Gower airfield in WA, aka ski jump#2, lots of fun

That’s a gnarly little strip. Good job!
I have always wondered if there is a simple calculation for finding the take off roll reduction on down hill takeoffs. That hill is a big help for stoping and take off.


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PAMR MX wrote:That’s a gnarly little strip. Good job!
I have always wondered if there is a simple calculation for finding the take off roll reduction on down hill takeoffs. That hill is a big help for stoping and take off.


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This one , the plane started flying on its own , before I even pulled the yoke, its pretty steep, I calculated it would fly a bit later, I just do it by guessing it, if you do the numbers probably you can have a calculation, wont be simple though.

Another ski jump strip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf7yv9M08kg

Nice landings, both videos. I wonder if either airstrip experiences sinking air on the approach? What kind of setup & go/no go considerations (winds, temps, recency, etc.) come to mind for landing at strips like these? They look like some of the 'dang, the engine died...' fields I look for on a lot of flights just in case I need 'em.

PapernScissors wrote:Nice landings, both videos. I wonder if either airstrip experiences sinking air on the approach? What kind of setup & go/no go considerations (winds, temps, recency, etc.) come to mind for landing at strips like these? They look like some of the 'dang, the engine died...' fields I look for on a lot of flights just in case I need 'em.

Thanks , I fly to this places for fun, if the winds are not favorable (light or none) I wont do them.(I learned my lesson)
Once I tried ski jump with a quarterly tailwind of about 15 kts gusting 20 kts and barely made it, ended up 1 foot from the fence. A gust of wind got me when flying thru the trees on short final,was tempted to go around but stuck with the plan of not doing it.

Once you are slow and on short final no go around on this strips at least in a 182, you have the hill plus big trees at the end.

PAMR MX said:

I have always wondered if there is a simple calculation for finding the take off roll reduction on down hill takeoffs.

This is a pretty simple tool, but will give you a good idea of what to expect if you know the information to put into the various settings. One thing you will have to do is "calibrate" it for your own plane....which interestingly also calibrates it for the pilot as well.

http://www.sportys.com/pilotshop/takeof ... puter.html

The most challenging thing about about a short uphill strip is, no surprise, when it's a tail wind. When landing my 400' 12% grade strip in a known downwind I purposely eyeball a couple hundred feet short of the 'threshold" (where I stop mowing) as my touchdown spot when on short final. I never try to hit, I mean land, on the very beginning of my strip in non tailwind conditions, as that just means needless uphill taxing. But in a tail wind, I do, and that seems to work out about right. as in touching down about midfield. In most conditions, I PREFER a uphill landing, followed by a downhill takeoff. Taking off on level ground kind of sucks, much better, and safer, to have a kick in the ass on takeoff, from gravity. That strip in the vid looks like a lot of fun.