March 30, 2006
Landing on a Gravel Bar

Dan sent me a couple of companion pieces to yesterday’s entry.  Both are cockpit-based videos of a tailwheel airplane landing on a gravel bar.

In the first clip, our intrepid pilot uses the “waterski” arrival, touching down with the main wheels on the surface of the river and sliding right up onto the gravel bar.

In the second, he drops in from above some trees and lands on a short, curving spit of land.

I’m not sure what kind of airplane this is.  It’s got a hinged top cowl, so I assume it’s a Super Cub or derivative?

As usual, don’t try this at home.

Posted by Ron at 1:11 am | Permalink | Print
Category: Aviation |
3 Responses to “Landing on a Gravel Bar”
  1. Ron says:
    March 30th, 2006 at 11:49 pm

    An alert reader pointed out that the video clips may have come from this DVD.

  2. Bryan says:
    April 4th, 2006 at 9:33 am

    That is truly amazing. Pretty soon though, that gravel bar will be so full of illegal immigrants there will be nowhere to land.

  3. vmabuck says:
    May 23rd, 2006 at 8:03 am

    That is pretty impressive. Seems like they have a pretty good throttle to stick interconnect system working there. Unlike some of the uppity jet pilots I have to deal with.

    I wonder what kind of modifications you have to make to a plane to that kind of flying. I am sure the engines are very high torque, and the airframes are reinforced…