sierrasplitter wrote:A couple of weeks ago I flew over to Kidwell Nevada to take CC Pocock's intro to Mountain and Backcountry Flying Level 1 course. I was hoping to do some off airports landings but that comes at Level 2 . However, I did learn a lot and got to practice Precision Landings in some brutal winds.

I watched the weather report the day before and saw a wind waring coming into place across the Mojave Desert and southern California, Arizona and Nevada. I kinda figured it would be a bust due to that and the mountain obscuration forecast on the morning I was planning to leave.
Reluctantly I woke at 3: 55 am for another work day , dreams shattered . However, as I stumbled outside in the dark I noticed a clear sky to the east and stars in the sky. That meant I could get out and climb up over the Laguna Mountains just to poke around. If wind was a factor I would know within 30 minutes of takeoff. I had the plane packed already and the time off rom work. I was going to go for it.

The two hour flight to Kidwell went smooth as glass. Until I got to the valley that I was headed for. About 10 minutes out things started rocking and rolling. I lined up for the runway ( 15 , with wind at 220. ) No weather was available for Kidwell but Laughlin was reporting 18g22 .
I landed and taxied up to CC's place . Got the plane tied down and watched the wind unfold

We did a couple hours ground school that afternoon with CC explaining what we would be doing each day. We first determined the best ballast for our aircraft to allow for Aft CG. We also guessed at what our slowest safe landing speeds were and was told we were off by quite a bit, but not to worry. In the next two days we would know all the solid numbers for stalls , take offs and landings.

Thursday we started the precision approaches to precision landings. CC has a white spot of Gypsum on the dirt runway and we were given 50 feet +/- to hit our spot.

After that practice we went up and put our aircraft in stalls in all configurations. Instaed of the normal recovery we kept the aircraft at the stall envelope and learned that the aircraft would still fly. This was taught because of the lack of room to recover during a landing at slow speed and low altitude.

The following day, more precision landing practice. After that we learned the Canyon turn. We flew into a 900 foot wide canyon and were taught how to do a 180 turn without loosing or gaining altitude and we could only use half of the canyon for the turn. We did this in two different canyons. Three turns in each canyon. That was a real eye opener and really fun

After the third morning of precision landings CC was satisfied and we " graduated " and we were given an intro into STOL technique and also how to return to the airport with partial power ( 100 foot agl continuous turn back to the runway )

It was a great class , CC is a great cook , and on the last night His buddy Dave from Wasilla came down . Great to hear Dave's tales about flying Alsaka.

I give the course a thumbs up.


Here's a few videos. Funny, their were two of us in the course. The other guy was a member of the flying club I used to belong to and we fly out of the same field

STOL practice

Adam was using CC's 170 B

Ok, whats up with the videos ?

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sierrasplitter wrote:It was explained- Fly ahead until you are no longer comfortable . Apply Full Flaps and Full Power at the same time, bank ( no more than 45 degrees) roll out level on a 180 degree heading. Now look out the window--- only used 1/2 of the canyon to stay on the updraft side at all times

contactflying wrote:Very effective use of zoom energy to take and then give altitude to slow to decrease diameter of the turn while allowing the nose to go down rather than load the wing in the 45 degree bank. Net zero altitude change.

Frankly, you've skipped a few in your description.....first, you need to be at or below flap speed PRIOR to deploying flaps, which means you need to have slowed down well before the turn is to begin.....some folks call this "Canyon speed", If you're not below Vf when you decide to turn, you're going too fast. And, in this context, speed can kill, because the radius of the turn increases dramatically with more speed. And, of course, you can damage your airframe by deploying flaps, particularly full flaps, above Vf.

And, the canyon speed differs, depending on the airplane. You need to KNOW the canyon speed for YOUR airplane.

sierrasplitter wrote:

Frankly, you've skipped a few in your description.....first, you need to be at or below flap speed PRIOR to deploying flaps, which means you need to have slowed down well before the turn is to begin.....some folks call this "Canyon speed", If you're not below Vf when you decide to turn, you're going too fast. And, in this context, speed can kill, because the radius of the turn increases dramatically with more speed. And, of course, you can damage your airframe by deploying flaps, particularly full flaps, above Vf.

And, the canyon speed differs, depending on the airplane. You need to KNOW the canyon speed for YOUR airplane.

Yes. I spoke about My aircraft . I was flying the Pacer and we went in at 60-65 mph indicated

Headoutdaplane wrote:Don't fly upstream into a canyon or valley with a ceiling.....no need for a dramatic turn if you don't do silly. I speak from experience, I followed a sucker hole up a drainage and it disappeared, inadvertant IMC flying up stream and then the turbulence came. I was sure I was gonna die. Poked out over a lake.

Don't do dumb!!! I did dumb!!?