was at the time?

"You don’t just go fly in the mountains in your first 20 hours – you have to learn to fly slow, to land on a dot, and to get pretty proficient before you can go to the mountains and do short strips; you have to be able to land on a dime, or you can’t do it. You have to know airspeed, or you can’t do it. You have to learn it and you have to “want” to learn it."

Really appreciate these perspectives ~ again, from my standpoint, trying to engage non-aviators as readers as well as not bore pilots like you ~ THEIR mindset is going to be, especially after seeing a picture or two of the environment we're talking about putting a plane down in "oh geez, Backcountry flying?! That must be one heck of a smart, brave, talented pilot to do THAT."

And then I the writer ... can throw out a good and universally applied life "story" ~ that principals of being smart and wise, can and should ~ be applied to just about everything in life.

Back in 1980, when I was learning to fly, my wife would accompany me to the grass field airport for each lesson. She would sit on one of the picnic tables and watch me go around the pattern in the little blue 7AC Champ.

One afternoon, as I was practicing my landings, I hit hard enough to just about bounce me back up to pattern altitude. Remembering my instructor's tips for handling this particular situation, I pushed the power back in and went around. Upon finishing up my time I put the plane away and went looking for my wife. I found her sitting in the car with it turned around so her back was to the runway. I asked her what was up. She said "That landing that you bounded real hard." I said "Yeah". She went on to tell me that two old gentlemen were sitting at the next picnic table over and witnessed my "touch and go". One turned to the other and said "Yup! Seen'um hit that hard and pop the windshield right out!" That was when she when back to the car and turned it around!

Now that is fear!

Fear......I have had my wife and others video tape my takeoffs and landings to see how it looked compared to how it felt.
On cold snowy winter days this gives me somthing to watch when I can't fly