Flew from S43 (Harvey) to S16 (Copalis beach) yesterday and the smoke was horrible.

Here is a video on the approach and landing on the beach. Check out the smoke in the area.

To answer questions in advance:

1. My degree is in the sciences not English, Smoky vs Smokey??

2. Yes I landed on the wet area on purpose. If you look at the furrow left by my tailwheel at the end of the clip you can see how soft the "damp" sand was just about two feet inshore from my mains.

https://vimeo.com/228436632

not sure how to imbed a video here.

TD

Video looked great! Not a person in sight. That's what we do this for.

Smoky is a description, Smokey is a name. Like Smokey the Bear or Smokey Mountains. But I am just a drop out from North Central Michigan College, home of the Fighting Ferrets.

Kirk

I love the video.

How do you determine the tides?

Hi Bill.

There are a couple of sites that come up Googling "Copalis Beach Tide", but the one I like is
http://tides.willyweather.com/wa/grays- ... beach.html

since it gives a graphic that helps to figure the between tides height.

TD

Thanks Tom I'll have to remember that when I can make it out there sometime.

Nice! I'm just starting to get basic experience with beach landings myself, so getting to see/hear others' experiences is really helpful to me - looking forward to learning lots more.

A few random things I've managed to pick up so far for myself (including some jolting wake-me-up moments but happily no bad results...):

-Wet sand is harder than damp sand
-Damp sand is harder than dry sand
-The lower wet and damp sand strips are often lots smoother than the upper dry sand
-Gradual, wavy undulations in the dry sand are very hard to see from above
-Don't try to land in the dry sand
-Don't confuse wet beach sand with muddy tidal flat. Wet beach sand = good, muddy tidal flat = bad.

In my locale, taking the tides into account is important, as the tidal range is often 20+ ft. I've been having good luck with an app called AyeTidesXL- it shows easy-to-see tidal graphs for all tidal stations, and most important for me, can be used off-line.