Salt Flat Landing

cgrab

cgrab

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cgrab
I'm looking at my bucket list and thinking about my retirement this summer.... One thing I would like to do is land a (or my) plane on the Great Salt Lake salt flats.

Has anyone done this and is there an accepted routine like flying the loop at Niagara Falls?
 
Fly to the SFL VOR here, no one is around ... not recommended in August during our rainy season
 
you should go to Muroc Dry Lake bed instead. lots of cool cats landed there back in the day.
 
Do yourself a favor and drive a car on your planned landing site to make sure it's solid underneath the surface. The top can appear dry and smooth, but just under the surface it can be really soft or muddy and you would never know it.
 
Marky_24 said:
Do yourself a favor and drive a car on your planned landing site to make sure it's solid underneath the surface. The top can appear dry and smooth, but just under the surface it can be really soft or muddy and you would never know it.
Click to expand...

Aww man, you spoiled it! :mad: :D
 
Don't do it! As someone who has crewed on an AA/FS at Bonneville I can tell you the salt gets everywhere. You can't remove all of it. After racing there we would wash the car with a pressure washer for a couple of hours, then spray it down with Salt Away and wash it for another two hours. After a couple of trips to the flats the car frame had to be repainted. It's that bad.

There are little rivers running just under the salt surface in a few places, and if you don't know where they are you can tear the gear off of the aircraft. The rivers move around too.

The salt flats are also a national monument. If you land there, expect a not-so-congenial conversation with the feds.
 
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