On my recent trip to the Owahee canyon I found a little airstrip just a few miles north of Birch Creek Ranch. I would have checked it out more, but with a flat tire, I couldn't land anyway. The location is: N43 14.59 W117 29.51. I've also posted a picture in my album of the strip.

Does anyone have any information on that strip? What is it used for? Is there anything interesting to do there?

tom

The strip's in decent shape as long as you stay on the narrow track. Lots of partially exposed boulders off the track. Offers access to the river. Not sure much else. I am unaware of this being an "acceptable" landing site and would also benefit from info.

Tom, I want to hear about the take off with a flat tire. How big a tire was it, etc? John

patrol guy wrote:Tom, I want to hear about the take off with a flat tire. How big a tire was it, etc? John

My tires are 800x6 Carlisle golf cart tires. They have worked great on my lightweight plane, and this is the first time I've gotten a flat on them. I haven't had time yet to take the rim apart to see what caused the flat. All I know at this time is the tire holds air for about 5 minutes and there is no visible external damage. I'm sure the three landings with it flat has not helped the tire cords. Lucky, they fit real tight on the rims, so the rim has been saved from damage.

I've only landed on the flat. Three times now. Each time I was able to reinflate the tire at the last moment, and take off normally. On the ground, the tire rolls by kind of crunching up, then a wad of tire rolls under the rim, and then it crunches up again. This makes a repeating resistance like running over a series of low wheel chocks. I think I have enough power that with full aileron deflection I could unload the tire and takeoff, but I haven't wanted to try given the potential for damaging the brake disk and rim.

The landing is remarkably calm with a flat tire. I think the inherent stability of the tricycle gear helps. Anyway, at first touch down, nose high, the wing is supporting nearly all the weight, and everything feels normal. At this point the only real sign that something is wrong is the tire is making a funny sound, sort of like a flat in a car. No pulling yet. The sound gets stronger as the speed is bled off. When the speed decays to the point that the nose won't hold off any longer and it drops to the ground, the wing is not generating any significant lift, full weight is on the flat, and it's drag pull the plane to the side with the flat. Lots of brake on the good side keeps the plane on the runway, but speed drops rapidly and there I am, dead in the tracks.

Pushing the plane by hand can be done by lifting and pushing the strut on the bad side, swinging the plane in an arc. Then going over to the other side and moving it in an arc. Not very fast, but at least I can get it moved a bit if necessary. What I do in the future will depend on what I learn when I get the tire removed to see what the failure mechanism was. Meanwhile, I plan to continue to carry the air pump.

tom