Seems to happen a lot around here, someone does something differently to what you were taught or have learnt to do - immediately dismissed as rubbish or BS. Hate to mention it, but a bloke I flew with did indeed toss a can of oil onto a beach with the intention of testing the suitability of the surface. Not sure that I would have wanted to rely entirely on that, but it did bounce and roll, which coupled with my observations of scarcely indented footprints, convinced us that it was ok to land. It was.

Non-pilot here who used to fly with Billy Vincent* (RIP) quite a bit in the 70s. Shame he's no longer around to offer his thoughts. There's a memorial thread on the Pacific G.A. forum for anyone interested.
There are no salt lakes in Tas that I know of (rain!) however in the book "The World of Olegas Truchanas", which contains many beautiful photographs of the Tasmanian bush taken in the 1960s there's a photo of Lake Pedder before it was dammed (damned?) and flooded by The Hydro, with light aircraft parked on the white sand beach of the lake. Which may be of interest to a vanishingly small number of people.

Hmmm... dunno if i likes this dragging yer wheels idea. At the right ground speed dragging yer wheels on water can feel relatively firm (so i'm told, no personal experience at it) So running the wheels over a suspect surface may not tell the inexperienced much at all..;)





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"Dragging the wheels" can be successful depending on aircraft type. The old Drifters are a good configuration for testing the waters as they say.

I am sure dropping something can be a good indicator in certain situations as well. Had the blokes over Lake Eyre dropped something (dangers and legalities aside) then managed to observe it (very difficult) they may not have landed. However I am also fairly sure if they had landed hard on and parallel to the shoreline we would not know about it either.

What I fid amazing about the legislation that bentley posted the link to is that; there is some good "advice" for newcomers or reminders for olds and bolds in that legislation, things to remember and take into consideration lest they may cause you grief. Be a good brief for a pilot new to dropping on points to consider. But to have that in legislation...as strict liability... sums up perfectly why aviation in this country is in the state it is. Very very sad.

heers
CB

Thinkin about this dropping things from aircraft...

I have a vague memory from 30 odd years ago of watching a couple of ultra-lighters practicing their flour bombing technic. First one flew over the strip about 300' and dropped directly over head the target with no allowance for the forward speed of the aircraft. The flour bomb went far west out of sight. So I guess if yer gunna drop something from an aircraft you should look well before and well past the intended target just in case there is a bombardier 'error'. Also probably a good idea to drop at right angles to, and down wind of, any structures like wind mills etc.

The big concern I'd have for those first time 'bombardiers' is target fixation. If there's no pilot solely concentrating on flying whilst the bombardier visually follows the bomb and looks for impact results then there might be an unrecoverable low level 'upset' where the entire aircraft does a vertical test of surface conditions.

Then there is aircraft suitability. High wing, low wing, and can yer safely open the 'bomb door' with out bringing the aircraft down.

...thats my 10c done..:)





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dont forget, dropping something to test a surface, is only testing the surface where the object landed.. it might have hit a rock just under the surface in an area thats very soft and not suitable for landing on..

the person who dropped cans of beans was using a C 185 to place fuel and food dumps for a cross Australia motorcycle trek circa 1980. his landing fields were clay pans in general. I've seen his photograph collection.

some people have it lucky!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...ac059f0bd4f5c9

Sunfish, SPC or Watties?


Thread running about an interesting off airport landing in the making.

pithy, I'll ask him next week.

That pic above sums up what recreational flying is for me - getting away from it all. Nice.

Hope he is going to tie down his aircraft.