Quote Originally Posted by 59pacer View Post
As a very new commercial pilot, my first job was flying around inland North Queensland. The pub owner in Burketown had got his hands on a small island out in the gulf and wanted to put a strip on it to attract fly-in sport fisherman. One of our senior pilots was the first one to land there and said it was ok, but the grass was too long and needed to be cut. The owner sent 2 men out by boat to do that, and when I arrived in Burketown on another charter some time later, the owner chartered me to fly him out, with some food and water supplies. I asked about the grass and was assured that it had been cut.After about 10 miles of salt water crocodile infested swamps, and 10 miles of shark infested water, we arrived in the circuit, and I did a low run to have a look--no sign of grass along the centreline, with some form of marker boards visible in the grass at the sides.The landing was a surprise as the poor C205 stopped like on a carrier arrival. The wheels were in deep fine dry white sand. The men had pulled the grass out, not cut it, and the 'marker boards' were lengths of 2 x 4 hardwood driven into the sand with white painted corrugated iron nailed on. They were just at about where the wingtips were, so there was no room for error there.With three men rocking and pushing, and up to full power at times, we got the 205 turned around, back to the threshold, and turned around again. I dug out the sand in front of the wheels and with full power applied nothing happened. With some rocking of the elevators back and forth it started to roll slowly, but getting faster. Getting near the end of the strip, the 205 lurched into the air, and with the wheels just clearing the grass for a 100 yards or so, got some flying speed. The stall warning was silent fortunately (it had a match jamming it as it beeped too much in the heat turbulence and scared the passengers). I think it was one of the few times I appreciated a Cessna.Talk about lessons learned and luck expended. The things you do when young and stupid!We'll be heading off in the Pacer in July for 5-6 weeks flying around up there, but I will not be going anywhere near that bloody island.
Interesting, will be up your way next month, looking at taking the Colt (PA22-108/150) to Burketown and then along the coast up into the Gulf. Hoping for some good WX.