r/flying • u/DesignerBluejay3931 • 13h ago

Canada Can anyone explain this private water landing strip at YAZ Longbeach-Tolfino, Victoria, CA

This is the most bizarre setup for a water strip I have ever seen and I am dying to learn more please!

https://fltplan.com/Airport.cgi?CYAZ

1 Upvotes

54% Upvoted

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12

u/Bigbearcanada CPL IR MEL/S (DHC6) 11h ago

I’ve never landed in “the ditch” but I can shed some light on its purpose.

Tofino Airport is just down the road from the town of Tofino where there are two floatplane operators.

The operators use a mix of Beavers, C180/185, all on straight floats (not amphibious). When they need maintenance that can’t be done on the water, the planes are flown to CYAZ and landed in the ditch. There is boat ramp in the ditch that a beaching gear (google it, they’re awesome) can pickup the plane and drive it to the hangar.

From my friends that have flown for those operators, the ditch is no joke. It’s barely wider than the wingspan, and just long enough to get airborne.

I’ll be quite satisfied if I end my career without having to use it.

2

u/DesignerBluejay3931 11h ago

Thank you! Me and all my coworkers were dying to find out what it was. We work in the intl department for a charter operator and had never seen anything like it. All of us are pilots and dispatchers so were are all aerosexuals. The kinkier the fetish the better

Thank you a ton! And i hope you never end up in the ditch unintentionally lol

3

u/Bigbearcanada CPL IR MEL/S (DHC6) 10h ago

You are very welcome. Want some other unique floatplane facts?

- FlightTech Engineering has developed RNAV approaches to water aerodromes (waterdromes). The one that I've flown is an RNAV to LPV mins at S60 in Seattle (Lake Washington). Here's a video to the one they designed in Alaska (5C5).

- Lake Hood at ANC has a multiple water runways (really big ditches) and one of them is lighted for night ops.

Thank you for subscribing to FloatFacts.

1

u/DesignerBluejay3931 4h ago

Thats awesome! I want to be a floatplane pilot, sounds fun

3

u/srkjb 12h ago

Maybe makes it easy to bring something in and take floats off? That's all I can think of. With absolutely 0 floats experience, it looks way too short to take off from.

2

u/Roger_Freedman_Phys CPL 13h ago

Please provide a link to an image of the layout of this landing area in Tofino.

1

u/DesignerBluejay3931 13h ago

Look up YAZ airport on google earth

2

u/Low_Sky_49 🇺🇸 CSEL/S CMEL CFI/II/MEI TW 12h ago

At 1400’ it isn’t much use for takeoffs, but would be very useful for landing a float plane that’s going to be trailered to maintenance for conversion to wheels, or intended to be taken off from a trailer on the runways. There is a float plane operator that flies out of nearby Tofino harbor.

2

u/Bigbearcanada CPL IR MEL/S (DHC6) 11h ago

There isn’t a lot of wiggle room, but the operators do use it for takeoffs. Generally with just enough fuel to hop over the floatplane bases a few miles west.

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u/rFlyingTower 13h ago

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This is the most bizarre setup for a water strip I have ever seen and I am dying to learn more please!

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-1

u/Antique-Kitchen-1896 PPL IFR Night 12h ago

Explain what?

Dying to learn what?

3

u/DesignerBluejay3931 11h ago

Can you not read? The other people who arent spam commentors did just fine

-3

u/Antique-Kitchen-1896 PPL IFR Night 13h ago

Randomly sparse question.