Backcountry Pilot

[Grand River Fisherman offline]

Here are some highlights from the weekend:

[motoadve offline]

Great!!!
Do you have more?

[madpilot offline]

Great footage and I dig the music as well great job

[akflyer2001 offline]

Fantastic job on filming. The footage is excellent and well done. I will be there next year.

[Oregon180 offline]

That's the best footage I've ever seen from Valdez. Very nice!

Check out Paul Claus's rudder work on short final in the 185 at super high angle of attack. It's amazing to see how he can be so controlled just a hair from the stall.

[patrol guy offline]

Hey - I like Bobby's tail wheel, or lack there of! I need to go watch that some year??

[Blu offline]

nice video... is it just me or is the competion getting tighter every year with hotter planes and more pilots practicing more/harder just for the contest??

[DonC offline]

nice video... is it just me or is the competion getting tighter every year with hotter planes and more pilots practicing more/harder just for the contest??

I thought that is what it's all about. that last guy is awesome

[Grand River Fisherman offline]

Great!!!
Do you have more?

Here is the winning landing

and here are some other highlights

[Blu offline]

WOW! That is short. Anyone know what the distance was?

[Foxflyer offline]

The announcer in the video said 30 feet.

[tempdoug offline]

Does anyone have, or is there a place to buy a video of this years competition?

[EZFlap offline]

The announcer in the video said 30 feet.

How come there's never a windsock in these videos? (I can land my 172 in 30 feet too, under certain circumstances)

[907Pilot offline]

The windsock is at the end of the runway. These guys are on the taxiway at midfield.

The wind was a pretty consistent 10kt down the runway.

[mtv offline]

The announcer in the video said 30 feet.

How come there's never a windsock in these videos? (I can land my 172 in 30 feet too, under certain circumstances)

So, next year, plan on winning your class at Valdez. In the meantime, we'll all wait with bated breath.....

MTV

[dirtstrip offline]

The announcer in the video said 30 feet.

How come there's never a windsock in these videos? (I can land my 172 in 30 feet too, under certain circumstances)

There is a wind sock in the first video at 2:27 when the big four engine leaves. Fairly steady but something less than 15kts as the sock does not get straight out.

I am training for the 30 foot landing too in the special conditions EZ is referring to. The sock will be straight out and pole will be bent that its hanging on. There will be no windsock shown in the video so it will be ossum.

[EZFlap offline]

How come there's never a windsock in these videos? (I can land my 172 in 30 feet too, under certain circumstances)

So, next year, plan on winning your class at Valdez. In the meantime, we'll all wait with bated breath.....

MTV

The 172 comment was definitely a joke... it would take 25 knots of wind or better to come anywhere near what those guys can do in still air.

Believe it or not, I had an airplane once that would have done pretty well in that contest (well, in the landing part at least). It was a British Auster, which is a heavy duty Taylorcraft with flaps (and a bunch of other interesting stuff like visibility and sticks instead of yokes). Without VG's or slots or any other mods the stock airplane's cockpit placard in said 24 knots power off stall with flaps. Not to minimize the many years of STOL practice and trial/error it takes to win the Valdez competition, but the old Auster was surprisingly capable in the slow speed department. Mine had a wheezing "Cirrus Minor" engine of an accused 100 HP (and it was a lot heavier than a T-craft), so it was certainly not a rocket on takeoff. But with an equal power/weight ratio I think it would be a lot closer to Super Cub performance than the Cub guys would ever want to admit. Oh yeah, and it had about 2X the total interior cargo volume of a PA-18

[WingsOverPalawan offline]

Seems like the skill level, aircraft performance, number of serious Valdez STOL contestants and price of the best performing aircraft is increasing.