Above: Piper Clipper and I on Tieton airstrip at Rimrock Lake in the Washington Cascades. Below: Tieton airstrip and Rimrock Lake seen from above thirty years later.
What rag-winged, tail-dragger pilot hasn’t dreamed of mountain flying and landing on remote grass airstrips. There’s a bit of bush pilot in most of us, and it didn’t begin or end at the airstrip in the pictures. The Clipper took me to places that most have only dreamed of going, and some I probably should have avoided.
One such place was Kinky Creek Divide, a forest service airstrip at 8800 feet in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming. While landing was a cinch, takeoff from the 3500 foot long runway was a challenge at that altitude. The plane was loaded as lightly as possible, and I taxied to the end of the runway, then got out and dragged it backwards another 100 feet or so up a two-track trail. I stood on the brakes while the engine revved up to full power, then bounced along the downward-sloping runway.
Halfway along the runway, the tail was off the ground and airspeed indicated 60 MPH. I chose to continue rather than abort the takeoff. As the end of the runway approached, indicating 70 mph, the airplane still didn’t feel ready to fly. I eased back on the stick slightly and the plane sluggishly rose a few feet without losing significant air speed, and I flew in the ground effect with wheels occasionally slapping a sagebrush for a couple hundred feet until the ground dropped away and I could lower the nose of the plane. The speed increased to 80 MPH, and the plane felt fully alive again, began to climb, and I turned towards home.
It would have been much easier if there had been another 500 feet of runway, or even a slight headwind but takeoff was successful, and I learned a bit more about my airplane. I never went back.
#airplane #taildragger #piperclipper #kinkycreekdivide #mountainflying
Eskildoodle Photos and Feelings 
Thank Karen.
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