I knew we were too high and too fast coming into Atlanta, Idaho (55H), the type of backcountry airstrip that offers no go-around potential. I had blown it, but CFI Paul Leadabrand, in the right seat, had forced me to select an abort point and departure route before we started into the pattern. It was my first serious backcountry approach/landing. My gut screamed, “Abort! Continue flying downstream and get outta here!” but Leadabrand urged me to stay with the approach perpendicular to the river valley. Ready to yell, “Your plane!” and let him make the landing work, I reluctantly continued toward the grass/dirt runway. I put it down about one-third of the way up the 2527-foot-long runway. The steepish (nearly 4 percent) slope and moderately rough surface slowed the plane to taxiing speed long before reaching the end. After pulling off the runway and stopping, Leadabrand congratulated me on a successful landing and then asked, “Were you thinking about bailing out on the base?” “Absolutely,” I replied. My first deeply visceral lesson learned on this trip—a heavy bush plane landing at 50 knots on an uphill, turf and gravel surface needs far less runway than a sporty RV touching down at 65 knots on flat pavement. This was the sort of thing I was in Idaho to learn.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/flight-safety/flight-training/transitioning-into-the-backcountry