Airplane camping on a weight and space budget

By KEVIN BROOKER

The romantic dream: Loading up a Cessna 180 or one of the many Super Cub variants with luxurious camping gear to spend a few days relaxing at some backcountry airstrip.

My reality: A 1946 Taylorcraft BC12-D with 65 horsepower with limited usable load and cargo space. With stock wheels we are also limited to where we can land and get back out of.

There are many solutions to the conundrum of wanting to try camping and adventuring with an airplane. Most fall into one of two camps: Purchase a more capable airplane or change the expectations.

Changing the paradigm is significantly more affordable. How do we safely and comfortably go camping with a small airplane such as a Taylorcraft?

The first issue to examine is what are the bottlenecks for camping with a Tcraft?

For me, the three main topics are weight and cargo volume, which directly affect the third consideration — the level of comfort or suffering we choose to accept.

With two adults and full fuel, most BC12-D’s are close to max weight before adding any camping gear. So the airplane was put on a diet.

We looked for weight savings everywhere. We removed the wooden hat rack, which gained us four pounds. The tie-down ropes are now 7mm climbing cord with a breaking strength of over 1,200 pounds. Weighs 4 grams per foot and we carry a total of 30 feet. One gram isn’t very much, but many add up to quite the savings.

Full fuel is 12 gallons or two hours endurance with 30 minutes reserve. Careful flight planning and calling ahead makes leaving with 10 gallons feel comfortable, safe, and gains another 12 pounds of stuff. Airports are where the interesting things happen, so an extra fuel stop brings a bit more discovery of people, places, and planes.

Wanting the fuel back in the airplane seemed a good reason to start losing some weight directly from the pilot and passenger. Four bike rides a week and a few less trips to the pantry for snacks improved our health and put us back to leaving with full fuel. Definitely a win-win and a good reason to keep riding.

The next rub is volume. The household Taylorcraft travel joke is luggage is anything you can fit into a one gallon Zip-Lock bag.

In a past life the family undertook some long distance cycling tours, so we dug out the bicycle panniers, which are small bags used to carry items on our bikes.

We also dug out the ultra-light camping gear, which also happens to pack small.

The tent packs to six-inches in diameter and a foot long. It weighs in at 3 pounds, 7 ounces with enough room to sleep three with no suffering. Compact folding chairs are comfortable and far superior to sitting on the ground. Sleeping bags pack to the size of a cantaloupe. Two sleeping pads weigh under a pound and we even splurged for inflatable pillows. A change of clothes and lightweight jackets, toiletries, and towels complete the gear.

Packing this into the airplane requires a bit of thought. It has to fit and not move around the cockpit or become jammed with anything imperative for a safe flight. A Taylorcraft is already pretty cramped for two people and stowing the camping gear inside the cockpit while outside of the people space makes for a more comfortable flight.

Even with ultra lightweight gear the packaging is not very dense. Most fabric camping gear has a lot of empty space when stuffed into a sack for transport. By folding, repackaging, and using compression bags we are able to meet the space requirements of loading the airplane for a safe flight.

Right now our camping trips are limited to staying at airports where food is easy to find with runways boasting friendly departures. It’ll be a few more months of bike riding to find enough weight savings to bring along meals beyond the freeze-dried variety. Fortunately there are many airports in the northeast with accessible food, on field camping, and are 65-hp departure friendly.

The maiden camping trip began from our home base of Post Mills Airport (2B9) in Vermont directly to Goodspeed Airport (42B) in Haddam, Connecticut.

The Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF) has been putting some effort into this airport and it shows. The pilots we met were welcoming and the management was fantastic in making sure we were comfortable.

After setting up our campsite and emptying the airplane, a local pilot and Young Eagles coordinator, Donna Shea, accompanied me on the 17-mile flight to Meriden Markham Municipal Airport (KMMK) for gas as no fuel is available at Goodspeed.

After returning and tying down the airplane, Jill and I began the short walk to Gelston’s Restaurant for dinner. Before leaving the field we were invited to participate in the monthly gathering at a hangar for movie night. Unfortunately, dinner ran long and we missed the film, but we did appreciate the invitation.

With an early start planned for the morning we zippered into the tent for the night.

Awaking at 5:30 because of daylight we opted to forgo the walk to the local coffee shop and head off to the next destination of Block Island State Airport (KBID) in Rhode Island, a place where I had flown to many times with a neighbor when I was not yet a teenager.

The early arrival was meant to land prior to the winds picking up and to get a good parking spot on the ramp. It worked out on both accounts.

Breakfast at the on-field restaurant validated leaving the cookware back in Vermont.

We rented bicycles and spent most of the day going to beaches and sightseeing. Lunch from the local market deli was eaten as we walked from town back to the airport.

A stop at Jaffrey Airfield Silver Ranch Airport (KAFN) in New Hampshire for fuel and a stretch before the final 75-mile leg back home to 2B9 completed the trip.

Another memorable adventure was leaving 2B9 with Shelburne Airport (VT8) in Vermont the first stop to meet our daughter for lunch.

Next came a stop at Ticonderoga Municipal Airport (4B6) in New York for gas, then on to Piseco Airport (K09) in New York, where the airport is right at the north end of Piseco Lake.

We moved our gear into a small backpack and a few plastic grocery bags, possibly destroying the image of private aviation being a glamorous way to see the world.

A 10-minute walk to the Irondequoit Inn and campground set us up for a nice evening. There is plenty of local hiking and the inn has canoes and kayaks available and a great beach for swimming.

Camping with the Taylorcraft has been a lot of fun, but it does require a bit of extra research to be successful.

After finding a place to go it’s vitally important to make phone calls to be sure food is close by and available.

Instead of lamenting the limited fuel the Tcraft can carry, we use this as a way to explore many of the airports we’d normally just fly right past. With a capacity of 12 gallons the price of fuel isn’t so important since the quantity we buy is relatively small. A couple of bucks per gallon might add up to less than $15, so not a bank breaker. We call the airports where we intend to refuel to be sure they actually have gas and the pumps are working.

Not all websites are up to date, so we also contact the airport we intend to camp at and find out where to set up camp for the night. The RAF website also is very good for finding places to go.

Our Taylorcraft is a far cry from a true backcountry airplane. With a bit of research, ingenuity, and change in mindset we’ve been having a lot of fun seeing places and meeting the interesting people involved in general aviation.

Admittedly, a Super Cub variant might make things easier and open up places to go. But rather than lament what we don’t have, we are having a great time with what we do have.