> Sounds like a fun flight – with a pair of balloons under you :-)
The mountain-sides that he lands on are classic alpine tundra with
plenty of rocks hidden the berry patches. He says that landing isn't
much of a problem (he's running at bare minimum weight--having removed
all unnecessary fuel and other gear down at the beach before flying
five miles back up hill). Landing speed without any wind is very slow.
The tires and landing gear absorb anything that clears the prop. But
the tailwheels are known for getting knocked off. That's why those
balloon-tire airplanes usually have a guard of some form in front of
the tailwheel, or the tailwheel is extended down and backward so much
and is designed to deflect upward by a foot or more.
His Super Cub has one major advantage over many taildraggers. The
landing gear width is such that the wheels line up with the tracks of
a jeep trail. A lot of taildraggers (Maule, Cessna 180/185, etc.)
won't quite line up with a jeep trail and one tire is always in the
rough. Obviously, that's a bigger problem with the bigger aircraft.
Speaking of the 180, his has 8.50s installed. He doesn't mountain-side
the 180, but will land on beaches, sandbars and any other clearing
that is rock-free and not too extremely soft.
AK Schnozz
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