Holidays over, time to get back to work, lucky for me my Monday morning job was a 110 mile flight north to the south base of the Centennial (?) Mts. up Porcupine Pass! I had a ranch owner in this very remote part of Idaho (outside of Kilgore) who was having problems with his solar system, (originally installed by someone else and who put the solar array in the wintertime shade, a huge no-no, he didn't fly either....) and I had already driven out a couple weeks ago to troubleshoot (and look for landing spots of course) and after some negotiating over the phone we arrived at a price and plan of action. This plan necessitated me making another on site inspection, and wouldn't you know it was perfect day for flying! A few fog banks to dodge, but mostly all blue, and a huge mostly flat pasture at 7,000' to land in, with 3 1/2 to 4' of untracked snow.

I planned the landing to allow me to park in my landing tracks, and as I got out of the plane and sunk in up to above my knees I was glad I did. I have to start keeping my snowshoes where I can get to them BEFORE getting out of the plane, twice now I had to flounder around to get to them in the rear baggage compartment. Even with the snow shoes on I still sunk in almost a foot. Landing on the road to the left would have been very tricky, as the snow banks are already very high on both sides. I sacrificed an old sleeping bag and cut it down for a cowl blanket, and it only takes a second to throw it on, keeping things toasty for a short visit when its this cold.

Solar work done for the day, I rocked the wings before getting in, and takeoff was uneventfull. I had also slowed when parking in order to let the skis cool down a little before a full stop, no sticking this time at all. Coming back into the familar mountains near my place, I tagged a few of my summer sites, some knob landings too tight for a ski landing and turnaround, but it was fun to at least leave some tracks. One thing I have found of interest, while many of my small and tighter summer spots are not possible for ski landings, many more sites not good in the summer (too much brush, rocks, or both) are doable, a pretty good tradeoff! These two are farm fields, and I am lucky enough to know the farmers and they are happy to let me play around there, 12 to 16% or so grades I got a bit over 4 hrs in, in 10 degree temps, and just for grins made a quick stop at the controlled Idaho Falls airport, kind of nice with the winter time 8:00's, not having to cringe when landing on asphalt like I do when on the summertime Airstreaks (wear factor). And nice to be able to go from deep powder to hard surface no sweat!

I see you made an upside down U . Or I guess it depends on the camera angle.

I envy pilots like you! Still enjoying all of your posts!

Now it's time for me to get back to work after over a week off

Keep it coming courierguy, good stuff.

Am I the only one here who thinks Courierguy has the greatest job and life in the whole world? Holy hell man, all you do is play... I mean work! Sucks to be the rest of us.

Thanks to BCP though at least us common folk sitting in stale offices can enjoy your adventures... keep them coming.

I need a new job.

I need any job!