What is your rule of thumb evaluating roughness of a field? When is it too rough/bumpy?

A buddy running 850s on his 180 uses his own: if he can ride a quad 50mph without feeling like he's going to fall off, the skywagon can handle it too.

I've only landed where others have been before me but have access to a couple long flat slightly*?* bumpy fields (with great nearby hunting/fishing).

There really is no easy answer to your question......too many variables. For example, last summer, I landed a strip in my PA 11 on 26 inch Airstreaks. A friend landed his PA 18 on 8.50s and cursed me for telling him the strip was fine. He thought that strip was too rough for him. In that case, the variables: Different tires, different airplane weights, and most important, different pilots and therefore perspectives on what is “too rough”.

And there are several other variables: touchdown speed (STOL kits, etc), landing gear configuration, and so forth.

The best procedure is to learn to lightly “tickle” a surface with your tires on one pass, then put a little more weight down next pass, and continue that process till you’re comfortable landing there, or decide to go elsewhere. Of course, there are one way strips where this doesn’t work.

But the process noted is the way i pioneer a landing zone (as opposed to an “air strip”).

But, again, what I might be comfortable landing in a particular spot, you might not be happy with at all.....and vice versa.

This is one of the fundamental skill sets that you have to develop to operate off Airport or on many back country strips.

MTV

What MTV said!

I'd add that I have no idea how your friend can look at a place he has never been to and say "I can/cannot ride my quad there at 50mph" and use that to determine if it's safe to land a plane on.

Take baby steps when learning off-airport skills. NEVER be in the mindset of "I'm landing" (which usually becomes I'm landing no matter what aka I can save this landing). ALWAYS be in the mindset of "I'M READY TO GO AROUND, SHOULD I GO AROUND?" in other words hand on the throttle and every second of your approach and landing you are evaluating whether or not you can safely continue.

And try to avoid situations where "I got away with it but shouldn't have done it". Like this one of mine. Eventually it will bite you. I've been lucky so far. And don't forget you have to take off from where you landed. Have fun learning....it never ends.
https://vimeo.com/185178875

Wow that was rough. Cool video Phil. One of the few videos I've seen where 35's were a must (or at least appeared that way anyhow).

My 2 rules of off airport flying:
1) If it looks rough it is and if looks smooth it ain’t
2) Let the other guy land first

In all seriousness though it’s a personal preference thing in a lot of ways. I’ve had an axle fail from fatigue...so high cyclic loads are something I don’t enjoy on an aluminum airplane. And I’ve been onto rough looking things that were smooth and smooth looking things were rough. All part of the game.

Thanks guys!

Phil, your Vimeo channel is going to keep me entertained for hours. Thanks for sharing.

The wagon I bought came with 700s which I'm switching out to 850s soon. So anything other than a decent strip or smooth surface I've felt is off limits until I switch them out.

I have walked the two fields I'm hoping to land at. Just tough gauging if I'd be getting myself in trouble without much reference compared to relatively well maintained strips I've operated from. There does happen to be a quad at the ranch so the suggestion was to use it to gauge the surface.

Understood it has a lot to do with tires and the energy/weight your land with. I'm definitely taking baby steps. I'll likely take someone who knows better out there with me first.

Looking forward to learning more...

Barnstormer wrote:What MTV said!

I'd add that I have no idea how your friend can look at a place he has never been to and say "I can/cannot ride my quad there at 50mph" and use that to determine if it's safe to land a plane on.

Take baby steps when learning off-airport skills. NEVER be in the mindset of "I'm landing" (which usually becomes I'm landing no matter what aka I can save this landing). ALWAYS be in the mindset of "I'M READY TO GO AROUND, SHOULD I GO AROUND?" in other words hand on the throttle and every second of your approach and landing you are evaluating whether or not you can safely continue.

And try to avoid situations where "I got away with it but shouldn't have done it". Like this one of mine. Eventually it will bite you. I've been lucky so far. And don't forget you have to take off from where you landed. Have fun learning....it never ends.
https://vimeo.com/185178875

That's an awesome video, great work getting in there.

Here is the second way to get back out of those places where the sirens call sucks you in...

Nice spot, Phil!!

We need some more beef in our off-airport operations page. MTV has written a nice article for evaluating sites, linked on this page:

Knowledge Base: Off-airport Operations

Zane - stop in next year. We'll do a feature on it.

Karmutzen wrote:Here is the second way to get back out of those places where the sirens call sucks you in...

Was this up by the Bridge River Glacier? That place seems to eat a plane every summer. Good thing it didn't require a heavy lift helicopter to get out... that adds up pretty fast.

North River wrote:Zane - stop in next year. We'll do a feature on it.

Next year might be year-after-next... I have too many kids now.

BazzLow wrote:There does happen to be a quad at the ranch so the suggestion was to use it to gauge the surface.

Just remember, at 50 mph hour on the quad you're committed...50 mph in the plane you can still go around!

Speaking of landing surfaces, I had to laugh when I saw the condition of the runway at Leadore the other day. It's been like this forever, and I'm fine with it. My nightmare is one day it will buffed and perfect with multi million dollar "cabins" lining the runway, like Alpine is these days. Leadore has yet to be discovered, and I hope it stays that way a while longer! Went for a 28 mile e bike ride in the mountains to the west, and flew 4.5 hrs that day, one of the last great fall flying days maybe.