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Now that I've got almost 40 hours on GGUB, I've started to feel comfortable taking it to more interesting locations. Last weeks mission was to the Bridge Glacier, about an hour north of my home strip. There's about 1000' feet of reasonably flat, sorta firm sandy glacial deposits at the outflow end of the lake. I was with a Super Cub and a Murphy Radical. DA was about 6500'. We all landed on the 1000' strip and hung out in the cool breeze flowing off the glacier for a while. The guy with the Radical decided to go look for a spot closer to the water so we could go for a swim. After landing and clearing some trees on the approach, he came back and convinced the Super Cub to give it a go. I hopped in the Radical, a plane I'm very familiar with, to have a look. Turns out the strip near the water is only about 420' feet. Too short for the Bearhawk with me flying it at least! The Radical was off in about 200' but I figure I would have used all 420' at that DA based on my performance out of the 1000' strip.
Yesterday I loaded up the surfboards and headed west to Nootka Island. A small island off the west coast of Vancouver Island. At low tide there's at least 2000' of hard beach sand. It's not unusual to see small tire planes there. At least at low tide. By the time we left there was no hard sand left, just soft dry sand above the tide line. The 26" Goodyears handled it easily but anything smaller might have been tricky. It was great to finally use the Bearhawk for what it was made for. I had two 8' surfboards easily packed inside along with all the gear we needed for a day on the beach. On the way out, I hauled a 15hp outboard motor home for a friend. Even with the motor there was still tons of room for more stuff. The spot is amazing. There's a waterfall and a fresh water lagoon on the beach and a decent surf break right there. We're going to work out a way to drag the planes up the beach so we can spend the night when the winter swell comes in. With small waves in the summer you can overnight but there's not much beach at high tide. Bigger waves would be washing over the tires at high tide.
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Yesterday I loaded up the surfboards and headed west to Nootka Island. A small island off the west coast of Vancouver Island. At low tide there's at least 2000' of hard beach sand. It's not unusual to see small tire planes there. At least at low tide. By the time we left there was no hard sand left, just soft dry sand above the tide line. The 26" Goodyears handled it easily but anything smaller might have been tricky. It was great to finally use the Bearhawk for what it was made for. I had two 8' surfboards easily packed inside along with all the gear we needed for a day on the beach. On the way out, I hauled a 15hp outboard motor home for a friend. Even with the motor there was still tons of room for more stuff. The spot is amazing. There's a waterfall and a fresh water lagoon on the beach and a decent surf break right there. We're going to work out a way to drag the planes up the beach so we can spend the night when the winter swell comes in. With small waves in the summer you can overnight but there's not much beach at high tide. Bigger waves would be washing over the tires at high tide.
IMG_6395.jpgIMG_6396.jpgIMG_6400.jpgIMG_6401.jpgIMG_6354.jpg
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