I enjoyed the video.

I bet he breaks his 'Don't fly hungover' rule all the time.

My (totally unfounded) impression is that he is Contact's alter ego. All stick and rudder, no polish.

Rules? Meh!

Dude, CC got rid of the nose-dragger, good for him [emoji482]

By way of background, I taught mountain flying in Army helicopters (100 years ago), but consider myself a neophyte in fixed wing back-country operations. As I said in another post - as a relative newbie to fixed-wing flying in general and back-country fixed-wing operations specifically, I'm a sponge for knowledge in this area. I also recognize that my tailwheel skills are not yet to the level that I could safely operate in the back country - but I'm working on that every time I fly.

I attended the presentation CC Pocock offered at OSH 2015 (and as a result bought and read his book), then attended it again this year (OSH 2016). Every time he presents that seminar, it is standing-room-only, and the reviews are very positive. Of course, most of us attending are there precisely because we know little-to-nothing about the subject he's presenting. Having attended several other bush / mountain flying presentations at OSH this year (including some GREAT ones taught by folks who hang out here on BCP) I still learned things in his seminar that were new to me.

In person, he's comes across very differently than in the videos that were linked here. He did, in fact, do some "reality TV" for the Discovery Channel, and they edited it as they saw fit. Just as with all reality TV, they hype up the "crazy" aspects and the conflicts (along with the "rebel without a cause" angles) to suit their editorial purposes. In person, he was very serious, and came across as wanting to teach other people so they could avoid making the same stupid mistakes that he made when he was starting out. Personally, I learned a LOT from his brief seminar, and would love to have the opportunity to fly with him sometime. There are some things he teaches that make me a bit "uncomfortable," but I think that is the nature of the type of flying he does...

Obviously, Mr. Pocock spends a lot more time in the African "bush" than in the mountains (though there is at least one mountain in Africa!), so I would give a lot more credence to his "bush" techniques than to his "mountain" techniques. As Contact pointed out, the book is pretty darn good, and covers a lot of ground. I agree with Contact's assessment that some of the technique stuff is not as well articulated as I'd like - I still have some questions about some of the things he describes - but I felt like I got my money's worth!

A great example is his technique for canyon turns. If you're as good a pilot as he is, and keep very current with it, CC's technique is probably just fine. My concern is that I will never be doing canyon turns on a daily basis, so my technique won't be as good as his. My impression is that the margin for error with his technique is a bit tight for my skills and experience. Then I read Contact's "energy management" technique, and it makes a LOT more sense to me. And as something that I can practice every day without going out of my way, it just "feels" like I would be in better position to take advantage of it when the situation demands it.

Another example is his short-field technique. There are times and places where there might be no better alternative. That's what CCP believes and "preaches" - so he wants his students to become as proficient in that skill as possible by pretty much using it all the time. But as some have pointed out, the vast majority of his flying is with tricycle gear - and I think his technique is slanted towards trikes. And I've never been fond of hanging on the prop like that... But if / when I'm in a situation that demands it, I want to know how to do it that way. I'd also like to learn other techniques (like Contact's "rate of closure" technique - similar to what we used in Army helicopters), so I will know if / when I might need to use CC's technique. (As an example, it looks to me like most of the STOL Competition guys are using something similar to CC's technique...)

I was thinking of going to the course being taught here in Texas in December, but realized I'm really not ready for that yet, and it would be a lot more interesting in my (under construction) Bearhawk Patrol than in my ancient Champion 7ECA (O-200 powered). I'll wait for a future date, even if it means I get to (um, I mean "have to") fly a cross-country to get there...

Thanks for all the discussion, and for a great forum for learning.

JP256,

It is fine that many old pilots with thousands of iterations of slow all the way down approaches want to stay with what has worked for them so long. We had the advantage of good Army training in and thousands of iterations of the apparent brisk walk rate of closure approach. I can understand that CC wants to indoctrinate his students that way. We enjoy the extra airspeed safety of not being really slow (airspeed not rate of closure ) until short final. Helicopters, especially those with lots of power, can be slowed quickly. In airplanes, we cannot wait until right up on Charlie, we have to get right on that apparent speed up of the rate of closure on eighth mile final.

The energy management turn is what concerns me most. Again, the high g level turn has worked for so many so long, yet has killed many. Yes CC uses it in the canyon turn. Does he use it in all contact flying turns?

I appreciate the comments.

Contact

JP256,

Did you teach the mountain flying course at Ft. Carson? I went through the course there when weekend warrior instructing with the NMARNG in the 80s.

Try to get by 2H2 and fly with me or with Blackrock (Doug Lumgair ) in N. California.

Jim

Jim (Contact),

No - that's where I got my training, but the instructing part was at the Ft Irwin "Desert Warfare Training Center" for the most part, although I also taught much of it to my own unit at Ft Ord. We spent a lot of FTX time at either Irwin or Hunter-Liggett, both with a lot of mountains, so it was good to know all that stuff, and to practice loss of tail rotor authority and settling with power... Everyone in my unit that I taught came back to me later telling me about some time they had used the recovery techniques in "real life"... Good feeling!

As for coming and flying with you or BlackRock, I would love to, but my current plane would make it just too much of an "adventure" for me... There's a reason why almost all of the 7ECAs buyers opted for the "optional" O-235 once it became available, instead of the "standard" O-200 that I have... I like it for both the economy and the lighter weight (lightest empty weight 7ECA I've ever seen - and yes I had it weighed) which gives me enough useful load to fly with a 200-lb passenger and half fuel (18 gallons). But climb performance is marginal at best, even here at close to sea level... I simply cannot imagine what it would be like to try to fly this airplane in Denver, much less in the mountains themselves.

I'll wait to do that training until I finish the Bearhawk Patrol, which should be a much better platform for both high-altitude and back-country operations, with 180 HP engine, bigger tires, and a MUCH larger payload capacity. Meanwhile, I continue to work on my tailwheel landing skills, slow flight, and I'm starting to try some of your "energy management turn" techniques that you discuss in your e-book.

By the way, thanks for sharing that e-book with all of us! I'm learning a lot from it!