Backcountry replacements

[James331]

Another good place to join for backcountry flying

https://backcountrypilot.org/

 

[Flyhound]

There are degrees of back country, but most of the good stuff is out west. I bought a Maule in the Seattle area and flew it back to Virginia where I was living at the time. Not much airplane camping in the Mid-Atlantic area. Hot and humid summers stuffed full of mosquitos. It only took me a year to sell everything back there and move to the Pacific Northwest. I have dozens of grass strips in the mountains within an hour of my home base and airplane camping here is pleasant a solid 5 months of the year. Great flying is available longer than that, but a lot of the mountain strips are owned by the state and are closed October - April or May. Once the season opens this is a magical place to fly and camp with my plane. None of this is cutting edge flying, but you have to be up to speed on mountain flying and you really need to watch the density altitude. I chose my Maule for its cavernous baggage area with double door access and high useful load. Not many planes can match that capability. All of this fit in for a camping trip this fall:

I'm not landing on 100' gravel bars with this kind of load, but I do fly into some pretty amazing spots for my camping.

 

[Tom-D]

Next time you'd like to go to Stehekin for a cinnamon bun I'd share expenses.

 

[Silvaire]

We had a Maule for a number of years, flew it pretty much everywhere including up to Alaska and back. It was a good airplane. They have their quirks (Maule-isms) and no, it's not a 185 but it was brand spankin' new in 2004.

 

[Hank S]

Well with the huge explosion of pilots into the Backcountry/bush flying realm, the planes capable of doing that type of flying, or at least the ones we think of, have pretty much dried up. If they haven't dried up, they're priced so much higher than they used to be just a year or two ago that it probably prices some wannabe Backcountry pilots out of that flying.

The planes I'm talking about are 170/180/182/185/206s, maules, Cubs, huskies and scouts.

What are some of the more capable unassuming bush planes people can buy at a slightly more reasonable price point?

Stinsons? Cherokees? What's out there?

There's always Just Aircraft, www.justaircraft.com Looks like they are now working on an ultralight version. Check out the SuperSTOL videos.

And don't knock retracts, it's usually the pilot who makes the difference, not the airframe:

 

[Stewartb]

The popularity of sport flying has driven the popularity of simple airplanes that can operate away from complicated airspace. These planes are like 4-wheelers or dirt bikes. Most are used for play days when the weather is good and a buddy or two want to go as a group. No criticism but that’s not interesting to me. My back country planes replaced river boats. My planes are like my pickup truck. They carry me, wife, dog, and a ton of stuff to where we want to go. That’s a very different mission. I don’t go to fly-ins. I don’t go sport flying with my buddies. I don’t take lots of pictures of myself or make youtube videos. Flying for me is like golf. It’s an invididual sport sometimes done around other people with the goal of getting to where there are no other people.

To the planes? Back country flying is much better served by E-AB than certificated for private operators. There are lots of planes, lots of equipment, and unlimited ability to experiment to dial your plane in to suit your needs. These are the days!