We left the airplane at a maintenance base just north of Winnipeg, where they had a grass strip that I flew into. After a Westjet flight to Winnipeg, and then a long taxi ride out to the airport, I had a chance to meet my new operator, who meets me there after driving out in the van.
Our plan was to meet there Monday afternoon and fly out to Thompson for the night, but as always plans never go as planned. Southern Manitoba had a couple days of rain a few days ago, and the grass runway was very soggy. We loaded the airplane up and taxied out to the runway. I always love flying into private airstrips. This one has the long gravel driveway doubling as a taxiway that goes out behind the two houses and the shop hangar out to the runway. I taxi past a row of evergreen trees/hedges on one side and a car graveyard on the other side. There's a narrow culvert bridge crossing a drainage ditch that takes me onto the runway. I make a mental note of a spot on the runway that will serve as my go/no-go decision point.
As soon as I get into the grass and on the runway I can feel the airplane nose-wheel sinking into the muck. I add power to keep a fast paced backtracking taxi down the runway to avoid getting stuck. Even with 20 degrees of flap set and pulling fully back on the controls to keep as much weight off the nose as possible, I can feel the wheels just bogging down. I look out the window and the main wheel I can see is splashing through water and tall grass. Getting to the end of the runway I do my final takeoff checks still rolling, add more power and swing around to line up on the runway, and then add full power. The acceleration is lethargic. At a third ways down the 2500 ft runway I'm still barely faster than a fast taxi, but the acceleration is getting better as the weight slowly comes off the wheels. Two thirds behind me and I finally have an indication on the airspeed indicator at 40 mph. Even with the Robertson STOL (short takeoff and landing) kit I need a bare minimum of 55 to get airborne, and then I still need to fly in ground effect for another several hundred feet. I pass my go/no-go point and am still bouncing along on the ground - no good. I pull the power off and abort the takeoff. There's no need to use the breaks, I slow down and sink into the boggy grass almost instantly.
I tell my operator we'll give it another attempt, and hopefully we can find a path along the runway that isn't quite as boggy. I wonder what he's thinking. He's very experienced with survey operating, but all of his flying has been in helicopters. This is his very first flight with me, as well as in a light fixed wing piston aircraft. He seems calm and lets me do my thing. What an introduction to fixed wing flying though!
We line up again, and the runway is wide enough that I shift to the left just a bit, hoping to catch some higher ground that is less saturated. Throttle in, confirm full power, gauges green, and off we go crashing through puddles and ruts as I keep the controls back and the nose out of the muck as best I can. The end result is the same, and we taxi back in. I never thought I'd get to be a swamp boat driver. Its very close, we're very light on our toes as I pass the abort point. If I was ballsier there'd be a decent chance that I could have gotten airborne and clear the bushes if I continued with the takeoff. But the risk outweighs the reward. I'm confident that I could get the airplane airborne no problem if we empty our gear out. There's a paved runway a half hour down the road, but its too late to go there today and still make the 3 hr flight north before dark. We pack it in for the day and go check into a local hotel for the night. The underside of the wings and the side of the fuselage are splattered with mud being kicked up from the wheels, and the back door step has collected a pile of wet grass blades.
The next morning I'll go swamp boat driving again with an empty airplane - with better results.
All you needed was a set of floats! It sounds like a good call, though. Imagine the introduction to fixed wing flying your operator would have gotten had you gone and it had turned scary.
ReplyDeleteGood decision making, Chad - you gave it every chance to work then made the right call. Chalk it up to experience which you will may need to call upon someday.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the article comparing two pilots with 500 hours each: the flight instructor had the same hour experienced 500 times and the bush pilot had 500 different hours of experiences. An easy call as to who I would want as a pilot.
I've always been amazed how much rolling resistance that grass actually has. When I was flying ultralights on the grass strip, most of them could be landed and rolled out inside of 500 feet, with no braking at all. It always struck me as bizarre that a blade. of. grass. could slow down an airplane.... haha.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine the notation in the take-off data portion of the POH;
" for swamp operations add 145% to the ground roll figure "
Haha! No kidding eh. That's no joke though, I think adding 145% is probably a pretty close estimate!
ReplyDelete