Page 19 - Feb23T

Exploring a meadow in the PNW with backcountry friends.
As the airplane closes on the shoreline, I remind myself that 1.4 Vso is actually more as a multiple of stall than I would be holding in the Lear, where Vref (1.3 Vso) is closer to 130 knots. I know the required runway landing length in the C180 is about 500 feet, and despite how things look, I have 2.4 times the amount of runway needed to stop the airplane. Much more typically than we have available in a business jet flying into many general aviation airports with 5,000-foot runways. All appearances aside, I am on a safe, stabilized final with plenty of runway to spare and the IAS a little high, if anything. To my business jet-accustomed eye, however, it just sounds very disconcerting.
Passing over the shoreline, I bleed the power back and, with a very slight bounce, make a full stall three-point landing, followed by a short 400-foot roll out. As the air- plane comes to a stop on grass that still has some morning dew, I turn it around and taxi back to a wide spot near the water’s edge, shut the engine down and open the window. All I can hear is the metallic clicking sound from the en- gine as it cools, and the calls of a flock of seagulls on the shoreline as they fight over seafood morsels in a bunch of fresh seaweed washed up by the tide. There are a few summer cabins visible, but this being the late fall, I am here all alone. I get out of the airplane, take a deep breath of the salt air and seaweed and say to myself, “This is why I returned to backcountry flying.”
For those of you who have followed my recent articles, you know that two years ago, I decided to start simplifying my flying life, switching my Cessna 340 to a single-engine Cessna 180 taildragger (to potentially put on amphibious floats). All the while getting away from the business jets, pressurized twins and helicopters I have been flying pro- fessionally for the past 30-plus years. Frankly, I don’t know what exactly led me to do this, but it seems a lot of other pilots of the social security age (maybe even yourself) are considering the same thing. Maybe it is just a desire to stop spending so much time in hotels on layovers while flying
business jets. Maybe it’s a “been there and done that” kind of thinking. Maybe it’s the increasing insurance availabil- ity problems and costs the industry has been plagued with. Or maybe (perish the thought) it’s simply increasing age...prob- ably a combination of all of them. But now, sitting on a beach log next to the airplane on a very peaceful, sunny morning with absolutely no one else around, whatever the reason, I am very glad I did it.
And, just like flying Lears at FL450 seems natural in those airplanes, there is something about single-engine tail- wheel airplanes that makes flying them off short nonpaved surfaces also seem the natural thing to do. The airplane itself seems almost to resist when being flown into long, paved runways and shows it by getting all irritable and difficult to con- trol with wandering on either side of the white line on takeoff. On landing, there
is almost always a slight (or greater) bounce followed by a protesting screech of tires on pavement as the airplane decelerates and rudder control is gradually lost. Hitting selective brakes to make it behave better sometimes just makes it worse. Taxiing to the FBO over concrete for miles and miles while trying to see over the nose is also a nuisance. Whereas, on backcountry grass or river bottom gravel, none of this occurs. The airplane seems in its own element, much happier and easier for the pilot to handle.
But, there are also other reasons for flying these tail- wheel airplanes. The nosewheel on tricycle gear airplanes is relatively small and, from an engineering point of view, actually a weak point. Plus nosewheels have an affinity for finding gofer holes, almost like a bird dog sniffing for game. Whereas the typically 750 or 850-sized main gear on the tail dragger typically rolls over any hole in the landing surface of less than 6 inches in size as if it was not there. The propeller is also a good foot or higher above terrain, making it much less likely to be damaged by gravel or other debris. And finally, truth be told, there is a certain pride to flying taildraggers. Somehow as you clamber down out of the cockpit, you delude yourself into thinking that the line guys are murmuring, “Now, that is a real pilot.”
So, after purchasing this Continental 550 overpow- ered STOL and big main tire equipped C180 a year ago, I gradually worked my way through most of the local back- country strips we have here in the Northwest (and there are a lot of them). Occasionally, on final to a very short appearing airstrip, I would need to remind myself, “You used to teach people how to do this stuff without sweat- ing it at all, so just relax.” And I finally did become almost as comfortable with it as I was 11,000 hours and all those years ago. But then I got to thinking now that I have this airplane down pretty well in its tailwheel configuration, I wonder how it will fly on amphibs with the two little wheels up front. I got all kinds of advice and warnings from other well-intentioned pilots that the four wheels make it difficult
February 2023 / TWIN & TURBINE • 17