The Valdez STOL Competition continues to serve as the premier proving ground for extreme short-field performance in North American bush and experimental aviation, and the 2026 event produced remarkable numbers from pilot Jared Garetson flying a Badlands Traveler. Garetson recorded landing distances of 27 and 33 feet — figures that represent world-class STOL performance by any measure. What makes these numbers particularly notable is the wind environment: with the active runway oriented at 240° and winds reporting 210° at just 2 knots, the effective headwind component was negligible, approximately 1.7 knots. Competitive STOL pilots typically depend on meaningful headwind to compress their landing distances, and achieving sub-35-foot touchdowns in near-calm conditions underscores a high level of aircraft configuration, pilot technique, and procedural precision.
The Valdez Fly-In and STOL Competition, held annually in Valdez, Alaska, has operated for decades as an informal but highly influential laboratory for bush aviation technology. Modifications common in this competition — high-lift airfoil work, leading-edge cuffs, oversized tundra tires, aggressive flap systems, and carefully tuned power-to-weight ratios — frequently migrate downstream into operational bush aircraft used throughout Alaska and the broader backcountry community. For working pilots operating in remote terrain under Part 91, the margins demonstrated at Valdez translate directly into real-world safety considerations: knowing the absolute performance envelope of a modified platform informs decisions about strip selection, obstacle clearance, and abort criteria in ways that no standard POH can fully capture.
For professional and corporate operators, the Valdez results are less directly applicable but carry broader relevance as benchmarks for what low-speed aerodynamics and pilot proficiency can achieve together. The gap between a 27-foot competition landing and a 500-foot backcountry strip approach is enormous, but the underlying discipline — energy management, precise airspeed control, and commitment to a consistent touchdown point — reflects techniques that benefit any pilot operating near the edges of aircraft performance. As interest in advanced air mobility, steep-approach urban operations, and remote access expands across the industry, the competitive STOL community remains an unexpectedly valuable reference point for understanding how conventional fixed-wing platforms can be pushed toward their physical limits.