Backcountry Pilot

[wwingsong offline]

trip. minus 20 degrees at 200 feet AGL. The old Continental 470 J model decides to eat a few valves for lunch. The plane starts vibrating badly and as I pull back power I see the only open area to land is a very small lake surrounded by large trees and rocks. Developing decreasing power and now smoke in cabin, I pull the mixture to cutoff to stop any futher damage.

The tiny lake is the only thing on my mind with no go arounds or botched approaches now flying deadstick as the sun sets. I set up a tight descending spiral directly over the lake as to not risk not making the frozen lake. Those barn door 40 degrees flaps on the old Cessna 180`s let me come down soft and safe on the rough lake ice as the January light faded. After pacing off the ponds length we discover it is about 800 feet long with trees on all sides. I have never been happier to be on the ground.

[JC offline]

After pacing off the ponds length we discover it is about 800 feet long with trees on all sides. I have never been happier to be on the ground.

Wow! You really handled that pressure well. Nailed it when it really counted.

So how did you eventually get your plane out of there?

[wwingsong offline]

damaged cylinders off, left plane on the pond for two weeks as I had cylinders rebuilt. Flew back with a light supercub with Mechanic , bolted them on and flew home. We waited for a windy day to ensure the short takeoff over the trees was a sucess. We also used a small gas generator to power tannis heater on Cessna.

[mtv offline]

Crankshaft broke whilst crossing a high divide in mountainous terrain.

MTV

[Skylane offline]

Anyone you can walk away from! Good landing!

Nice work MTV.

See ya, Bub

[qmdv offline]

Yeh check out this http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist2/rwis/sm_weedair.php


this will be real time but when I posted it was 41 gusting to 52

Tim

[skybobb offline]

I was landing at Sunriver Or. one time. It was last of Nov. or first of Dec. and there was about an inch of snow on the runway. Planes had landed and there were two tracks down to the asphalt. Just as I touched down on the runway my 170 cessna started to go right. I pushed on the left brake and when the left tire got on the right wheel track it jerked the plane back to almost straight. I pushed on both brake pedals and stopped short. I found that the spring that holds the lock off on the parkinng brake had become tangled, letting the brake lock on when I had touched it. It is a good thing I had the snow on the runway.

[denalipilot offline]

Hi Skybobb,

Glad you saved that 170. The following is from the International C-170 site page on most recommended 170 mods http://www.cessna170.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1969

2. Disconnect the parking brake and completely remove the parking brake hardware from the top of the master cylinders, to avoid accidental setting of a brake in strong crosswinds (hits the firewall blanket and inadvertently sets the parking brake) which results in blown tires, runway departures, and ground loops on landing. (The park brake control is a Bowden cable, similar to a lawn-mower throttle cable, consisting of a solid wire core wrapped by a spiral wire sheath. Push the knob IN, and bend the solid wire core over the end of the outer sheath. This will prevent anyone in the future from being able to pull that knob believing they've set a parking brake, yet will allow your panel to retain it's original look.)

[Motorcitymaule offline]

Can someone tell the story of the red tailed maule photo with the broken tail wheel. I would be interested in why it broke?
I don't mean to thread jack but that photo needs a little story. Peter

Oh crap, I put this in the wrong thread, sorry all.

[a64pilot offline]

Can someone tell the story of the red tailed maule photo with the broken tail wheel. I would be interested in why it broke?
I don't mean to thread jack but that photo needs a little story. Peter

Oh crap, I put this in the wrong thread, sorry all.

About 10 feet before the tail, you will notice the badger hole. I believe it was a bad casting and the hole was the straw. But he got a free AK bushwheel tail spring. Of course the stock tailwheel won't fit the bigger tailwheel spring, so an AK bushwheel tail wheel had to be purchased to utilize the "free" spring

[skybobb offline]

Hi Skybobb,

Glad you saved that 170. The following is from the International C-170 site page on most recommended 170 mods http://www.cessna170.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1969

2. Disconnect the parking brake and completely remove the parking brake hardware from the top of the master cylinders, to avoid accidental setting of a brake in strong crosswinds (hits the firewall blanket and inadvertently sets the parking brake) which results in blown tires, runway departures, and ground loops on landing. (The park brake control is a Bowden cable, similar to a lawn-mower throttle cable, consisting of a solid wire core wrapped by a spiral wire sheath. Push the knob IN, and bend the solid wire core over the end of the outer sheath. This will prevent anyone in the future from being able to pull that knob believing they've set a parking brake, yet will allow your panel to retain it's original look.)

Yes, someone told me later that this problem did away with a lot of nice old 170 airplanes. I was thankful for the little bit of snow I think it saved my bacon. As a side note two guys were in a van coming around the end of the runway to pick us up. They saw my landing and sudden stop. One said to the other "look at that plane that just landed he stopped before he got to the displaced threshold marks". Of course I couldn't see them because of the snow and was unfairmiliar with the airport. Bob

[shorton offline]

I'll give you two for one here.

1 returning from a moose hunt with younger daughter and son in law. Son in law was flying from the right seat. I told him we had a fairly stiff crosswind so be aware. He touched down and the wind caught him and pushed us to the right, he over corrected and threw us into a groundloop to the left. The right wingtip was scrubbing on the ground and the tires were screaming. I took over and firewalled the engine, kicked hard right rudder and as soon as the plane came level again I took off pretty much across the runway and chopped the tops off the cattails in the ditch. Total damage was three rivet heads scrubbed off and the marker light broken off the wing tip.

2. Sheep hunt, very steep terrain and high winds. I flew into the mountains quite high and all was well, I dropped down and located the strip. I dropped lower for a look-see pass and when I dropped below the ridge line all hell broke loose. I got caught in those rolling waves of wind that tumble off the lee side of a steep ridge. The plane rolled over so far it would have been faster to just roll on over. I hit full power and got the hell out of there, headed for my alternate strip. We came out of the canyon, turned right and crossed the first of two small lakes. I had the strip in site and thought we had finally got out of trouble when the engine quit. Oh shit, in all the excitement of the turbulence I forgot to change fuel tanks. The engine picked right up when I switched tanks and we only dropped a few feet. OK now we will be alright. just as we were about to touch down I finally saw that the tundra had eroded away and what looked like a nice two track was actually a pair of ditches several feet deep. I jinked hard right onto a set of tire tracks on the moss and landed. After a very short rollout I tried to turn the plane, the wind was so strong I could lock one wheel and still only swing the tail a few degrees out of line. We shut down, got out and walked the wings around so I could taxi behind some scrub trees.

I've had some more fun ones but those two were exciting at any rate.

Shane

[patrol guy offline]

hello

[trapper offline]

Landing runway 7, wind 350 at 24 pk gust 35. Tried three times and gave up. Touched the mains twice .Landed in the valley with steady winds. Learned a lot that day!

[z3skybolt offline]

CAT III landing. Ceiling 0, vis. 300ft. Autoland in a B-767 at Seattle. The magic boxes did it. Piece of cake.

B-727 at Hartford, Conn. Windshear and gust. 35 kts gusting to 45. 20 feet in the air got massive negative shear. Firewalled the throttles and touched down smoothly with full power still on!! Some skill....lotsa luck.

MD-80 at Colorado Springs, Colo. Wind shear. Calm winds, smooth during the approach. 50 feet in the air I hit the shear and powerful crosswind. Airplane cocked 45 degrees to the runway. Applied max thrust to go around. Shear sucked us down to within 10 feet of the runway. Could not climb. Stayed in the ground effect to keep flying. Went 1,500 feet down the runway at a 45 degree angle just a few feet from wiping the gear out. Suddenly the shear went positve and the vertical speed pegged out at 6,000 feet per minute. Overflew and returned to Pueblo, Colorado. Very close call.

DC-9 in Sioux City, Iowa. Screaming blizzard, 30 kt. crosswind. Nighttime, tower closed. Landed in 9 inches of snow on unplowed runway. Lots of power to taxi to the gate. Cancelled the departure.

FH-227 at Bloomington, Illinois. Tower closed no braking action report. Landed on ice covered runway. Slid several hundred feet and ended up sideway at 60 degree angle to the runway.

Pipeline patrol, central Indiana, in a Citabria when I was 22. 50 ft. above the trees in fog. Lost all forward vis. Straddled powerlines and followed them to U.S. hwy. 41 northbound. Picked up I-70 east toward Terre Haute airport. Called the tower and got a special VFR. (FRIENDS IN THE TOWER) Followed I-70 at 50 feet, flying down the median. Cars were pulling off of the highway. I-70 crosses the approach lights to runway 4 at HUF. Skimmed over the approach lights, landed on runway 4. Sat there for several minutes as I could not see to taxi through the fog to the ramp.

Knees knocking!

Bob

[skybobb offline]

I was called out at about 9:00 PM one night by the Malheu County Sheriff's office to go look for a downed aircraft. The story was that this homebuilt airplane had picked up too much ice and went into a spin and couldn't get out of it. He came down from 17000 ft. He was on an IFR flight plan so they had a good fix on where he was. After we found the downed aircraft they made us stay on scene to help the ground party find the wreckage location. It was just a little before 11:00 before we got back to the home airport. I had a very strong crosswind on the lighted runway. S49 has two gravel runways 36-18 and 10-28 and the wind was Gusting about 35kts at 280. I would have loved to be able to land on 28 but it had no lights. Only 36-18 have lights. One of the other planes on the search had landed back at ONO and had damaged his prop on landing on 32-14 in Ontario. I really had to work hard to get old 54 November on the ground in one piece. I think that this was my hardest landing ever. Bob

[whynotfly offline]

One of my hardest landings was in great weather with no wind. Only problem was that on final and with fading light I reached up to twist the Cessna air vent to blow more air on me (it was very warm as we got close to ground) I felt a extrememly hot burning sensation on my hand as a huge wasp buzzed out of the air vent into the cabin. Short final, with a painful wasp sting on my hand not knowing where the hornet was now (I'm wearing shorts), I pressed on with the landing exercising all my effort to "fly the plane first" then deal with distractions. Needless to say, I shut er down in record time and took my vengeance on the pest when I located it. Lesson learned? Part of my summer time preflight now is to take a good look in the vent ports in the leading edge of the 172 wing to make sure a wasp hasn't begun to take up residence in there.

[hicountry offline]

Landing a 180HP 172, 40knot 30Deg left crosswind with gusts to 50. My wife was in the right seat and was taking videos. My ground speed was maybe 25. Have the video to prove it.
HC

[slowhawk offline]

I don't have to think about it, Puke washes off.

I agree,

A few weeks ago, i took my 7 y/o son over to a local on-field burger place for lunch. The lady that runs the place promised him an ice cream if he finished his burger.

Well, he managed it. Unfortunately, dad wasn't thinking ahead and we immediately hopped in the plane and flew home. Since we were under DFW airspace, just figured to keep it low-and slow on the way home. What dad didn't calculate into the flight plan was the combination of a full 7 y/o stomach and 20 minutes of 95 degree, bumpy flying. Just short of the home field he told me he wasn't feeling so good. Springing into action, i quickly found the barf bad and helped him get it deployed while flying a short pattern . He made it to short final, pulled the bag away from his face, turned towards me and cut-her- loose. Still not as bad as down the neck, but still alittle disruptive to the concentration.

We got it back in the hanger and i cleaned up the plane while he ran around in his underpants, all better now.

Still a better experience than the Feds.

Oh, by the way, lesson learned; let you son's over stuffed stomach digest awhile before flying in hot, bumpy weather

[Desert185 offline]

I've got over 22,000 hours and you guys are scaring the hell out of me.

MTV and puke on the neck, I'm not worthy.

35-50 kts going into Seldovia, AK in a 185 or mins @ ANC with blowing snow and a cluttered runway with poor to fair braking action at the end of a 12-13 hour duty day (no autoland selected) doesn't hold a candle. Neither does the NDB, circle to land @ Gao, Mali in a civil C-130 at dawn with a dusty haze in the air, or the NDB, circle to land @ Zahedan, Iran with a 727 in a dust/sand storm (twice in the same day with a missed and a trip to the alternate).