Edward A. Falk wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNFNFZq2BFY


Swiss Alps in a Baron

I read about that airport once. You need special training before
you're allowed to use it. The high end of the runway is higher than
the pattern altitude.


I took a Turbo C-206 out of a 2200' grass strip (Branson Field) on a hillside
that led downhill directly to Lake Norman in the Pidmont of North Carolina.
There was a storage building right at the edge of the water so you needed to be
a good 15 feet in the air as you crossed the shoreline. All takeoffs were
downhill; all landings were uphill, no matter what the wind was doing. There
were trees on both sides but the strip was a good 200 feet wide so you didn't
feel horned in.

I'd never flown a 206 of any kind before and had no checkout. I did have a few
hundred hours in C-210s so I didn't feel completely out of place. So I cranked
it up, did my runup at the top of the hill and poured the coal to it. The
damned seat slid to the rear of its travel!

Talk about a wild ride down the hill towards that storage building. Stopping
was not an option. I was stretched out trying to keep my feet on the rudder
pedals so I couldn't see where I was going. At what I hoped was the correct
time, I staggered into the air and leveled off as soon as I could so that I
could slide the seat back forward.

All I can say is I was glad nobody saw me. I started paying a lot more
attention to the seat locking in the track after that.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com