Christophe wrote:
but what if there is a gust close to touch down? Wouldn’t the backcountry people also struggle? The backcountry videos are really fun to watch, but I wonder how safe it really is.
Sure, I think most of us have to pay attention if a big gust catches us as we flare for touch down, regardless of the approach.
As for how safe it is, that depends on the aeroplane. Patrick Romano recommends getting instruction and practice at safe altitude before using his technique for real: pull power to idle while maintaining cruising attitude and note the associated rate of descent. If the aeroplane remains stable and controllable, practice some more and add some S-turns and slips. If it departs from controlled flight when gently provoked in this way, you probably need a different technique – or aeroplane.
Christophe wrote:
@Jacko, but what if there is a gust close to touch down? Wouldn’t the backcountry people also struggle?
If it’s windy enough to be gusty then you’re not going to require to fly that slow to get into a short strip because the headwind will already have reduced your groundspeed (and are not going to make the flight at all if it’s a one way strip where you have to accept a tailwind on landing). If it’s really windy you’re probably not going to go flying in the mountains period, regardless of intent to land or not.
JasonC wrote:
But a gofundme page? He crashed his plane. Hardly a charity case.
He didn’t actually set the gofundme page, someone else did.
@Jacko, but what if there is a gust close to touch down? Wouldn’t the backcountry people also struggle?
The backcountry videos are really fun to watch, but I wonder how safe it really is.
Robert,
The chap (Tom) in your video was dragging his machine in on a very shallow approach with engine power.
That’s the very antithesis of the technique advocated by Patrick Romano in his Backcountry Aviation articles and videos. Patrick teaches a steep stabilised approach with the underside of wing almost parallel with the horizon. A Maule will “fly” like this for 5-10 minutes, descending at 600 fpm, steered with rudder, on the fifth notch of flap, yoke fully back, and with a stab of power now and again to control the glide path. IAS is below the white arc, and the stall beeper is annoying, but the aircraft is dynamically stable.
Patrick’s technique works well for flat landing sites with or without obstacles at the threshold. For steep sloping sites, we need more forward speed to flare uphill, hence the “Megève” technique.
The pilot’s gofundme page was set up by friends, is my understanding, not by him.
PilotDAR makes a very good point on the torque, gyroscopic and propwash effects starting to overcome aerodynamic controls as speed reduces.
My reason for posting is that am not a believer in the backcountry approach and landing videos. The stall warner is set to activate at around 1.1 Vs (0 or 1, some aircraft switch stall-warner for the relevant configuration) – flying out of ground effect, with the stall warner chirping away and relying on power seems to have a reasonable probability, say more than 0.1% of resulting in an incident.
As mentioned the early Super Cubs go commando, no stall warners, so I can’t promise am not on occasion carrying out an approach where the stall warner would activate if installed.
Hey chaps, lighten up a little. It was a sport competition for goodness sake, and unlike nearly every girls’ lacrosse match, nobody was in the slightest danger. A Cub-alike just got a bit of a scratch and looks good to fly home.
Still, I might send Tom a fiver, if not for reminding us all how not to use aileron in a stall – then for winding-up a few professional tut-tutters. 
I guess the way it works is: this guy’s gone through it before.
Because, nobody can tell me you can learn that kind of ‘flying’ without an occasional crash.
So, my guess is, it’s not his first crash, and going to GoFundme might be only way left to him.
We all know it’s not going to work, and so does he.
Yeah, I did not phrase that as well as I intended. Sometimes there is so much “freedom” to fly, people forget to just appreciate just enjoying flying safely. I personally feel no need to fly, nor drive in a way which imperils me, other people, or vehicles, just to show off, or get a thrill… We are lucky to be free to fly, we should be satisfied doing that within the normal range of operations, and save the “extreme” stuff for situations where life and death requires it. And, yes, If you must take unusual risks, it should be within your budget.
Pilot_DAR wrote:
How lucky it is for some that there is freedom, and excess to be able to fly this way
Yes, sure. The same kind of freedom as taking your familiy car to the “Nordschleife” of the Nürburgring on a Saturday afternoon when there is no race. Youtube is full of videos about what happens to those family cars in the process… To everybody his own – others compete about who begins a loop from the lowest possible altitude (again, Youtube is full of videos about the results) – but please don’t beg for money on the internet for paying your funeral.
