I was changing a tailwheel tire in the hot California Sierras and left my little plastic gas jug out (use it for fueling my genset). It expanded into a balloon! Really scary to have that much pressure. Lesson: I will keep gas in the shade from now on. It was permanently enlarged. Fuel can on Viagra.

The nice thing about a auto gas burning ag plane on a long cross country was that you could put gas cans, later plastic, in the hopper and land most anywhere to refuel. If you knew enough farms with gas you could avoid expensive gas the whole way. If you didn't know them, you could fly low enough to check for storage tanks with hoses attached.

Because of strong headwinds, I had to land in a dry late near the road running south from Alamagordo. I grabbed a five gallon can and prepared to hitch to town. A man in a pickup came along and, having a full can on board, traded me for my empty and $10,00.

Almost qualifies as traditional on this site...but I know a lot of pilots that would choke on this...

That's a great photo Troy

No photo on this one, we didn't have enough hands! So, my buddy and I landed in Boulder, Utah with his Bearhawk and needed fuel, which we had in the back of the plane. Two, 5 gal jugs. He steps up on the tire to pour the fuel in the wing tank and finds that the fuel tank cap is too far towards the center of the wing to reach. We both stand there discussing how we are going to get to that fuel cap when he says, "Listen, we'll lift and push the fuel jug up on the wing. Then you climb up on the tire and spread your legs. I'll duck down a put my head between your legs and stand up, lifting you on my shoulders. Then I'll walk over to the center of the wing and hold you while you take off the fuel cap and dump in the fuel". We both looked around and no one was within several miles so we did it. Twice. Once for each wing tank. It was at that point he decided he needed to buy a short ladder to carry in the plane!

Great one, Courierguy, I got the bug from seeing a pic of Jack McCormack in a Dact over a field in those days.

This isn't anything exotic like fueling out of goat skins in a remote area, but like the others, triggers good memories. The Quicksilver had been back and forth the US a couple of times, and being from California, this is why I kept going back. I'd set the plane down in some little crop dusting strip like this in the middle of nowhere in the midwest, surrounded by corn, with the smell of just cut grass and the rain coming in, and feel like I was the luckiest man in the world in my 500 lb plane. It's addictive.

Nothing exotic but thought I'd share anyways.

Z snapped this one at JC in 2010.


My weekly stop in Picabo on my way home from college. Living in a Subaru during the school week, remodeling a house on the weekends, and flying twice a week...oh the good ol' days.

SkySteve wrote:No photo on this one, we didn't have enough hands! So, my buddy and I landed in Boulder, Utah with his Bearhawk and needed fuel, which we had in the back of the plane. Two, 5 gal jugs. He steps up on the tire to pour the fuel in the wing tank and finds that the fuel tank cap is too far towards the center of the wing to reach. We both stand there discussing how we are going to get to that fuel cap when he says, "Listen, we'll lift and push the fuel jug up on the wing. Then you climb up on the tire and spread your legs. I'll duck down a put my head between your legs and stand up, lifting you on my shoulders. Then I'll walk over to the center of the wing and hold you while you take off the fuel cap and dump in the fuel". We both looked around and no one was within several miles so we did it. Twice. Once for each wing tank. It was at that point he decided he needed to buy a short ladder to carry in the plane!

Our 185 is the same way - we have the Long Range tanks (74 Gal usable) and the outer fuel caps are too far away from the wheels and strut steps to reach if we want to top it off completely. We only lose a total of 10 Gal usable if we use the inboard caps, but on longer legs, that 10 gallons might mean the difference between a 1-leg or 2-leg flight with unexpected winds.

Took a couple more on yesterday's adventure...

This one is at the Painter Creek Lodge strip.



This one is on another cinder blow by Aniakchak...



Before the 850's were installed I could actually do this without a step stool...a result of being 6'4" tall. Now, I need the stool, and that little plastic one is a wonderful addition to the kit and weighs next to nothing. My wife bought it and I borrowed it. A long time ago. I would let her use it again...if she asked. I wonder sometimes why she puts up with me. Well, I wonder most of the time, actually.

Haha, we have a small step-ladder in the garage I bought for my wife so she could reach the upper cabinets in the kitchen with. It lasted about 2 weeks in the kitchen before it migrated to the garage!

Came from Montague, CA to Morgan County, UT today and stopped for gas at Delle, UT.


Got a free big gulp with a fill up.

Tim

Man I never got a big gulp!

At the base of mount Drum after landing at a short strip where I should not have landed. The strip was greater than a thousand feet long, but the mud pulled harder than the Continental O-300 could. It was a 10 hour ordeal getting out of there. An adventure I will never forget.

Float flying in Maine with my dad about 10 years ago.

Reflecting on O180's on going AK trip I remembered this shot. This was in the Trench at the late Finbow camp about 2001 or so. The strip is still there and useable, but the camp is long gone
This was one of the many places to actually get fuel in the Trench in a pinch. At about 450 miles from Makenzie to Watson this stretch is daunting to many... But some of us love it

Take care, Rob

No picture but yesterday I was in West Yellowstone Mt, and since I was riding the Montague into town anyway (and they don't sell mogas at the airport) I eyeballed my wing tanks sight gauges (I never got around to calibrating them, as in numerals, I just "know") and knowing the route home pretty well, guesstimated I may benefit from another gallon or two. So, I strapped just one of the two 2 gallon jerry jugs I always carry in the plane (empty) to the handle bars and this morning wouldn't you know it, I arrived back home with exactly 2 1/4 gallons in my header tank (which is 100% usable and has a sight gauge also). That's over a half hour normal cruise, more if throttled back to best duration, cutting it pretty fine but not as fine as if I didn't get that 2 gallons in West

Lots of now-missing photos in this thread. There were some good ones. Maybe you guys who hosted your pics on Facebook locked them down?

I have not locked any, but have been noticing all my fb photos have broken links. They seem to change the hosting address for photos periodically. Really irritating. Grrrrrr.

@ ZZZ and @ Troy

Thanks for mentioning the missing links thing. I was worried it was my computer.

I have everything firewalled, script control, flash control, vpn, blah blah blah. Sometimes stuff hangs up.

I love the pics of the planes...and of the cool dogs that seem to so often accompany the planes and pilots.