Six hours of Mountain Flyin, an I'm gonna see my Baby tonite

A place to share flight experiences of any kind. Looking forward to our first "first flight" post.
Post Reply
mustang
Class E
Posts: 188
Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 9:14 pm
Location: Kamloops, B.C. Canada

Six hours of Mountain Flyin, an I'm gonna see my Baby tonite

Post by mustang »

Whoooa!

What a day. Severe clear today and I got up early to fly with my friend up to a wilderness airstrip perched on the side of a mountain. The strip is quite short, only 1100 feet and both ends drop off like an aircraft carrier and so it is a bit unforgiving. My friend is 65 and quite determined to learn to fly his STOL 182 into his own strip, but I get out and kiss the ground after every landing. Today was no different as we bounced hard and skipped a couple of more times eating up precious stopping distance. I could discern no decision making going on so I dumped the flaps and stood on the brakes to stop the bird before the dropoff. Whew!

The trip up North was spectacular at 10,500 and just clearing the peaks and glaciers. British Columbia truly does have it all. I took eighty photos today and I hope I can get Spike or Cybergirl to stick some of them up here on this posting.

My friend stayed at his airstrip and sent me off to fly an employee over to Bella Coola. Flying over snowfields and fiords was breathtaking and after dropping the passenger, I headed home to Vancouver via the longer route through the backside of the Coast Range. I cruised down Chilko Lake at about 200 feet and shot some wonderfull pics, then I dropped into a high mountain strip on a lake where I hiked around for an hour or so watching the Canada geese waddling around on the ice.

Refreshed, I climbed up to 11,000 feet and headed South across vast glaciers to pop out over the fiords again and let down across Vancouver International to the airplane's home at Boundary Bay. All in all, a good day with six hours of flying on one fillup and I still had two hours in tanks at the home field.

Looking forward to tomorrow when I get an official checkout in a friends RV-4 with an instructor. I gotta tell you, it is a real friend that will let you fly his RV while he is away on business.

Cheers, Pete
Peter Marshall
Newbie RV-8 builder.

You wanna draw, ....against the fastest rivet gun in the West??? LOL

Spike
Chief Rivet Banger
Posts: 4013
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:40 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD
Contact:

Six hours of Mountain Flyin, an I'm gonna see my Baby tonite

Post by Spike »

Sure we can put some pictures up for you. Alternatively you can do it yourself. Our galleries are open to member usage. There is a thread or two in "site support" on how to do it. Let me know. I want to see the pictures!!

-- John

-------------------------------------------------------
www.rivetbangers.com - Now integrating web and mail!
www.spikesplace.org/cgi-php/serendipity - Builder's log
Submitted via email

User avatar
captain_john
Sparky
Posts: 5880
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 9:17 am
Location: KPYM

Post by captain_john »

...can't wait to see 'em!

:) CJ
RV-7
Garmin G3X with VP-X & a TMX-IO-360 with G3i
It's all over but the flying! 800+ hours in only 3 years!

mustang
Class E
Posts: 188
Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 9:14 pm
Location: Kamloops, B.C. Canada

Post by mustang »

Spike,
I actually email a set of pics to you but they were all returned??? I looked at how to do it myself but it is beyond my meager computer skills.
Cheers, Pete
Peter Marshall
Newbie RV-8 builder.

You wanna draw, ....against the fastest rivet gun in the West??? LOL

Spike
Chief Rivet Banger
Posts: 4013
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:40 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD
Contact:

Six hours of Mountain Flyin, an I'm gonna see my Baby tonite

Post by Spike »

Returned? Thats odd. What address did you use and how big were they? Its possible that your provider refused to send them if the attachments were too large.

-- John

--[/code]
Submitted via email

mustang
Class E
Posts: 188
Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 9:14 pm
Location: Kamloops, B.C. Canada

Post by mustang »

Spike,
I just did the same thing again. I only sent two pics with each of two emails this time. to Spike@ rivetbangers.com Both emails were returned??? Where should I send them???

Cheers, Pete
Peter Marshall
Newbie RV-8 builder.

You wanna draw, ....against the fastest rivet gun in the West??? LOL

Spike
Chief Rivet Banger
Posts: 4013
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:40 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD
Contact:

Post by Spike »

That is the correct address Pete. Im thinking that the pictures are causing the email to bounce because of their size. One of the providers between us is probably balking at their size. What message did you get when the emails bounced. You might want to try to upload them to the gallery yourself.

-- John
http://www.rivetbangers.com - Now integrating web and mail!
Current Build: 2 years into a beautiful little girl

mustang
Class E
Posts: 188
Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 9:14 pm
Location: Kamloops, B.C. Canada

Post by mustang »

Spike,
OK, I will send only one pic this time. I don't have any refusals on the pictures I send normally. I will try one pic per post this time.
Cheers, Pete
Peter Marshall
Newbie RV-8 builder.

You wanna draw, ....against the fastest rivet gun in the West??? LOL

mustang
Class E
Posts: 188
Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 9:14 pm
Location: Kamloops, B.C. Canada

Post by mustang »

Spike, All refused again. I think I will give this endeavor up!
Cheers, Pete
Peter Marshall
Newbie RV-8 builder.

You wanna draw, ....against the fastest rivet gun in the West??? LOL

mustang
Class E
Posts: 188
Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 9:14 pm
Location: Kamloops, B.C. Canada

Post by mustang »

Dangit Spike, I would really like to send you a pic or two. Why will your server not accept even one picture??? Is there another email address I can send it to??? What about your wife's site??? Every one else that I send pics to will get them. Something is up with your server.
Cheers, Pete
Peter Marshall
Newbie RV-8 builder.

You wanna draw, ....against the fastest rivet gun in the West??? LOL

Spike
Chief Rivet Banger
Posts: 4013
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:40 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD
Contact:

Post by Spike »

As far as I can tell there is nothing "up" with my server. I have routinely received pictures, attachments, etc. I just sent myself a half meg pdf file from work without problems. The pictures of the N3N in the nose dragger thread were sent to me by email. You can try bmwspike@gmail.com as an alternative address and see if that works. I would love for you to forward me the bounce message so I can look at it and see why they are bouncing. Alternatively, is there a reason that the pictures won't upload for you directly to the gallery?

-- John
mustang wrote:Dangit Spike, I would really like to send you a pic or two. Why will your server not accept even one picture??? Is there another email address I can send it to??? What about your wife's site??? Every one else that I send pics to will get them. Something is up with your server.
Cheers, Pete
http://www.rivetbangers.com - Now integrating web and mail!
Current Build: 2 years into a beautiful little girl

Spike
Chief Rivet Banger
Posts: 4013
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:40 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD
Contact:

Post by Spike »

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
http://www.rivetbangers.com - Now integrating web and mail!
Current Build: 2 years into a beautiful little girl

tshort
Class C
Posts: 618
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 12:56 am
Location: Indianapolis, IN (KUMP)

Post by tshort »

WOW!

Do you need any ER docs up there? If so, I am THERE!

I'm currently working on a job search in CO / MT / WY / ID but BC is even better. My brother and I drove the Cassiar highway to AK in the summer of '96 - spectacular! Fewer people and more wilderness than the western US - although that isn't so good for the emergency medicine business ... :)

Keep the pictures coming!

Thomas

User avatar
captain_john
Sparky
Posts: 5880
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 9:17 am
Location: KPYM

Post by captain_john »

THANK GOD! FINALLY!!!

Cool pics! It was worth the wait!

:wink: CJ
RV-7
Garmin G3X with VP-X & a TMX-IO-360 with G3i
It's all over but the flying! 800+ hours in only 3 years!

mustang
Class E
Posts: 188
Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 9:14 pm
Location: Kamloops, B.C. Canada

A sad ending to the Saga

Post by mustang »

I am very sad to report that the owner of this STOL Cessna 182 perished flying into his short little strip about two months ago. He was 65 and had but 50 hours when he purchased the aircraft. I flew with him for six months while he got some experience and then I moved to Kamloops, B.C.

Before I left him, I suggested that he get a professional pilot to fly him in and out of that strip. With outflow winds coming down the main inlet, the strip and the basin in the photos were very treacherous and my words to him were something like, "Art, if you keep flying into this strip, I think you will roll yoursef into a yellow ball at one end of this runway or the other."

The other thing that I said was, that because of my vast range of experience and six logbooks full of flight time, I had done just about every stupid thing that there was to do with an airplane. He however had not done anything stupid because he had no "time". I suggested that this place was not the right place to get the experience necessary to live a long and fruitfull life.

Sadly, he flew into the basin after doing a "low and over" on the strip at too low an airspeed to do a "U-Turn" and get back out. Instead he got low and slow and the subsidence coming down the mountain pushed the aircraft down into the tidal mudflats where the aircraft stopped so fast that he perished along with his passenger. He was very late in recognizing the hazardous situation and full power was not applied until too late in the turn around maneuver.

Regretfully, Pete
Peter Marshall
Newbie RV-8 builder.

You wanna draw, ....against the fastest rivet gun in the West??? LOL

User avatar
svanarts
Air Marshall
Posts: 1512
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 5:19 pm
Location: Modesto, CA
Contact:

Post by svanarts »

Pete,
I am SO sorry to hear this. You did your best, you told him what would happen. Unfortunately he learned about the old adage the hard way.

There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old bold pilots.
Scott VanArtsdalen
Token Heretic
Nirvana Rodeo / Dudek Universal
S-6ES N612SV - GONE but not forgotten
RV-4 N311SV - SOLD

User avatar
aparchment
Class C
Posts: 522
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2005 9:43 pm

not for me

Post by aparchment »

Call me a wuss, but I would never fly into that strip. I simply don't have the experience for something like that. Sure I can land a 172 in 700 feet or so, but that runway, or more accurately airstrip, has a lot more going on than just minimum length.

I sure hope that as I get older I retain my caution and don't ever overestimate my abilities.

Antony

Post Reply