A few pics in relation to my previous post.
Below. Two fine beasts.
This is a tidal river bar. Great surface although some soft patches that have claimed the odd fixed wing. The area gets covered completely each tide. Probably the best coastal surface in the 150 miles of our Fiordland National Park coast line.
No sun in the winter though. This is 2pm.
Below. One of the many Fiords in the area. Named by Cook as Doubtful Harbour & he did not venture in far as unsure if could navigate under sale. Later called Doubtful Sound but technically a Fiord as caused by glacier erosion not river.
A number of these are 20 miles long and absolutely stunning on a glass calm day. Tour ship tracing some of Cooks routes. Winds can fair rip through these Fiords creating some very un pleasant mechanical turbulence Time then to head back out to the coast and enjoy a good afternoon 25 kt SW tail wind back north to home. I find gyros give a good ride in general wind & thermal conditions but in sharp country are certainly not immune to severe mechanical turbulence, I do not think any aircraft is. Also with a well laden gyro the ability to out climb down draughts obviously decreases substantially.
Snoopy enjoying a nice day out & sporting brand new bush tyres. A nice little bar, although not very long before it turns to soft sand. Goes under with every flood so changes alot. Today smoother than alot of grass runways.
Below, Snoopy on some bigger gravel. Back country ops with high numbers of landings & take offs on sand & gravel will increase the prop & rotor wear & also the chance of something bigger causing severe damage. Seems one of the main causes is the nose wheel flicking stuff up and then into the prop. I have experimented with various guards & flaps that come up in flight to reduce drag but not satisfied with any yet. Have run blade tape on the props & main blades for this as well as rain erosion. Not so happy with that as well so at the moment running clean. But still working on something.
Depending on many variables & luck I seem to get about 400 hrs out of the Magni props.
Interesting with the increased ground clearance with the bush wheels the tail plane on my Magni for 1,000 hrs and a heck of alot of off field landings only has a few chips on it. Nearly all on its left side. Tells me from the prop swirl maybe.
Also find by keeping the rotor disk flatter for the first few meters of ground roll and not gunning the throttle too much initially helps reduce the chance of the main blades taking a hit from a stone. Remembering of course to then bring the stick back.
Cow dung or mud or simply water on the mains can cause stones to stick & then be flicked off during take off, so bit of a luck game as far as that goes.
This fiord is actually a marine reserve. Quite shallow. At 2 hours before low tide the gray sand bar on the mid left of the pic emerges,as an island. Fixed wings sometimes land on it. I dont as there is a good beach not far away.
Well 3 months ago one dug in & up onto its nose & then a mad scramble to get it lifted out before the tide got it.
Up around that snow peak in the distance are some beautiful glacier valleys. I can burn 2 hrs of gas just in this watershed alone.
With the high rainfall apparently there can be up to a 5 meter layer of fresh water on top of the salt water in alot of the fiords.
The height increase with the bigger tyres really requires a step. Especially when dressed to the max.
Note the decal to pacify the greens.
Below. This beach is at times ok to land on. It varies with degree of slope & sand waves from time to time. The white flat is verry soft and in the wilderness anyway so forbidden. And guess what a gyro leaves in the sand, plenty of evidence.
A little below mid tide at this time.
This area is north of the main Fiords and a change in country. A well known beach with alot of aircraft activity during spring due the White Bait season. There are numerous huts up in the bush. It sells for 80 to 120$ kg. Many tons are flown from here each season.
There have however been numerous incidents. Soft sand and also at times very strong cross winds, both on shore & off.
This is taken at low tide. The wet sand usually ok. The semi dry possibly, the white no.
One evening a few months ago I was parked here sitting on the tyre eating my last vegemite sandwich of the day and a fixed wing circled and landed. First aircraft I had seen all day. When introduced I then realised who he was and knew he had been flying fish out of there since almost back when Jesus played fullback for the All Blacks.
He was very intrigued with the gyro. He was very forthcoming with tips gained from his years flying off sand which I appreciated.He also pointed to an area close and said last season he put his plane on its nose right there. Reason he said was just being sloppy. Taxing too fast with a good tail wind and one wheel sunk in and up onto its nose it went.
Added salt to the wound was the engine was only a month out of overhaul & a new prop also. Whilst being slung out by helicopter further salt added as it suffered quite a bit of skin damage.
They did notice a large rock just beneath the surface beside where the tyre sank. Their thinking was this was causing the sand on the upslope side to hold water after the tide receded.
I flew away from there with even greater respect for the sand.
Below. In this one you can see where I have taxied on the soft. The turn is not as sharp as it looks. The nose wheel rut is deeper than it looks. Light on fuel and still took more than 3500 rpm to get through. Check under the gyro, now thats my nose wheel trench from taxing the day before. It has had two tides over it so filled in a bit. But now that area is very hard packed. Go figure.
Goes to show, gravel & rocks are rougher but what you see is what you get. Sand and long grass often more tempting but can be hiding numerous surprises.
Below. Usually my back seat pax is a non talking drum of fuel. This day was my mates 70th birthday. So the day before I pre staged some fuel and then flew him through the fiords for 10 hrs. It was an area he had fished & hunted in his youth.
Incidentally the point behind the gyro has been deemed to be the most remote part of NZ mainland being the furthest from any man made structure track etc. This beach is the only spot that you could land on and take off in an 80 mile stretch of coastline. However it cannot be counted on as sometimes chocked full of wood & sand waves. Also some very soft black sand in places so only really firm an hour either side of low tide. So fuel management top priority. Especially if you encounter an un expected head wind when home bound.
He told me in confidence that that was without a doubt the best day of his life. I got a kick out of that.
When he got home & talking to his wife of course it had to be changed to one of the best ten days of his life.