Sand is cheaper then air!
One day I was flying solo round-trip from Fabens airport to Columbus, following the old railroad bed. It was this last spring, and I was trying to beat it back to El Paso before the dust storm to the southwest overtook me. Unfortunately; I must have picked up some water in my last fuel-up as the engine was sputtering and shaking. I decided I'd better put her down and drain the water while the large caliche clearing to my left was available. I lined up into the wind, dropped flaps, and aimed for the near edge of the clearing. I didn't have a chance to make a fly-over to check it out, so I hoped it was as smooth as it looked from altitude. It wasn't.
As I touched down I saw several large ruts crisscrossing the clearing and I hit the first one pretty hard. So hard that it deflated one of the mains. It was a rough landing, but I and the plane were in one piece when we stopped. I got out and drained the water from the fuel system, did a run-up to full power, and then pulled the tail around to face into the sand storm fast approaching. I tied the plane down between a couple of sand dunes and crawled back into the plane to wait out the passage of the storm. While waiting I tried to figure out how I could make that flat tire round again. I didn't have an air pump on board and even though I've been accused of being long-winded I don't have that kind of lung power. Rummaging around through my meager tool kit I found a couple of hefty screwdrivers, and this gave me the idea to take the tire off, fill it with sand, and remount it.
As soon as the storm passed I did just that. Jacking the wheel off the ground with pieces of mesquite I slipped the outer tire over the wheel and put as much sand as I could pack into it. Now, this isn't as easy as it sounds. It's kind of like trying to give a wildcat an enema with a wet noodle! Anyway, I finally got what I thought would be enough sand packed in, remounted the tire and lowered the wheel to the ground. It was still a bit flat, but looked like it would work so I fired up the bird and taxied over the sand to a nearby trail that offered better take off then the rutted clearing. After a short run I was airborne and high-tailed it to El Paso International. Upon contacting El Paso Approach Control I informed them of the possible tire problem when landing and they had a crash crew standing by when I set it down. No problems, just a severely unbalanced tire. I taxied in to my mechanic, (who regularly serviced the plane) and asked him to fix the almost flat tire. I went inside and had a cup of coffee while he took care of the tire.
I mused about what he would have to say about sand in the tire, but after 45 minutes or so he came inside and said it was ready. I paid him and left. But as I was going out the door I heard him softly remark to the line-girl;
'I need to clean the filter on my air compressor. You should
have seen all the sand it's been blowing into that tire!