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

mustang · Post by **mustang** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 11:54 pm

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

Post by **Spike** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 7:20 am

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

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 7:44 am

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

CJ

mustang · Post by **mustang** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:06 pm

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

Post by **Spike** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 8:04 am

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 · Post by **mustang** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 10:54 pm

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

Post by **Spike** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 7:44 am

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

mustang · Post by **mustang** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 1:32 am

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

mustang · Post by **mustang** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 1:21 am

Spike, All refused again. I think I will give this endeavor up!
Cheers, Pete

mustang · Post by **mustang** » Thu May 05, 2005 1:57 am

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

Post by **Spike** » Thu May 05, 2005 6:10 am

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

Post by **Spike** » Fri May 06, 2005 2:00 pm

tshort · Post by **tshort** » Fri May 06, 2005 2:12 pm

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

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Fri May 06, 2005 7:45 pm

THANK GOD! FINALLY!!!

Cool pics! It was worth the wait!

CJ

mustang · Post by **mustang** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 10:15 am

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

svanarts · Post by **svanarts** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 10:51 pm

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.

aparchment · Post by **aparchment** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:33 am

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

RivetBangers.com