Who needs a runway

[ATCclears]

Hey, who needs a runway?

dailytimewaster.blogspot.com

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[Flopsweat]

Hey, who needs a runway?

dailytimewaster.blogspot.com

Headwind?

 

[Provincial]

Alaskans like their STOL mods. Judging from the surface of the water, there was a pretty good wind, but not a howling gale. With all the mods, 15-20 MPH headwind makes for a really short landing.

With enough headwind, a takeoff can be really short. I took off from the runway at Chignik Lake, on the Alaskan Peninsula, in an estimated 45 MPH headwind. I was flying a DC-3, and the takeoff roll was about 50 ft. We hit turbulence about 5 miles from the airport that set off the Emergency Locator Beacon.

 

[Flopsweat]

Alaskans like their STOL mods. Judging from the surface of the water, there was a pretty good wind, but not a howling gale. With all the mods, 15-20 MPH headwind makes for a really short landing.

With enough headwind, a takeoff can be really short. I took off from the runway at Chignik Lake, on the Alaskan Peninsula, in an estimated 45 MPH headwind. I was flying a DC-3, and the takeoff roll was about 50 ft. We hit turbulence about 5 miles from the airport that set off the Emergency Locator Beacon.

I watched a series called Ice Pilots a few years ago. Small passenger and cargo flights around Alaska. I think they had a DC3 in their fleet. Interesting show.

 

[Provincial]

I watched a couple of those shows. They were flying between improved airports in Canada. I flew all over AK, much of the work was off gravel runways, with few paved strips. The shortest strip I worked out of was 18 times the wingspan of the airplane (1,750 feet). Not all of the landings were at airports. My avatar shows the -3 picking up sockeye salmon on the beach at Big Creek, near Pilot Point. You had to get off before the tide came in!

 

[WAW44]

My first ever airplane ride was in an An-2. That thing is unique, including its STOL capabilities . Supposedly engine out at night/IMC procedure is to pull back and hold on.