I fly a Husky and I currently live ion the Midwest. I am hopeful that I will be relocating to the Boise area within the next two years. I know that there is unbelievable backcountry flying to be had in Idaho. I was hoping to hear about some of the less known strips/playgrounds/off-airport opportunities in striking distance to Boise that are doable in a single day or an overnight trip.

Also, I will be looking for a hangar when the time comes. I am going to get on the waiting list at KBOI but I would appreciate any suggestions that might help me secure or watch for hangars.

Thanks

I'm based at Caldwell and there's a lot of hangars for sale right now at Caldwell. I bet you can get a smokin deal if you can manage to buy right now or very soon! There's a good diverse amount of pilots and planes based at Caldwell, too and not that bad of a drive from Boise. But then again, Boise (KBOI) is very easy to fly in and out of.

The only person I know at Boise is Matt (Matt7GCBC) and he's a fantastic guy. I'm sure he'll chime in here sooner or later to help with more info about KBOI.

ALL of the backcountry strips in Idaho are doable within a single day or overnight trip from Boise. There aren't any "lesser known" ones, because Galen Hanselman published all of them in a book. It's titled "Fly Idaho", and you should beg, borrow, or steal a copy.

Besides, for backcountry strips, you shouldn't categorize them by popularity, you should categorize them by difficulty. That said, the most popular strip is Johnson Creek, perhaps because it's also one of the easiest. Start with the easy ones, and progress to harder ones until you start feeling uncomfortable. There are plenty that I'll probably never try.

As for 58's comment about Caldwell, I noticed a hangar for sale on Craigslist the other day:
http://boise.craigslist.org/reo/1528952543.html

For the city hangars at BOI contact Renee. They've switched some numbers and offices around, but if you call airport operations at (208)424-5670, you should be able to get ahold of her. Wait list tends to be in the 1-3 year range for standard hangars, but supposedly going to build more with the ongoing construction?
No off airstrip opportunities in the wilderness areas. Lots of off airport stuff in the owyhees, but unfortunately the recently passed owyhee wilderness initiative may take away some of that. We all need to be active in the formulation of the management plan!
I will be gone for most of this next year, so would be great to have someone occupy my hangar, but sounds like that's outside your timeline.

I feel Kevbert is spot on! It's exactly what I'm doing for the first two three years of getting my PPL. Start with the easy strips and work your way up the ladder. Don't forget the Owyhee's! Plenty of fun down there in the Fall, Spring, and depending on temps, even in the summer. Pretty much you can have more fun than you can dream of, all within an hours flight time from the Boise area in all directions, all year long.

58Skylane wrote:Plenty of fun down there in the Fall, Spring, and depending on temps, even in the summer. Pretty much you can have more fun than you can dream of, all within an hours flight time from the Boise area in all directions, all year long.

Thanks! This is exactly what I wanted to hear. Can you expand on the Owyhee's for me?

twflyer wrote:

58Skylane wrote:Plenty of fun down there in the Fall, Spring, and depending on temps, even in the summer. Pretty much you can have more fun than you can dream of, all within an hours flight time from the Boise area in all directions, all year long.

Thanks! This is exactly what I wanted to hear. Can you expand on the Owyhee's for me?

Actually I had forgotten about the passing of the Owyhee Wilderness Initiative that Matt has mentioned. But not sure what that means for a lot of uncharted strips that are out in that area. Would be interesting to see the outline of the wilderness area in question. I haven't seen any changes to the most currant Salt Lake and Klamath Falls sectionals in the southwest Idaho, northern NV and southeastern OR area's, yet. But wouldn't be a bad idea to find this information before it gets put on the sectional.

When some of us talk about flying in the Owyhee's, we're usually talking about the area that extends from the Owyhee Reservoir (about 30 miles west of Boise) and down south along the Owyhee River in south eastern Oregon and back into southwestern Idaho. There's a lot of very short Cub/Scout only strips along the river. Would be best to have one of the Cub/Scout guys take you out there to find them and land (if you dare! ) There's also unlimited flying in the eastern Oregon desert and northern Nevada desert with numerous dry lakes and dirt strips. Google Earth might give you a good idea what that might be like. The whole southwest part of Idaho, southeast part of Oregon and mostly northern Nevada deserts have one of the largest populations of wild horses in the country, so that's kind of fun to go down to check them out. The easiest way to see large packs is from the air.

I think the best thing to do the next time you come to Boise for a visit, get with a local pilot and go out for a days tour of the surrounding area to get a good idea what's in store for your flying adventures. I have lived in the Boise area for about 4 years now, and I'm still overwhelmed with all the flying possibility's here. Not just in Idaho, but the whole Northwest (WA, OR, ID). Northern NV, UT, MT, WY included! Oh yeah, CO, AZ and CA are within easy reach, too.

There is a lot of fun to be had in the Owyhees. There is incredibly easy stuff like Pelican Point, and there is lots of places that make Mile Hi, Dewey Moore, Simonds etc look like child's play.I love the Owyhees! BUT!!! I recently found out the hard way that there are "Wilderness Study Areas" and "Wild and Scenic River" all over out there. BLM does NOT want ORV's in these areas. According to the Vale District Ranger and the federal Attorney Generals office in Portland, an airplane is an ORV the second the tires touch the ground.
A few weeks ago I flew real low over a place I wanted to land to feel the air and decide if I felt good about landing there at that particular time. I always do this if it is possible to do a fly over to check it out, usually both directions. This time there happened to be wild California sheep very nearby that we didn't see until we were real low. There also happened to be a hiker who really loves these sheep nearby too.(that we couldn't see either, he was a ways off) We had no intention whatsoever of buzzing these sheep we didn't see but he thought that is what we were doing so he filed a complaint with the OR State Police. I found out about this 6 weeks later when an OR state trooper and the BLM ranger came to my house in Idaho unannounced. What a shock!!! I had no idea why they might be here but I knew it couldn't be good and it wasn't. I got a $300.00 ticket for chasing and harassing wildlife. AND I landed in one of these Wildlife study Areas. The BLM ranger said because of multiple offenses he had to talk to the Fed attorney general to see how he "wanted to handle this" !! I was very stressed out for a couple weeks. He got back with me and said because of my honesty and good attitude towards them, the AG and himself agreed to do what they call "pre trial diversion". I don't have to go to court or pay any big fines. I do have to sign a contract with them that says I will help the BLM do maintenance on water guzzlers on 2 weekend next spring.
I can more easily handle the stress of an in flight engine failure than this crap! I have since gone to the BLM office and bought some of their recreational user maps so I can hopefully know where all these places are that we are supposed to stay out of. Most of my favorite spots are off limits. It makes me sick. BLM doesn't put anything on our sectionals but they expect us to get their maps to find out this stuff.
Bummed out in Idaho, Steve

Bummer Steve, BUT, for this "new guy", it's still going to be heaven! For sure his best bet is hooking up with some of you local hoodlums to learn the ropes! BTW there is a major Husky freak at the Logan Utah FBO, he has some nice little Island Park landing sites he shared with me.
We had an incident here a few years ago where two powered parachutes were hunting coyotes right across the valley from my place, a local rancher claims he thought they were shooting at his cattle (they weren't, I know all the parties involved) and the next thing you know they were met by the Fish and Game and County Sheriffs upon landing (it seems they had no trouble keeping up them from the ground). After a couple years of FEDERAL court dates they got a fine (don't know how much, haven't asked, I don't want to rub salt in the wounds), but here is the real kicker, they NEVER got their "aircraft" back! One was 912S powered so we are talking close to 20K just for the powerplant....Unlike you these guys WERE shooting from the air, plus they were flying fat (illegal) ultralights, and their attitude, at least from the first, may not have been appropriately subservient thus the harsh punishment. It was and is plain old BLM ground.
Last week when I was zipping across the Blackfoot Reservoir and landing from time to time, so I was very low all the time, I had a big coyote run out from a small island and start zigging and zagging in front of me, I immediately turned 90 degrees away and let him go about his day, no way did I want to be seen in any kind of a chasing wildlife from the air situation. You got unlucky, not even knowing the sheep and sheeplover were there, a bad combination.

One more thing, you got a landing area picked out yet by those spring work jobs?

Have been to the BLM office in Boise as well. Officers there were unable to give me any hard yes / no answers on where I could / couldn't land.

The UNCHARTED AIRSTRIPS IN THE OWYHEES NEED TO BE CATALOGED/LISTED so that we may present a list of designated historically utilized areas to protect in the management plan. I am too ignorant of the region to do this adequately. Need to get Joe and WHOEVER ELSE has an inkling of where planes are landable (not every COYOTE UGLY strip) and work to carve out exemptions for these gems in the management plan being developed now. Otherwise they will be off limits and GONE.

Matt 7GCBC wrote:Have been to the BLM office in Boise as well. Officers there were unable to give me any hard yes / no answers on where I could / couldn't land.

The UNCHARTED AIRSTRIPS IN THE OWYHEES NEED TO BE CATALOGED/LISTED so that we may present a list of designated historically utilized areas to protect in the management plan. I am too ignorant of the region to do this adequately. Need to get Joe and WHOEVER ELSE has an inkling of where planes are landable (not every COYOTE UGLY strip) and work to carve out exemptions for these gems in the management plan being developed now. Otherwise they will be off limits and GONE.

We'll have to get Joe on it. I think your right. If they don't get exemptions, they might be screwed in the long run. Only problem might be.........sometimes when I ask where they're going. They tell me they're landing at the "NoTellingStrip" along the river down south. Or landing at the "Strip" near "NoTelling Creek" and......you get the idea

Thanks for that info, Matt!!

Holly Smokes!!!! Thanks for that info, Taildrfun!!! I'll definitely watch what I'm doing down there for now on!! So far, I've been lucky and haven't had any visitors at my front door asking me what I was doing down in the Owyhee's.