Landing question

[AEROBAT]

I had wondered about this kind of thing myself. My yard is 300ft long and I've considered getting an ultralight for shagrins.

That is exactly what I am doing. I have just about finished a Team Airbike so I can fly from home to the airport and take my other plane flying.....if that makes any sense.

 

[poadeleted21]

Come up to Montana, you can land on the roads if you want. One town (it's north central MT but, the name escapes me) has a fly in, but no airport... You land on main street.
There used to be resort that you called up on the radio, they sent a truck out to hold off traffic while you were landing, and taxied up to the front door. I heard they installed a dedicated strip in the past few years.

Or just do it, declare emergency and land wherever you want.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/nyregion/06plane.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

 

[poadeleted21]

That is exactly what I am doing. I have just about finished a Team Airbike so I can fly from home to the airport and take my other plane flying.....if that makes any sense.

It doesn't, but I support it.

 

[AEROBAT]

Here, in Alberta, there is no law against landing on roads as long as you don't cause any trouble and there is no municipal bylaws against it. Towns and built up areas are a no go. Landing on narrow county roads is not a very good idea as your tail wants to swerve, once you let the tail down, if you are not right on the center of the road due to the crown in the road.

 

[Henning]

I will confess to having fantasized enough about flying under the Golden Gate Bridge to give some thought to how to do it.

Of course, that one is not very similar to the OP's fantasy, because mine is clearly illegal!

Eeeeemmmmm....errrr.. Cough. There is a hell of a lot of room under there when the cloud deck and the bridge deck are too close but you go 20 miles vis to the horizon.

 

[Henning]

That is exactly what I am doing. I have just about finished a Team Airbike so I can fly from home to the airport and take my other plane flying.....if that makes any sense.

Like you would not believe, an amphib one. The advantage to living on inland waters is you always have a runway.

 

[wabower]

With respect to those fines and penalties set forth in that particular section, I hope that:

a. The statute of limitations has run
b. All of the pictures have been destroyed
c. All the witnesses have forgotten or have gone on to the great drilling rig in the sky
d. Nobody shows up to collect.


Otherwise, I might owe the state a big chunk of money from the oil-patch days.

David,

Just saw this after getting back into town. I wanted to do the same at one time, but did a little research. This is what I found:

http://law.onecle.com/texas/transportation/24.021.00.html



Ryan

 

[Jaybird180]

Would the state really have any teeth to enforce?

This falls into the just because it may be legal does not make it the smartest thing to do catagory. If you decide to do it (and that decision is on you), don't put it on youtube and don't come bragging about it here-aviation is a small, small community.

Then everybody ought to be able to keep their traps shut.

David- I (and many others on this board) are legally required to discourage the idea, but secretly envy your position.

 

[Ted]

With respect to those fines and penalties set forth in that particular section, I hope that:

a. The statute of limitations has run
b. All of the pictures have been destroyed
c. All the witnesses have forgotten or have gone on to the great drilling rig in the sky
d. Nobody shows up to collect.


Otherwise, I might owe the state a big chunk of money from the oil-patch days.

According to my ancient history book, back in those days the Pilots of America board consisted of stone tablets. I think I remember you telling me that some guy with a beard gave them to you after coming down from a mountain, but that you couldn't read his writing so you just used the other side of them to scribble on.

The downside was that this made writing incredibly difficult prior to the invention of the pencil, and once the pencil did make its way into creation, the writings frequently smudged their way off. The obvious upside was that it made it difficult for people from the FSDO to find out about your premeditated acts.

 

[Palmpilot]

Eeeeemmmmm....errrr.. Cough. There is a hell of a lot of room under there when the cloud deck and the bridge deck are too close but you go 20 miles vis to the horizon.

It looked like about two hundred feet between the bridge and the water when I scaled it off a photograph. I suppose that's "a hell of a lot of room" to someone who has been an ag pilot!

Maybe a person could find a plane with small N numbers and cover them with duck tape.

 

[Palmpilot]

According to my ancient history book, back in those days the Pilots of America board consisted of stone tablets. I think I remember you telling me that some guy with a beard gave them to you after coming down from a mountain, but that you couldn't read his writing so you just used the other side of them to scribble on.

The downside was that this made writing incredibly difficult prior to the invention of the pencil, and once the pencil did make its way into creation, the writings frequently smudged their way off. The obvious upside was that it made it difficult for people from the FSDO to find out about your premeditated acts.

Prehistoric humans did seem to be able to find implements sufficient to create some really beautiful cave art.

 

[Ted]

Prehistoric humans did seem to be able to find implements sufficient to create some really beautiful cave art.

Yeah, but they weren't doing it in oil fields.

 

[Skylane81E]

According to my ancient history book, back in those days the Pilots of America board consisted of stone tablets. I think I remember you telling me that some guy with a beard gave them to you after coming down from a mountain, but that you couldn't read his writing so you just used the other side of them to scribble on.

The downside was that this made writing incredibly difficult prior to the invention of the pencil, and once the pencil did make its way into creation, the writings frequently smudged their way off. The obvious upside was that it made it difficult for people from the FSDO to find out about your premeditated acts.

I resemble that remark!:wink2:

 

[Everskyward]

Eeeeemmmmm....errrr.. Cough. There is a hell of a lot of room under there when the cloud deck and the bridge deck are too close but you go 20 miles vis to the horizon.

Hey, I've done it in a 777.

 

[Henning]

Hey, I've done it in a 777.

There's a familiar scene...

 

[Greebo]

According to my ancient history book, back in those days the Pilots of America board consisted of stone tablets.

STONE!

We WISH we had stone!

All we had was MUD! We wrote with mud pencils on mud tablets using mud for ink.

AND WE LIKED IT!!!

 

[timwinters]

David, get permission from TxDOT (or who ever the AHJ is) to have a fly-in on that strip of concrete. I'll be there!

 

[denverpilot]

 

[RyanShort1]

Ryan: I hope you strive to be the best airman you can be; good flying demands continuous decision-making to minimize risk. The art and skill it takes to become an accomplished airman is not achieved without certain peril; everything we do is centered around minimizing the risks. Shortly after my first solo more than 40 years ago, I spent a great deal of time flying with a dear friend who was 17 and had a PPL and liberal use of a number of club planes. Without a lot of detail, there was considerable tom-foolery (I never use that word, but the FAA investigator used it, and it bugged me because it was so accurate), and I have been in aircraft flown under bridges much smaller than the Golden Gate. We lost the engine one evening (NTSB said mechanical) in a Cherokee 140, and the inexperience of the PIC combined with being low over suburbia got us to the point where we ran out of altitude, airspeed, and ideas all at the same time. We proceeded to enter someone's house by the back patio door. I woke from a coma 14 days later and was told that my friend was dead. I appreciate the urge of teenage adventure, but I vowed to do everything in my power to manage the risks of flight as I recovered and went on to get every rating I could up through my ATP and CFis. It sounds like you're leaning away from putting rubber on that stretch of highway, and I hope you carefully make the decision that's right for you. My advice is simply: consider it very carefully. Probably nothing would happen, you'd come away fine, and you might even wonder if you'd accomplished something worth bragging about. Or maybe it wouldn't go so smoothly...what then? Stay safe, my friend and God bless

Ha! I think you are confusing me with David... I should have said that I briefly thought about doing it, mainly because back in the day I thought it would be nice to be able to land on the county road near a family friend's ranch. I tend to look things up before trying, which is why I found that little bit of TX code.

Ryan

 

[wabower]

Whew! Had me worried for a minute before I saw the tailwheel and late-model pickup.

 

[Henning]

I drove out to this ranch where the plane crapped out. The rancher put in some t posts for tie downs and I rolled up with a ready to hang and a boom truck. The guy loved it and I ended up selling him a corroded out 170 hulk he could look at in his barn for $3500 sans FWF; cowling remained. When I was done troopers blocked from crest to crest as I requested and I got out of there as soon as we had the spare hung that afternoon and d-boss drove the truck and crap back.

 

[bigred177]

David,

Just saw this after getting back into town. I wanted to do the same at one time, but did a little research. This is what I found:

http://law.onecle.com/texas/transportation/24.021.00.html



Ryan

If I remember right, section 24.022 says it's okay if the locals have made provisions for it. I looked this up when I was wanting to land on the road in front of my house. Sadly Round Rock has not created any procedures for landing on public roads . So look locally and see what they say about it

 

[RyanShort1]

If I remember right, section 24.022 says it's okay if the locals have made provisions for it. I looked this up when I was wanting to land on the road in front of my house. Sadly Round Rock has not created any procedures for landing on public roads . So look locally and see what they say about it

Here's the statute:

§ 24.022. USE OF AIRCRAFT ON COUNTY ROADS. (a) A commissioners court of a county may enact ordinances to ensure the safe use of county roads by aircraft. An ordinance may: (1) limit the kinds of aircraft that may use the roads; (2) establish the procedure that a pilot shall follow before using a road, including requiring the pilot to furnish persons with flags at both ends of the road to be used; or (3) establish other requirements considered necessary for the safe use of the roads by aircraft. (b) A pilot who follows the ordinances adopted under Subsection (a): (1) may land or take off in the aircraft on a county road; and (2) is not subject to the traffic laws of this state during the landing or takeoff.

Ryan

 

[Henning]

Here's the statute:

Ryan

So as long as you research you are within such rules, or you can just make your own by renting a spreader trailer and filling it with sand and grass seed with a bit of fertilizer. Spread a bunch of sand then sweep it and roll it level and smooth, keep cutting ans spreading a layer of sand before cutting as well.

 

[Ghery]

I seem to recall reading that Richard Bong did a loop around the center span of the Golden Gate bridge in a P-38, then flew down Market Street in San Francisco below the tops of the buildings waving at folks as he went by. You get get away with things differently when you were America's leading fighter ace. Us, not so much. I'm glad you decided not to land on that unfinished freeway.

And what's this stuff about 50 being old? I'd love to be that young again.

 

[denverpilot]

I still think it's sad the AF cancelled plans for Dick Bong AFB. Near Chicago, even.

 

[bflynn]

But why is it careless and wreckless? If all the proper precautions are taken, I don't see why not.

What constitutes "proper"?

Do you have the road blocked off?

Have you personally walked the road looking for obstructions?

Are you certain there won't be a worker down there?

Are you aware of the length and width of the road? Is it as wide as the runways that you're used to landing on? A four-lane road is probably less than 50 ft wide.

I'm sure there's more. The point is, unless you've taken these precautions, then how do you know that you're NOT being reckless?

Impulsivity? Invulnerability?

Not so fast, it could happen to you.