Mtns2Skies
Final Approach
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- Jul 12, 2008
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Mtns2Skies
Last weekend a local with a very nicely kitted out 170B (Horton STOL, VG's, IO-360) was nice enough to show me around the local backcountry airstrips. WOW what an unbelievable time. We departed a Madison satellite airport with me and my Skywagon in trail.
The first of which was a warm-up run to a beautifully maintained 1500ft private grass runway ontop of a plateau to cut my chops on (The attached photo was taken here). Next was a pretty big step up to a field called the "ultralight" runway. This was a 1200' curved, narrow off camber runway. This really got my blood pumping, particularly as I started to slide sideways off the runway about midway, but by then I was slow enough to recover and bring it back to the runway.
Next was a longer runway, maybe 2000-2400' but the word "undulating" described this runway pretty darn well. Of course the 170b pilot was stopped in just a couple hundred feet, my unmodified Skywagon (and noob pilot) took a bit more runway than that and is then more susceptible to these bumps. My first approach I hit the bump wrong, got launched and did a go-around. Next time was far better, and made me glad to be in a taildragger for both the prop clearance and the ability to transition for 3pt to wheel to 3pt based on how each undulation hit the plane.
Next up was a runway just across the way that was probably the steepest slope I've landed on. This time I got to thread between the trees and a house on short final. It's definitely critical to know where your wings are for this one
. At the last second I brought in gobs of power for the up-hill flare.
Before we went onto the next one, the 170 pilot demonstrated a landing at a place where I was perfectly content to just circle above. The short 600' runway no wider than tire tracks was at a bottom of a hillside. He slipped it down the side of the hill with his tundra tires brushing the tops of the trees the whole way down. There was no doubt in his mind exactly where that plane was physically or in the flight envelope, amazing skill. Then he pulls out of the slip right above the grass and executes a go around because it wasn't mowed.
Then the very last runway was a perfectly groomed grass 1100ft with no real obstacles to speak of on either end. I dragged the plane in for a mile 10' over fields with the stall horn blaring to get just a perfect approach and touchdown expecting it to be a great end to the day... and I bounced. I probably could have saved the landing but elected for a go around. At this point I just headed for home - completely exhausted from flying on the hairy edge of a stall all day. I use my suction-based stall horn as an AoA and wow did it get a workout.
Anyway, I really fell in love with the plane even more than I had already. I cleaned up and flew home at 140 knots thinking about how all the Mx costs just didn't matter and were completely worth it. My only regret is that I didn't get more pictures/video from the day... but I'll be back.
I have a plane that I'm so absolutely thrilled with, I don't feel that it needs to go faster, or that it needs to land shorter. It looks perfect in my mind, a beautiful blend of a classic taildragger and modern utility plane. It's the perfect size to go places and haul stuff, but also can be had for low and slow sight-seeing. For me it is the absolute best part of the Venn Diagram that is aerodynamics and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
@rwellner98 might have more pictures of these runways if he cares to share.
The first of which was a warm-up run to a beautifully maintained 1500ft private grass runway ontop of a plateau to cut my chops on (The attached photo was taken here). Next was a pretty big step up to a field called the "ultralight" runway. This was a 1200' curved, narrow off camber runway. This really got my blood pumping, particularly as I started to slide sideways off the runway about midway, but by then I was slow enough to recover and bring it back to the runway.
Next was a longer runway, maybe 2000-2400' but the word "undulating" described this runway pretty darn well. Of course the 170b pilot was stopped in just a couple hundred feet, my unmodified Skywagon (and noob pilot) took a bit more runway than that and is then more susceptible to these bumps. My first approach I hit the bump wrong, got launched and did a go-around. Next time was far better, and made me glad to be in a taildragger for both the prop clearance and the ability to transition for 3pt to wheel to 3pt based on how each undulation hit the plane.
Next up was a runway just across the way that was probably the steepest slope I've landed on. This time I got to thread between the trees and a house on short final. It's definitely critical to know where your wings are for this one
. At the last second I brought in gobs of power for the up-hill flare.Before we went onto the next one, the 170 pilot demonstrated a landing at a place where I was perfectly content to just circle above. The short 600' runway no wider than tire tracks was at a bottom of a hillside. He slipped it down the side of the hill with his tundra tires brushing the tops of the trees the whole way down. There was no doubt in his mind exactly where that plane was physically or in the flight envelope, amazing skill. Then he pulls out of the slip right above the grass and executes a go around because it wasn't mowed.
Then the very last runway was a perfectly groomed grass 1100ft with no real obstacles to speak of on either end. I dragged the plane in for a mile 10' over fields with the stall horn blaring to get just a perfect approach and touchdown expecting it to be a great end to the day... and I bounced. I probably could have saved the landing but elected for a go around. At this point I just headed for home - completely exhausted from flying on the hairy edge of a stall all day. I use my suction-based stall horn as an AoA and wow did it get a workout.
Anyway, I really fell in love with the plane even more than I had already. I cleaned up and flew home at 140 knots thinking about how all the Mx costs just didn't matter and were completely worth it. My only regret is that I didn't get more pictures/video from the day... but I'll be back.
I have a plane that I'm so absolutely thrilled with, I don't feel that it needs to go faster, or that it needs to land shorter. It looks perfect in my mind, a beautiful blend of a classic taildragger and modern utility plane. It's the perfect size to go places and haul stuff, but also can be had for low and slow sight-seeing. For me it is the absolute best part of the Venn Diagram that is aerodynamics and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
@rwellner98 might have more pictures of these runways if he cares to share.
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