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Do You Remember Your First Off Airport Landing?PleaseShare

My instructor examiner passed me but owner operator wanted to verify my "skills". He set me up on small tree surrounded grass field to to cautionary. As I applied power for go around he yanked throttle off and we landed in tiny field. He said you sure picked a small one. E said let's go. I said "no I'm not qualified to get it our of such a small field". He said so what are you going to do. I said I'm going go hitch hike home and you the owner can take the wings off and ship home. He laughed and showed me how to go corner to corner and get up over the shortest trees with two on board. It worked and I passed.

Sent from my SM-G870W using SuperCub.Org mobile app
 
Nokai Dome enroute to JC in 2015. When I got out my knees were shaking. I was on 8.50s and Pierce and Ford were on bushwheels. It was an adrenaline rush.
 
First beach landing, west shore of the lower Cook Inlet in a 135hp Pacer. My buddy told me to just land like it's a level runway. It worked out good but take off was a little more exciting. I headed towards a cured fairly steep section and the Pacer didn't leap into the air and I got into the corner and it was filled with sand waves 90 deg. To the t/o roll. The plane started to bounce up settle back hit a wave and slow a little and every time l drifted closer to the water and the beach was getting steeper and I couldn't bank as the wing was closer to the beach. She finally flew off, good learning experience. Also I don't think the 8.00x6's help much.
 
Put it up!

Just a picture, I do have a video of you landing at Mexican Mountain. 8)

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This was probably the same year we figured out the open pilot warranty was not in effect on 4CC.

It's also why those guys wanted me to put ASOS on that plane - I thought it would just be easier for them to learn how to land better.

sj
 
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Mine was in my Pacer on the ice on Lake Waramaug in Kent Connecticut but the most memorable was on a trip to Florida around 1981. I hitched a ride with friend Jim Poel and his wife Lavada in his Aztec. I was heading down to spend some time with my dad and Jim offered a ride to West Palm. We left Danbury (DXR) and spent the night in Georgia with his two girls and ex wife. Not many could pull that off comfortably but anyone who might have know Jim could appreciate why he could, smooth, likable guy with a passion for humor. Jim was a skillful and disciplined pilot and my memories of him and this event will forever be etched in my mind and should I forget I will be reminded by a pair of permanent wrinkles on my ass cheeks, the kind you only get by involuntarily sucking so hard you find out what naugahyde tastes like. After leaving Georgia that next morning we continued south towards southern Florida, Jim mentioned he might drop in on an old skydiving buddy from Stormville NY who was camping out somewhere in the Everglades. At one point Jim pointed down to the only dry spot for miles a slightly elevated opening with a short dirt strip, trees on all sides mid-way there was a small wooden shack with no signs of a road in or out. After a low pass he came around and dropped that little twin in and stopped just short of a burned out twin something. After taxiing back a guy comes out of the shack wearing only a knife and a loin cloth. Remember this was the 80's and even knowing better I was still waiting for the Fed's to swoop in any minute. Had there been a road I would have walked out, the whole time I'm thinking about how we were ever going to get out and each time I glanced at that burned wreck I got more concerned finally Jim said we better go before it gets any warmer. The only reassuring thing for me was I knew Jim was a numbers guy he flew for AA and knew what he needed, me I was just scared. On take off all I remember is looking out the window at that burned wreck thinking man we're get closer and closer. Thanks Jim!
 
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Mine was in my Pacer on the ice on Lake Waramaug in Kent Connecticut but the most memorable was on a trip to Florida around 1981. I hitched a ride with friend Jim Poel and his wife Lavada in his Aztec. I was heading down to spend some time with my dad and Jim offered a ride to West Palm. We left Danbury (DXR) and spent the night in Georgia with his two girls and ex wife. Not many could pull that off comfortably but anyone who might have know Jim could appreciate why he could, smooth, likable guy with a passion for humor. Jim was a skillful and disciplined pilot and my memories of him and this event will forever be etched in my mind and should I forget I will be reminded by a pair of permanent wrinkles on my ass cheeks, the kind you only get by involuntarily sucking so hard you find out what naugahyde tastes like. After leaving Georgia that next morning we continued south towards southern Florida, Jim mentioned he might drop in on an old skydiving buddy from Stormville NY who was camping out somewhere in the Everglades. At one point Jim pointed down to the only dry spot for miles a slightly elevated opening with a short dirt strip, trees on all sides mid-way there was a small wooden shack with no signs of a road in or out. After a low pass he came around and dropped that little twin in and stopped just short of a burned out twin something. After taxiing back a guy comes out of the shack wearing only a knife and a loin cloth. Remember this was the 80's and even knowing better I was still waiting for the Fed's to swoop in any minute. Had there been a road I would have walked out, the whole time I'm thinking about how we were ever going to get out and each time I glanced at that burned wreck I got more concerned finally Jim said we better go before it gets any warmer. The only reassuring thing for me was I knew Jim was a numbers guy he flew for AA and knew what he needed, me I was just scared. On take off all I remember is looking out the window at that burned wreck thinking man we're get closer and closer. Thanks Jim!

Myself, anybody who ever knew Jim, the Curtiss Museum and all of aviation lost a good one when he went home.

Glenn
 
Not my first, but the first in the Cub I presently own. I'd only had the plane a few weeks. I spotted a neat little one-way hill that had a HUGE drop-off on the back side. The problem being if you failed to stop by the top, you'd fall off the back at walking speed. After a couple of test runs and a firm conviction of "Failure is not an option", I went for it. It was probably the best case of energy management ever afforded to man by God Almighty. I actually had to add a touch of power to pirouette on the crest. After a quick couple of pics (long gone) I blasted off and circled to have a reflective look. As I looked down I became aware of all the things that could have gone wrong, and all the associated expenses/implications that could have come as a result. In the following nine years I've set up on that hill 3 or 4 times, but have never actually landed there again, nor will I.
 
Picnic strip up by the Knik Glacier, April 11, 2015. I had some battery problems prior to leaving the airport, but I charged it up and went out for some time in the air. My instructor had encouraged me to start exploring off-airport, so after doing a few approaches I decided to put the wheels down and see how it felt. I bounced around a bit, but soon I came to a stop. I couldn't go without taking a few pictures, so I turned the engine off and walked around for a while to see the area and take a picture or two.

When I climbed back in and went to start her up again, I got absolutely no response. The battery was dead. Oops. At this point I had no training on how to hand prop the plane, so I was basically dead in the water. To make matters more fun, I was foolishly out there with no secondary communication devices and nothing for survival gear. Oops. It's an area that gets plenty of traffic, so I wasn't in much danger, but still...foolish. After walking around for a while trying to find a high spot for a cell signal, I looked up and saw a familiar looking plane. I ran back to my ride and used the still functional radio to see if I could hail some help. Luckily, it happened to be my mechanic flying right above me at the right time. He landed, talked me through what I did wrong, gave me a quick tutorial on hand propping the plane safely (and not flooding the engine by priming while hot - again, oops), and I was on my way home.

I learned a lot that day. My landings have become much better, I've practiced my hand prop technique quite a lot (and had to use it twice more), and carry what I need when backcountry landings are a possibility. Only two years have gone by, but man...it's been a good two years!

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My first off airport landing in the winter. Lake Gorge past Knik Glacier. No good story but I always liked the picture
 

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Windfall Lake near Juneau, Ak. Glare ice like the preceding post, but not the gorgeous backdrop. I was one happy lad though:).

First beach landing was Young's Bay, also near Juneau. As was mentioned above, I was advised to land as though it were level. Worked just fine on landing, but on takeoff the slope did matter. AND I had a bucket of redneck clams to take home and fry. Yum!!!!!!!
 
My first off-airport landing was back in 1978. We were flying along, and my instructor said, "OK, we're going to land this thing in that field right there." I couldn't believe it! He was pointing at a field surrounded by 35-foot trees, and it couldn't have been more than 150 feet long! He insisted, so I lined up on the long axis (with a moderate right crosswind), and flew a steep approach all the way to the ground. No trees were harmed, and we even managed to take off again, and fly to the practice field... Oh, did I forget to mention that this was in a TH-55 Army Helicopter? LOL. That was the first of many "confined area" landings, but still a memorable one. Still, not quite as memorable as landing in a similar "confined area" on a pitch-black night, using night vision goggles, with only the position lights (on "low" position) to illuminate the trees, and with a slope that was just barely within the limits of the aircraft. That got the adrenaline pumping, for sure!

Helicopters - the "ultimate STOL aircraft"...
 
Ah! N102TC MTV's former Cub has a new home. Have fun.

GAP

Yep, he pointed that out to me when I posted my sheep story last fall. It sat in the hangar for too many years after my father stopped flying, but I've been putting it through its paces these last two years. Fun connection!
 
Yep, he pointed that out to me when I posted my sheep story last fall. It sat in the hangar for too many years after my father stopped flying, but I've been putting it through its paces these last two years. Fun connection!

That was about the nicest Cub in town and I'm sure it still is.

Gary
 
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