Hi everyone,

I’m John, and I’m new to the world of backcountry flying. I’ve recently developed a strong interest in this aspect of aviation, and I’m eager to learn more from those who have been doing it for a while. I’ve been flying for a few years now here in the USA, but I’m looking forward to expanding my skills and understanding what it takes to safely and enjoyably navigate the backcountry.

If you have any tips for a beginner, recommendations on gear or aircraft modifications, or advice on great places to explore, I’d love to hear them. I’m excited to be part of this community and to start this new adventure!

Thanks in advance for your guidance and support.

Best regards,
John D

Welcome John!

First, I would encourage you to start with the philosophical differences in flying the backcountry rather than the gear or the mods as flying “off airport“ is more of a state of mind than an actual place.

When we start flying, we’re taught things like we must land on the centerline… when we fly as “bush pilots“ we give ourselves permission to acknowledge the rules, and then sometimes break them.

For example, why not touchdown on the downwind side of the runway, and roll out 30° across the runway to take advantage of a headwind rather than deal with a crosswind.

When we fly “off airport” there are often less “always“ and “nevers” and more “it depends.”

Lastly, take time here to scour the archives. With almost 2 decades of knowledge, there isn’t a question you’re going to ask that hasn’t already been asked.

BCP is as much as a resource as it is a community.

Again, welcome.

Greg-

There are a ton of great books on backcountry flying and taildraggers

Read all you can, but get hands on training. There are several places to go, but the BC is not a place to learn on your own.

Learn and understand DA and how it effects your planes performance.

What are you flying?

Great advice so far . Taildragger Tactics by Sparky Imerson is a must read for Backcountry flying. Stick and Rudder is a great basic flying book that covers points often missed in current training. Several aircraftwill work great for Backcountry flying the PA 18 being the gold standard. HOWEVER!! No amount of money/big tires/special props/wing mods/shocks/special built aircraft will keep you safe in the Backcountry. Lots of 20 thousand hour pilots bending 1/4 million dollar Carbon Cubs on perfectly safe easy landing areas due to improper technique. Unlike your training to date with normal runways there is often no established procedure. Your pattern altitude may be only 200 ft, there is not floating down the runway to burn off excess speed, uphill/downhill takeoff/landings may be required. You don't have to fly to Montana to develop the basic skills needed such as proper use of flaps/steep approach/hitting your spot/power on landings/cross wind landings/tailwind landings/fuel management/proper survival gear/basic engine trouble shooting and repair/hand propping/proper tie down procedures/wind and weather patterns/use of Garmin In Reach for tracking and communication. My basic Survival gear including tie-downs, Duck bill anchors, Driver and tools is 40 lbs. Sounds like a lot but once you have been stranded for 4 extra days because of high winds you realize it is worth it. If you have not done it first go to a dedicated spin/stall training course. Then go to a Backcountry flying course. The money spent is well worth it. Then start going to fly in events at larger strips and work your way into it. Don't look at You Tube videos of Valdez Ak STOL events or SQ 2 landing with a 40 mile headwind on the Knik sandbar and think that is what Backcountry flying is like.
DENNY

Hey johndean, you really get around. Last time you posted this exact nearly verbatim post from India when you were "davidmmiller" from Olympia, WA, now you’re posting from Tanzania. Wow! Curious what your spam/scam master plan is? Last time your post had a weird sketchy link but I don’t see one now.

How cute you were...


That’s great that you say you’re in the USA. Me thinks ye doth volunteer too much from your Tanzanian click mill.

I’ll leave this post up because a few generous members have replied to your bullshit post with good information and less skepticism than I, and I don’t want their time to be wasted.

For everyone else here, please report this kind of spam if you see it. Consider the way his post is worded, like it was written by ChatGPT. Anybody can seem sincere and and read like they're a native English speaker with a simple prompt.

Wow, good catch

So someone gets into scamming as they are too lazy to get a real job

Then as a scammer they find themself too lazy to even write their own scams?

What’s the world coming too


I almost feel sorry for the guy, based on how far apart his eyes are, likely the victim of poor breeding

Guessing this was a face building (lol) exercise so when he later tried to sell fake items he doesn’t have he would seem legit long enough to get the wire transfer or other sketchy payment method?

NineThreeKilo wrote: I almost feel sorry for the guy, based on how far apart his eyes are, likely the victim of poor breeding

Easy, Galton. I’m sure it’s just a found photo or AI-generated.

I’m at a loss here. Please explain to me why someone would go through the trouble of posting this? What is the potential benefit?

Squash wrote:I’m at a loss here. Please explain to me why someone would go through the trouble of posting this? What is the potential benefit?

They will pretend to be someone they are not. Likely DM one of the BCP members and gain information about their life to hack an email or cell phone. The SIM swap attacks is a particular scary attack where someone gives up some information about their life that can be potentially used by the hacker to gain control of their phone. Just simple information about where you grew up or where you went to college can be used by your carrier to identify you. The more information given in this manner the more vulnerable you are.

Also some people do not use special encryption on their passwords which could give the hacker useful information for potential passwords. I am guessing these attacks are broad but if they get a hook they can then target the attack to the specifics of the user. They call it spear phishing and it is a real threat. The information is sold across the dark web. Just like ISP providers and social media companies know so much about us personally and sell this data for marketing. Everyone needs to be careful with their data and security.

I am sure Zane can elaborate on this subject better than me.


Josh

Josh brings up the good points. We now live in a world where getting scammed is a lot about connecting a few dots and utilizing Internet-exposed services to get at your money. One of the main attack vectors is social engineering— coercing a person into exposing their sensitive data or granting access to something that allows scammers to transfer your money. Sometimes it's not even that hard and you can be convinced to send money if the lie is compelling enough.

One documented scam in the past has been scammers replying to WTB posts, showing photos of items that we found in a Google image search or even scraped from this site.

If someone PMs you, there no way for me to know that or provide any level of oversight. You have to be vigilant and skeptical. One of my life philosophies has been to always be skeptical when someone brings the deal TO YOU.

For spammers like this, all they want is to promote or get you to click the link they ultimately post. This guy had a link to a shipping container website. The next one will probably be unrelated.

Tune your bullshit meters!

I am a fairly new pilot. Backcountry flying was what made me take lessons to begin with. I think the most important experience is that backcountry flying requires extra discipline and focus. I dont think it should be approached with the attitude that it can be a way to get away from discipline and practice. The upside is that the skills really does gives increased freedom.

I think that knowing what the payoff is, also makes practicing basic stuff a lot more fun.