A new piece from Patrick has dropped today:

https://www.backcountrypilot.org/stol-t ... d-landings

He's looking for ideas on future installments. Suggestions?

No wonder I can't seem to kick the habit of checking this site every 10 minutes or so. The info here is priceless.
Thanks for all the hard work and the desire to see others excel and stay safe.

This young man knows his stuff. I especially like his emphasis on not trying to climb immediately on the go around. Trying to climb immediately is what has made the go around one of the most dangerous maneuvers in aviation today. Like he says, full power, level the airplane, and get it accelerating before messing with flaps or trying to climb. Use ground effect over the surface, if low. This is true for any airport or landing zone. I also agree that changing our mind seldom ends well. That is part of the danger of the unplanned go around. On takeoff where the abort point comes almost immediately we need to plan to fly to a survivable crash site, should something go wrong. Same with the landing. We need to plan to go around, unless that is not available. In that case, we need to plan to put the nose between a couple of trees, should we go long.

Suggestion for Patrick: How to use natural energy in the mountains.

Patrick,
These are wonderful. Thanks! As for additional installments, how about an evaluation of potential off-airport landing sites. In almost every video that is shown, the landing site has already been judged to be acceptable. I think that determining what is acceptable and what is not, is one of the most difficult parts of off-airport landings. I would like to see 4 or 5 evaluations of different types of landing areas (gravel bars, beaches, tall grass, tundra, ridge tops, etc.) that have problems which make them unacceptable. Show them from the pilots view, and explain from that view what makes them unacceptable and why the pilot needs to look for another place. Of course, the series could end with the selection of one that actually is acceptable, with also the reasons why. Perhaps it would be good to have an acceptable spot paired with each different type of terrain, showing the unacceptable and the acceptable together.
Thanks again,
Charles

I second the off airport landing site evaluation idea.

CamTom12 wrote:I second the off airport landing site evaluation idea.

I third that!

Thanks for the kind words!

Also thank you for your input. The reason I started doing these was because when I started doing this flying I struggled greatly to find anyone willing to help (texas wasn't a hot spot for backcountry stuff 10 years ago). In the end I just dipped my toe in slowly. These videos have been extremely time consuming, so it is really nice to hear that some people find value in them. It isn't pure altruism on my part though. The end game for these has always been to get the information out there publicly and let it be useful, but I have always intended to eventually get them into a sellable format that I can donate the proceeds back the the RAF or sites like these. The real question is what info past what we have already posted would be valuable enough for a newcomer to part with 15-20 bucks; that is ultimately what I need help with. Rich W has suggested a small book, another person (who shall remain nameless) suggested having my wife in a low-cut shirt do an extensive preflight (seems easy enough...). I am open to any suggestions really.

I love the Off airport evaluation idea, but have always been slightly hesitant, not purely for liability, but also so many people love the idea of doing it, but when I was really teaching it a lot most people eventually were content with backcountry type strips. Ill pick on my Wife, she is completely capable and high time and likes Idaho, Alaska, Utah, and our Colorado strips, but when it comes down to really going off airport she isn't that interested. She does it, but only when I beg to have equipment or another airplane available. I have found this to be so true of many people. I would hate to feel responsible for someone trying something, because we put it out there and made it seem like an everyday thing (off airport really isn't for the masses, even if it is here). That being said it is high on the consideration list for sure. Getting non-airplane mounted camera shots is hard for this too since the drones and support equipment weigh sooo much. All thoughts, questions, and comments are needed and welcome!

I was at the Army's Mountain Flying School in the seventies or eighties, long time ago. They were at Ft. Carson, but now the Colorado NG has the facility over by Salida, I think. They are helicopter only, but have lots of data on unusual heat/cool up high and some of the techniques are the same. Since it is now state, there might be other help like getting equipment in. The National Guards, both Army and Air Force are much less stuffy and lawyer oriented than the regular forces.

re:off airport landing site evaluation idea.

MTV has posted a great explaination of this on this site (somewhere). I downloaded it for future reference but it is on another computer.

Best wishes to all for 2015
Hamish Ross

ZK Kiwi wrote:re:off airport landing site evaluation idea.

MTV has posted a great explaination of this on this site (somewhere). I downloaded it for future reference but it is on another computer.

Best wishes to all for 2015
Hamish Ross

It's linked from in here:

https://www.backcountrypilot.org/knowle ... operations

with more sections accessible here:

https://www.backcountrypilot.org/knowledge-base/pilots

Another excellent installment!

What do you think about a topic like "Perfecting The Power Off Landing"? It seems like when this topic has been discussed in the past it's viewed as simple and agreeable by some and complicated and dissagreeable by others. But in the end, having a systematic way to practice them and become proficient may be the difference between saving your airplane and your life vs not...especially in the backcountry.

I look forward to whatever topic you choose to discuss next. Valuable stuff!

CW

How about............

How do I hydroplaning the wheels?

thanks for the suggestions!

Just floating an idea....I get lots and lots of questions about which cameras, which drones, what editing software, how we get certain shots. Would that interest anyone? I don't really realize how much has gone into these videos till people start asking questions. Boring?

Actually, yeah. Totally off-topic from your normal programming, but a behind-the-scenes would be really neat to watch.

In this advanced age of filming (remember low-budget short films from the 90's? ouch!) sometimes I get sucked into the video and don't even think about "how did they get that shot" until a second or third watching. Especially with the more put-together videos like a lot of the ones on here, which I imagine is the goal - to use technical shots to add to the message and not distract from it.

But I'm one of those weirdos that likes to try to know how and why everything works. Hopefully more people would want to see it, too!

I don't really care how the video is created, but I sure like the result--and it helps to understand the text. I usually read the text first, then look at the video.

Since neither my airplane nor I are equipped for hard-core back country flying, some of this is purely academic for me, but I do like to go to the easier back country strips like Marble and La Garita. So I can make use of much of the info, too, especially when we're talking about go arounds and balked landings.

One thing I learned this past Spring at La Garita is how much the airplane will continue to sink during a go around from a slow approach before full power will arrest the sink when the airplane is pretty well loaded at very high density altitudes. Considering how long I've been flying and that most of that has been at high density altitudes, you'd think I would have experienced it before. But thinking back, virtually all of my go arounds in 172s, whether during my own training or when I was instructing, and over the 11 years I've owned my airplane, was with relatively lightly loads on paved strips.

Here was the situation: I flew to La Garita via La Veta Pass, and then stopped at Alamosa for a potty break for both me and my dog. I did not refuel, as I wanted less weight for when I planned to leave La Garita. La Garita is at around 8000' MSL, and it was shirt sleeve warm there, so I'm guessing that DA was something more than 10,000'. Since I'd taken off relatively close to gross weight at Greeley and had roughly 2 1/2 hours or 25 gallons burned out, the airplane was still relatively heavy, only about 150 lbs under gross, perhaps a little lighter. I either misjudged the wind direction or it changed--either is possible--but I had come around to land to the east. About halfway down final with full flaps and power off, at probably 200' AGL, I concluded that I had a tailwind which was going to push me past my touchdown point, so I firewalled it. Then I grabbed the flap handle but did not change the flaps, but the airplane continued to descend albeit in a shallower descent angle and actually touched down briefly before climbing into ground effect. At that point I kept it low and milked up the flaps, flew out into the valley and turned around, and came in to land easily the other direction.

Of course what that taught me is that if I'm going to go around with a full load and at high DA, I need to make the decision and start the go around sooner. I felt that things weren't looking right sooner than when I reacted, but I delayed until I was sure. It would have been better if I'd started the go around as soon as my gut said things were off.

Thanks for the information, Patrick. Keep up the good work!

Cary

I also found the go around and balked landing techniques useful. I haven't done primary training since late 05, when I lost my medical. Other than practice, I seldom used the go around. The apparent brisk walk rate of closure approach put me on the numbers at a very slow speed every time. It just never made any sense to me to land fast and go long on any strip and most of my spraying was on 2,500' down to 800.' I should have used Patrick's techniques on some off airport strips I used for spraying, but as far as I remember I checked them out on the ground first. I did, however, stop to fuel from gas cans in the hopper or stop to pee on the pipeline off field without checking it out properly. Got away with those.

Great article Patrick. Been following your site and videos on YouTube for about a year now and have learned a ton. Hope to be doing some off airport stuff soon and your stuff has been a good start to getting me prepared and know what skills I need to improve on to get there.

Jim

Cary wrote:Of course what that taught me is that if I'm going to go around with a full load and at high DA, I need to make the decision and start the go around sooner. I felt that things weren't looking right sooner than when I reacted, but I delayed until I was sure. It would have been better if I'd started the go around as soon as my gut said things were off.

Cary

There is no question hot, high, and heavy has a major effect on the planes response. It was shocking when I moved here from sea level to realize my plane was no longer what I thought it was. I certainly had to adapt my technique.

On another note I head up to greely fairly often. I would love to meet ya!

learntolandshort wrote:

Cary wrote:Of course what that taught me is that if I'm going to go around with a full load and at high DA, I need to make the decision and start the go around sooner. I felt that things weren't looking right sooner than when I reacted, but I delayed until I was sure. It would have been better if I'd started the go around as soon as my gut said things were off.

Cary

There is no question hot, high, and heavy has a major effect on the planes response. It was shocking when I moved here from sea level to realize my plane was no longer what I thought it was. I certainly had to adapt my technique.

On another note I head up to greely fairly often. I would love to meet ya!

Me too. I have lunch at the Barnstormer frequently--though not as much the last 3 months, as my IA is taking forever to get my airplane's annual done. Tell me when you're heading there, and we can have lunch together.

Cary