Bush Pilot Stories

[str8shooter]

My dad had a plane in Ranger tx we were coming back from the big bend at night. Well the run way there is crap so they cleared mesquite trees out and made a grass runway. The grass runway had no lights all you had was the lights on the bad runway. So its night time and my dad goes to land and lol he misses the runway and lands to far over in the high grass it flatten all 3 tires on his piper cub and tore a hole in the tail.

Oohh! Not Good!

[TX_bowhunter37]

not at all but he was out flying a few weeks after he got it fixed lol i stayed home for a while.

[elkbowhunter]

Yep, and got a couple of stories about that as well. The whole get halfway through the pass and all of sudden it's socked in and you gotta find a way to run around without hitting the mountains thing! A buddy of mine has a cabin on Two Lakes so we used to go moose hunting over there quite a bit. I miss those flights!

Yep!!! crazy stuff!! Mountains for sure have their own weather dont they? To get half way in there and the unknown, was pure adrenaline rush!
Yee haw!! wonder what the average life span of a bush pilot is?

[flywise]

for some reason i cant see the video here at work. is there a you tube link?
I was acrually just watching bush pilot videos on YT

[elkbowhunter]

Yes its a youtube. sorry...when I type in link it automatically sincs up video
..........[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krMPAJB5fVI"]Bush Pilots in Alaska - YouTube[/ame]........

[flywise]

still cant see it
shucks

[elkbowhunter]

go to youtube type in bush pilots in alaska

[flywise]

I bet I've seen every one of those more than once
Just dream of the day I can fly the old piper up there myself.
Of course, If i ever do I'm paying someone to fly me into the back country

[elkbowhunter]

I bet I've seen every one of those more than once
Just dream of the day I can fly the old piper up there myself.
Of course, If i ever do I'm paying someone to fly me into the back country

Go for it!!

[elkbowhunter]

Are you kidding me....amazing!!
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPSElw8qEsI"]Short Landing and Take-off Piper Cub - YouTube[/ame]

[str8shooter]

Got another one for you EBH - It was either in '77 or '78 mom and dad took a pleasure flight. He had a 150 at the time. Pretty much all stock. He decided to stop in Hope. Getting in was easy, getting out left pine needles in the landing gear. Mom was some kind of PO'd. Scared her something fierce!

[flywise]

http://youtu.be/tHXnQCE0kG0

you might like this guy
dead stick take off at the end

[str8shooter]

http://youtu.be/tHXnQCE0kG0
you might like this guy
dead stick off at the end

I've never seen those downhill takeoffs before. That dead stick take off was pretty cool!

[BTLowry]

wonder what the average life span of a bush pilot is?

Several years ago when I was fresh out of high school I waned to be a bush pilot. Looked cool and fit my hunting addiction. Seems like it was early 40s at the time for life expectancy.
If I ever get a surplus of funds I would buy a float plane, still have a desire to fly one

Heard this saying once about bush pilots " There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old&bold pilots"

[jerp]

Back in the 70's I spent 4 summers working in Alaska - one of them in Anchorage. A guy I worked with up there told a story about a pilot that abandoned them deep in the bush in the middle of nowhere. They were planning a hunt and this guy said he would fly them in by float plane for a rate that was much cheaper than the others. He dropped them off in some remote area with a plan to come pick them up a week later. Problem was, he got arrested back in town a few days later on outstanding warrants and landed in jail. Apparently he did not tell the police about the hunters he was supposed to go pick up because he did not have a valid pilots license and didnt want to get in more trouble! After 3 days of waiting on the plane the hunters tried to hike out. Two days after that by pure luck they stumbled into another camp and were rescued. They very easily could have never been found!