Lots of mountains to cross in CO.


Russ landing in the grass at Mack Mesa.


Waiting at the pumps (Mack Mesa)


Mack Mesa BBQ - excellent food!


Full moon


The beauty of UT




Rockland Ranch






Chuck made a friend.


The tour of Rockland Ranch was cool.


All landings were judged accordingly.


Coyote Ugly III is an impressive machine.


Shortfielder dropping flour bombs.


I like this shot of the famous 170B (coming to a TV near you).


The Luau dinner was simply amazing, no one went home hungry! Rod and Paula (can Hunter cook?) did an amazing job with the food. It was incredible!


Everyone got lei'd






Best dressed award


A well deserved thanks to Shortfielder from Rod, Paula, and Hunter


Jumpers away


Paper airplane time


Blu coming in for landing


Standard Blu departure


A nice flight home over the Rockies.

I didn't get to spend a lot of time at the festivities but I had a good time none the less.
Here is my first cut of some of the videos I shot.

Great pics. Thanks to everyone who came. Thanks to all that helped. There never was a task that there weren't unlimited numbers of folks eager to help. It's seeing so many so amazed at the beauty of SE Utah and having so much fun that makes this so special and worth while. The Tangrens really outdid themselves this year. Thanks so much to Rod, Paula, Hunter, and Johnny. It will be hard to top, but, they probly will.
Gary

shortfielder wrote:Great pics. Thanks to everyone who came. Thanks to all that helped. There never was a tasked that weren't unlimited numbers of folks eager to help. It's seeing so many so amazed at the beauty of SE Utah and having so much fun that makes this so special and worth while. The Tangrens really outdid themselves this year. Thanks so much to Rod, Paula, Hunter, and Johnny. It will be hard to top, but, they probly will.
Gary

You did a heck of a job Gary, thank you!

We must have more pictures people!!!!

Awesome Fly in... It was truely amazing, and an awesome place to fly.











Click on this for Teresa's skydive video...

I was amazed when Kevin came in and landed his 180 during the short field contest, he was right in there with Pops and Blu distance wise!

I had video issues - didn't get a lot of what I thought I was recording... Oh well, here's a few minutes of my return trip home:

What a great weekend! I'll add my sincere thanks to Rod, Hunter, Paula, Johnny, and Gary again for putting together another great fly-in! Each year it keeps getting better and better!

We left Friday afternoon and made it over to Mack Mesa by 4:30pm. It was nice to not be late this year! The food was great and it was good to start catching up with everyone. It was a bit bumpy coming over but not to bad and the grass at Mack gave me my first chance to get some grass stains on the new gear!

After we ate, we decided to swing by Dolores point to pick up our card on our way to Caveman. At Caveman, we settled in and started to catch up with friends. We had a nice surprise when we got there. Allen and Noreen asked if we would be willing to be interviewed for AOTF as well as Hooked on Utah. We were excited to have the chance to be part of the shows. The kids were really excited and really took to Noreen and Chuck. They quickly became their favorites and were always looking for them. Noreen, again, thanks for the help with the kids!

Saturday we headed over to Rockland Ranch but passed on the tour where we had done it a few years ago. Then on to Rustler Canyon, which was our first time in there. I really liked it and would like to go back to do some camping. Then a bumpy ride into Happy Canyon with a strong south crosswind before heading to Angel Point. We stopped at Moab for fuel and a picnic lunch and had planned on being back for the afternoon flying competitions. On departure out of Moab, the engine started running really rough and necessitated a return to Moab to see what was going on (I'll post more on this in another thread soon). Here is yet another example of what a great group of people we have here. After a call to RFinkle to get his thoughts, soon Ryan (can't remember his username on here) came walking up to see what was going on. After checking a few things out and returning some borrowed tools to Redtail's mechanic, we ran into Kevin (AKtahoe) at the fuel pump. Both Ryan and Kevin were ready to offer whatever help was needed, including hauling our gear over to us from Caveman if needed. I'll tell you, it is a great thing to have so many friends that are ready to help out. I made the decision to do a run up and test flight in the aircraft while the family waited in the terminal. While airborne, Kevin and Ryan checked up on my to see how it was running and if I needed anything. Meanwhile, Matt showed up for fuel and at that point the only thing I wanted was a wingman flying back to Caveman, which Matt was happy to do. The plane flew with no issues for the test flight or the rest of the trip. Again, a huge thanks to Rich, Ryan, Kevin, Matt, and Gary (the Redtail Mechanic).

Back at Caveman, the Luau was just starting so we didn't get a chance to get into our festive attire, but Noreen took care of Sadie by dressing her in a pretty skirt ( I forget what they are called). Rod and the gang provided the leis and flowers for the girls hair. The food was incredible and it was a good time.

The next morning we took off after most had departed but still by 9am. We headed over to Delta for some $5.04 fuel and then headed north for Ogden, where at one point we had a 185 mph ground speed thanks to some strong winds.

Except for a little stress on Saturday afternoon, this was a great inaugural trip for the 205. We are very happy with the increased room and performance of the plane. It was fun to get an idea of what it can do and to see how the larger tires helped handle the soft dirt. We can't wait for JC next month and to play in Idaho with it. See you all there!

Here are some pics from our weekend:

The kids are anxious to get going.


Not even packed to the ceiling!


Dinner at Mack Mesa




Dolores Point








Tyler waits at Rockland Ranch while Adam, Sadie and Dad retrieve the card.




Rustler Canyon








Picnic at Moab


Tyler waiting for Dad to get back from the test flight.


A great turn out




Our master of ceremonies


Luau attire


Sadie loved making a new friend


What it's all about!


Adam couldn't wait to get to the "cottage" and play Foosball. He remembered it from last year.




Gary's breakfast Sunday morning


Mineral Canyon


Thanks again everyone for a great weekend. See you at JC! I'll try to get some videos posted next week when I get home too.

The rest of our pics can be seen here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/maoqaskyntz906u/jHtBWjR1P7

I goofed up the link to the rest of my photos. Here it is if anyone is interested.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151494902202968.1073741827.781222967&type=1&l=8602e82f3b

What a great trip! Rod, Hunter and Paula went all out, the place looked cool with all the grass skirts and leis all over the place. Gary and Dell did a great job with the Poker run, the short landing and flour bombing contests and everything else. Everyone was cool, as always. We got great footage for our show! I brought down Gary from Hooked on Utah and this was his first experience flying the backcountry and was blown away. Everyone was so friendly, the strips were amazing, the scenery was great, he says he learned more about really flying in two days off-airport than in years flying from point a to point b.

I'll post some clips of what we shot as soon as I can.

Great photos on here! Thanks everyone!

Here's a video of a landing I made at Mexican Mountain.

Cool vid Rob!

Here's a little video of flying around Mineral Canyon.

Nice RanchPilot, I love VanMorrison - great tune.

Wow!! Super jealous!! You all knocked it out of the ball park!!! Awesome pics!

I've already told my new employer the only vacation I care about is a week off for Christmas (fly down to SoCal to visit family), almost a week off for JC and Caveman! He said, "No problem". Can't wait!!

The one photo titled "landing at Mineral Canyon"... looks like there's a really big fish in the river near the approach end. Anyone else notice that?

EZFlap wrote:The one photo titled "landing at Mineral Canyon"... looks like there's a really big fish in the river near the approach end. Anyone else notice that?

I think that was Tadpole's pic. Maybe it's a giant tadpole? More likely a log or a shadow. I was there on the ground when these guys landed - I don't recall it at the time but I probably wasn't paying attention - and if you look at RanchPilots video - who was there before we were I don't see the same thing.



Start at 2:36 for the final approach by the river...

I think it's a log. We went up and down there on the river a few times and there were some random logs and branches in it.

Gary from Hooked on Utah (the #1 outdoor show in Utah) put together this short video of some of the flying this weekend. He's the one in the nice looking 182. Good footage of some of the shortfield landing contest at the end. Check it out!

Awesome!