When you need a runway, but can only find a helipad

[ryoder 989]

 

[JerryBaumchen 773]

40 minutes ago, ryoder said:

 

Hi Robert,

It would have been a lot more exciting in he had Luke Aikens in the pilot seat.

Jerry Baumchen

[gowlerk 1,494]

1 hour ago, JerryBaumchen said:

Hi Robert,

It would have been a lot more exciting in he had Luke Aikens in the pilot seat.

Jerry Baumchen

And in a 182 instead of a Cub.

[wolfriverjoe 982]

I guess my first question would be:

What were the winds on that helipad?
The strength of the wind will make a HUGE difference.

I am impressed with that landing, but some of the Alaska STOL competitors are also very impressive. Depending on the wind conditions, some of them are stopped in a few feet. And back up in a similarly short distance.

 

[ryoder 989]

Remember the old joke about the not-so-bright pilot on final:

"Damn that runway is short! But look how wide it is!!!"

I was at one of Mike Mullins Helio Stallion boogies ($99 for all the jumps you can make). Winds were howling well above any reasonable jumping weather. But he was dumb enough to keep flying loads, and we were dumb enough to keep jumping.

He stopped landing aligned with the runway, and started landing across it. I remember one particular landing where his roll out was about 3-6 feet.

[wolfriverjoe 982]

34 minutes ago, ryoder said:

...He stopped landing aligned with the runway, and started landing across it. I remember one particular landing where his roll out was about 3-6 feet.

Yup. I've seen some of the Alaska competition videos, and they do stuff of that nature.
Again, depends a LOT on the winds.

Seeing them lock the brakes, power up and lift the tail off the ground before brake release, then be off the ground in VERY short distance is impressive.

[johnhking1 24]

Several years ago doing my biennial flight review, the instructor asked for a short field landing.  There was a lot of wind blowing straight down the runway.  I was flying a 1959 Cessna 172.  I dragged it in with power and touched down on the edge of the pavement and stood on the brakes and stopped before the numbers less than 100 feet.  I asked the instructor if that was short enough and he just laughed.  

[Stumpy 169]

On 3/16/2023 at 3:20 PM, wolfriverjoe said:

I guess my first question would be:

What were the winds on that helipad?
The strength of the wind will make a HUGE difference.

I am impressed with that landing, but some of the Alaska STOL competitors are also very impressive. Depending on the wind conditions, some of them are stopped in a few feet. And back up in a similarly short distance.

 

I've been watching the Mike Patey videos about how they built the red bull plane - one of the things they said was that they wanted it to be multi purpose, so this isn't a one trick STOL pony.

Underneath, its a carbon cub with as much weight stripped out as they could. They have replaced a number of panels with carbon to make it lighter, lighter tyres and stuff. The big changes were that they moved the fuel tank low down in the fuselage so the pilot could stand on the brakes without putting it on its nose - that fuel tank is only 7 Gallons and then they have a removable 25 gallon tank for transfers and airshows and what have you.

Oh - and they gave it a 50HP shot of NOS to get it safely back in the air

If you like engineering wizardry, all of Mike Pateys stuff is fascinating - his own previous plane builds, Draco and Scrappy are absolute monsters.

https://www.youtube.com/@MikePatey

This is the first Build video for the carbon cub

 

[lippy 388]

On 3/16/2023 at 10:20 AM, wolfriverjoe said:

What were the winds on that helipad?
The strength of the wind will make a HUGE difference.

 

That was my first thought, but there’s a windsock in the video and it seems to indicate damn near no wind; if anything, there’s a slight crosswind.