Hey everybody. I'm a Tomahawk owner / pilot out of Lancaster, near Buffalo, NY. I live well south of the city, though, in a relatively rural area.

I'd really like to get in to back country flying, since it looks like a blast. I'm thinking about getting in to a high-wing taildragger (have a Luscombe to train tailwheel on), but I don't know anybody or anything about the options for having fun in the rural areas around here.

There are some (small, maybe 1000') hills south of the city, with several grass and private grass strips. I'll likely start there, and then roughly a 2 hour flight to the east, we have the Adirondack mountain range. There aren't many marked strips in there, but there are a few. I imagine that's the next place I'd go.

Anyhow, is there anybody here with any experience back country flying in the WNY / upstate NY region? Any fun missions or strips to check out? Any community gatherings at all?

Thanks for the help.

You don't need strips to have fun. This was on Stillwater.

Tom, is that Stillwater Reservoir in the Adirondacks? We camped there last summer..

Tom-

Those pictures look great! My family has a cabin in Croghan on the Effley Falls Pond, which is just a little south of Stillwater on the Beaver River between two powerplants. I was taken to Stillwater a bunch as a kid, but I hadn't thought of it. Thanks!

Anybody else have fun regions in upstate NY, or know of any clubs / organizations that do back country flying?

daesharacor wrote:Tom-

Those pictures look great! My family has a cabin in Croghan on the Effley Falls Pond, which is just a little south of Stillwater on the Beaver River between two powerplants. I was taken to Stillwater a bunch as a kid, but I hadn't thought of it. Thanks!

Anybody else have fun regions in upstate NY, or know of any clubs / organizations that do back country flying?

No real clubs or organizations, but lots of us on here... We have been doing lots of exploring in NE. When you settle on an airplane, give a shout. All are welcome!

Greg-

pouellette wrote:Tom, is that Stillwater Reservoir in the Adirondacks? We camped there last summer..

Yeah. I'm told the water is only low enough to land in the fall. The second pic was taken near beaver river. We landed and went to lunch. there was a spot next to the tracks where they put down something from the trains, coal or something in the swamp and its hard enough for bush wheels

The Tundrahawk. No one will ever call you a tomatohawk or traumahawk again. Why not put a Cato prop, sportsman stol, some Keller flaps, do a tail dragger conversion and install some 29" no.... No. Some 35" tires? It's all ready got kid hard points and what looks like an aft cabin seaplane V brace. You allready have the plane just tweak it.

Welcome!

Keep your sights on your dream plane but don't let it prevent you from making memories/experience now in whatever you fly. Run what you brung, it's way better than staying home drooling over some super STOL machine that sits half-built in your garage while you watch videos that your buddies post.

Plenty to do around here. In addition to float and ski flying, there are a lot of nice grass strips.

Another from Stillwater:



Indian Lake:



Near Keuka Lake



Clarence(near Buffalo) Ski Fly-In. Usually late Jan/early Feb. Nice day, chili cookout, etc.

Is there any restrictions about landing in the Park, specifically Stillwater? I'd like to fly up there next summer..I'm less than 2 hours away.
Pete

Wheels or floats? Not too many places to land on wheels; those sandbars look cool, though.

There are some lakes in the park that are restricted, "forever wild". Without a list and a good map a good rule of thumb is: no civilization=restricted from seaplanes.

Exceptions that I know of: Stillwater, south end of Indian Lake, north end of Long Lake.

Zzz wrote:Welcome!

Keep your sights on your dream plane but don't let it prevent you from making memories/experience now in whatever you fly. Run what you brung, it's way better than staying home drooling over some super STOL machine that sits half-built in your garage while you watch videos that your buddies post.

Not that Zane's speaking from experience, or anything... Just ignore that Bearhawk-looking static display of aluminum tubing in his garage!

Another new pilot in NY.

Still a student pilot working toward my private pilot licence.

Meanwhile I'll keep reading the forum between flight lessons.

Hey Guys,

Just ran across this thread. We are based out of North Creek (Bennett's field 0NY0) in the Adirondacks. The restrictions for float planes in the park are unfortunately fairly restrictive. The whole park is considered forever wild, but there are different land classifications within the park on public land. As a general rule if a body of water has private access you can land on it. If it is completely on State land it all depends on the land use classification. Basically, if the area you are looking at is classified either Wilderness or primitive, there are no mechanized means of transportation allowed (Including bikes), so no planes. If it classified Wild Forest or recreational you can probably land there (Either water or land), but one should check to make sure. Here is a decent although cumbersome interactive map put out by NYS. http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/45415.html
There is a ton of fun flying though with lots of grass strips & smaller paved strips too, some private, some public. Most of the private strips (Which ours is one of) are very friendly and welcome folks flying in. Don't worry about the Tomahawk, I fly a 150 most of the time and as long as I keep an eye on conditions, watch my weight, AND rising terrain, there aren't many places I can't get in and out of up here. If any BCP folks want to spend a little time in the Adirondacks, just get in touch with myself or fshaw and you will have a place to land and stay if needed.

Pete

Pete, I've been to North Creek visiting a fella who flew a Rans S7S out of there. I think his name was John Sullivan. Do you know if he is still around? This was quiet a few years ago,
Pete

Hey Pete,

He is not. Most of the crew that was there 10 or so years ago are down in Glens Falls now. I'm not sure where John is (Or if he still is). I'll ask around. There are only a hand full of folks here now. Seven pilots and 13 planes based here currently. Some fun planes though - we have two 172's, one 150, two Meyers OTW's, a J-3, a clip wing, a champ, a Pitts special a Navy N3N3 with a 450hp P&W and three ultralights. The runway may be longer than when you were last here too. It was lengthened maybe 15 years ago (After some minor mishaps) to 3,000'

Pete

Hi Pete,

I Just PM'ed you on John.

Pete

At the eastern end of the Stillwater Reservoir in the Adirondacks is an overgrown private airstrip on he northern shore of the Beaver River. I surveilled it with a drone for a closer look at the conditions. https://youtu.be/rhgR8_gbY24