This morning I landed on a river bar in the Willamette River, between Corvallis and Albany, Oregon. It was my first. I've only been flying for three years, but I love the back country, and river bars have been one of my goals.

The bar in question is an easy one. As long as the water is down, it is nice gravel, egg to orange in size, packed well, and about 800-1000 feet long. For me, the challenge was more mental than ability or equipment. Part of my apprehension was the difficulty in getting the plane out of there if I screwed up. Part of it was the fear of ditching in the river. Part of it was just the chicken in me.

Somewhere I read that you should be able to spot land +/- ten feet consistently. Not me; I'm more like +100/-20. So I landed a little long, but the gravel was good for stopping. I was surprised, though that it didn't take all that much extra power to taxi around. One end was sandy, and I could tell that it was softer.

Taking off, I used a basic soft field technique, and it seemed to get off the ground only a little longer than on a grass field.

I still don't want to fish my plane out of the drink, so I don't think I'll be pushing shorter and shorter bars for awhile.

See, bars aren't just for drinking.

tom

Have fun... But be careful.

River bars as a rule won't kill you, but they eat landing gear and props, and will leave you stuck a long, long ways from home.

That +/- 100 has to be a whole lot closer to the +/- 10 MTV was talking about earlier, and even more important is learning to read the length and surface composition from the air. One gear-sucking hole or big rock you didn't spot while dragging it will ruin your day.

But, not to be a naysayer!!!! Get out there and learn this stuff, and push yourself wisely. Use strips and gravel bars other guys do at first to start getting the feel, and follow the guys in who know the local conditions to see what they do, and add that to your bag of tricks (and it gives you someone to fly out for parts if you break something).

Gump

Reading the surface is a real art, but figuring length is not. Overfly at 70 mph (60 knots), you'll cover 100 feet per second. I carry a digital IFR-type timer in the airplane specifically for timing airstrip lengths. BTW, that 70 mph is groundspeed-- so this method only works accurately in calm winds,or using a GPS for speed information.
One bit of advise that I recall from a magazine article about landing on gravel bars is... never be the first to land!
Tom, sounds like great fun. I was wondering what the legality is for landing on the rivers in Oregon...is that legal,illegal, or a kind of grey area? Who owns the land? In other words, does this have to be a covert smash and dash operation, or can you park and hang out without worrying about "the authorities"?

Eric

Gump said it all .

Have fun, but learn from every landing.

MTV

zero.one.victor wrote:I was wondering what the legality is for landing on the rivers in Oregon...is that legal,illegal, or a kind of grey area? Who owns the land? In other words, does this have to be a covert smash and dash operation, or can you park and hang out without worrying about "the authorities"?
Eric

I'm pretty sure the public has river access in the area below high water, but I don't know what the State of Oregon says about landing airplanes on the bars.

tom