The River

[fallowdeer]

Local flight a few minutes from home, found a gravel bar that looked OK. A few low passes down to 20 feet, there was a long enough stretch with stones small enough to land on so in I went. Usable strip length about 150m. Fishing rod as cargo next time!

 

 

 

 

[spacesailor]

Must be great satisfaction after that day, next time bring the cooking utensils, saves making your aircraft smelly, LoL

 

spacesailor

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Invigorating stuff FD, sort of story that gets people into flying, thanks.

 

 

[Hasse]

Great feeling, I can imagine! Quite rough surface and not very long but obviously sufficient also for a take-off. How much did you need?

 

 

[fallowdeer]

Hi Hasse

 

While that gravel bar is quite long not all of it is usable because of the varying size of the rocks. The usable portion is about 150 m. The great thing about the Savannah is that although we all know nose wheel aircraft a aren't the best for off airfield ops you can get the nose wheel off the ground at very slow speeds. I also don't go to full power till rolling at least 10-15knts to hopefully minimise the chances of bringing smaller stones and debris through the propellor. On this occasion I was light too, probably about 420kg.

 

Good fun.

 

Peter

 

 

[Hasse]

Hi Peter

 

This is good news but surprises me somewhat. Considering the gravel and the small wheels I never thought the Savannah would move forward unless full throttle.

 

Also, when landing, if I understand you right, you can keep the nose wheel off the ground until about 15 kts?

 

Must try this - without gravel/Hasse