The summit was obfuscated, so, I flew across the valley and down range a ways and landed at one of my many local office sites, where I take care of business responding to any missed calls or messages I may receive while flying. You can see the cloud cover is still hanging in there.
At least I had properly secured the load, as I made several other landings while waiting. I had secured the wrapped bundle by one rope, secured to a point on the airframe under the cargo deck, and then tied off the other end up front where I could reach it in flight. Flying with no doors in 30 degrees temps wasn't too bad as I was out of the slipstream anyway, and was wearing a snowmachine suit. It didn't clear until noonish, and by then the wind had picked up and I was busy back in the shop.
But, about 15 minutes before sunset I ran back up there and took another look, much better:
The saddle was the drop point, and all in all I came pretty close, 75' off, not bad considering I didn't dare untie the rope (and secure it back in the cockpit so it wouldn't possibly snag on the load as it slid out the door,) and once I did untie it I made real sure to keep things coordinated. I had rising terrain on either side of the saddle so had to do some manuvering at the last second to get lined up low enough, then I cross controlled it and at the same time reached around behind and between the slip and a little tug it slid right on out. Next spring the owners will hike it out, probably while there still is snow so, ski it out. The original plan was for them to be on site, but they all had to be someplace called "work", so I was on my own.
One big screwup:the fresh snow and the white canvas made it damn hard to find, as I didn't attempt to do the close in manuvering, dropping, and trying to keep my eyes on it all at the same time! So, I 360'd for about 5 minutes before finally spotting it, way pointed it also, took a couple more pictures, and then, being glad to have a water cooled engine, chopped the throttle and zipped on down to my place pronto as the sun was going quick down lower.
