Yesterday I stood in my driveway with that exact same empty feeling that I've had these past few years at the end of a motorcycle trip with my oldest son. We've operated seamlessly together for the past four days. We crossed most of the way across the country, faced potential hazards and setbacks but in the end we prevailed. Yet with a quick hug and a "Okay see you" he got in his car and drove home.

It ain't about the bike.
I use that one a lot but it really is true. We could be paddling kayaks or driving a $60 Plymouth. The point is that you step out the door and go. So we did. In a few hours we would be guilty of stealing a car, but we didn't know that yet.

We're on our way from Ephrata, WA to Willmar, MN to a company who specializes in stripping and resealing wet wings in Mooneys and BT-13s. The left tank of this particular airplane gets some blue stains on the bottom and it can get a strong gas smell inside the plane if we don't run the left tank dry before storing the plane for any length of time.
This summer I discovered that the right tank leaks gas from around the flange for the cap (not the cap itself) if it is full.
The plane will be in Minnesota for a month whereupon I'll retrieve it and fly back.


Fueled and ready. Engine start up was pretty much exactly what time I was hoping for (9am local). We had a continental divide to cross and I wanted it behind me before the sun has heated up the tall rocks. I called for a weather briefing the day before, bracing myself for news that would require me to alter the plan. The briefer told me that "other than the heavy smoke from the hundreds of fires burning in the western states" I was looking at excellent conditions.

Take off was uneventful. Out in the vast spaces of eastern Washington I fly much lower than I do in congested areas.

Flying past farm houses and people in fields the plane just seems in its element. Canopy slid back, arm out the window like any guy in a pickup out here. At 1800 rpm you can just about hear every cylinder fire.

As much as I like the low altitude cruise we had mountains to cross. My plan was a cruising altitude of 7500' above sea level. That is lower than the taller peaks but high enough to clear all terrain along the chosen route. It offers a great view as long as the weather remains clear.

Density altitude is always a concern this time of year and at the elevations of some of the airports we would stop at. The BT-13 climbs well thanks to the 450hp on tap and the supercharger that allows me to maintain sea level power as air gets thinner, but I still wanted to be at my chosen altitude well before the rocks got tall. Our route skirted south of Spokane, WA but I called ATC as they request all aircraft to do when they are within 20 miles. The smoke was reducing horizontal visibility to 5-6 miles but it was still safe flying conditions. We were plenty high by the time we reached the Idaho border where we intercepted I-90 eastbound. With landmarks visible I was able to turn the flying over to my son while I navigated, communicated and watched the engine instruments. Blowing a jug or having all 10 gallons of dinosaur goo squeeze out would alter the course of the day more than I was looking for.

Our first landing was to be in Missoula, MT. We had to alter our course to avoid a TFR for fire fighting activity but we didn't have to go very far out of our way. We had only a few minor bumps from turbulence. We weren't high enough for ATC to see us on radar in the more mountainous areas so he kicked us off of our flight following.

On the ground in Missoula
In the background is my day job (designing, not flying). That is a BBJ, the privately operated version of the 737. It was sitting on the ground with the crew ready to go and the APU running, red carpet and all. They were still there when we left. I made sure to point out to my son how glamorous the job of flying "important" people around was.

Before we started out in the morning my son had mentioned that he needed sun screen. He inherited super sensitive skin from me (even products labeled for sensitive skin burn like hell and act like a chemical peel). But where I tan pretty easily he just burns. We were going to be out in the sun for the next two days so it really was imperative that we get some of the exact product he has found works.

The place we were parked was a jet center. We were definitely the oddball plane on the ramp. While the line crew went about fueling the plane we went inside to inquire about a Rite-Aid or Walgreens in the area, and possibly a place to eat lunch. The woman behind the counter was quite helpful. There was a Walgreens "just down the road 5-6 minutes away" and plenty of places to eat too. I had just hoped to walk to something the but the 5-6 minutes was driving time.

So I inquired about ground transportation. Expected answers can be anything from a laugh (with mouth open and head back) to someone tossing you keys to a brand new Suburban without even asking if you have a license. She informed me that they had courtesy cars available. "Awesome", said I. After writing down my name and phone number on a clip board she handed me a set of keys to a white GMC that she said we would find around the corner.

Sure enough, there was a white GMC Acadia near the gate. We hopped in where I noticed the car had a "push to start" button. I dropped the keys into the cup holder and off we went. We found the Walgreens where #1 went in to shop while I remained in the car outside. Then we found a Chipotle down the street.

They shoot horse thieves don't they?
It was when I got out and grabbed the keys from the cup holder that I noticed another set of keys. The correct set. Turns out that a major flaw in push button starting is that if you leave your keys in the car any jackass pilot can run off with your rental car. Needless to say, we got our order to go and made tracks for the airport. I was a bit surprised that my phone wasn't blowing up yet. We arrived back at the airport and parked by a white GMC. Two of them actually. The car we had taken was inside the security fence but these were not. We parked next to them and I went in to confess. Luckily no one had yet noticed the car gone. I confessed anyway and we sat outside eating our lunch and sipping on complementary water bottles.

Soon enough we were slathered up in white pasty goo and climbing in for the second leg of the trip. Our next destination was Laurel, MT just short of Billings. Leaving Missoula it sure seemed like I could climb up on top of the increasing haze ahead of us. I reached 12,500' MSL before I concluded that getting on top was an optical illusion and that by the time I got there I would have no visibility downward. What we did enjoy was ground speeds in the 140-160 knot range. For a plane that cruises most happily at 120 mph when pulled back for low cruise I welcomed the push. To avoid TFRs and heavy smoke I had to alter the course northward but we still crossed over Bozeman and Livingston as planned.


Near Livingston somewhere
Landing at Laurel as planned we got to experience the other end of the hospitality range. Most of these lesser traveled places are light on staff. The mechanic on duty (who is a highly trained individual) may also be the guy that cleans the toilet and has to stop what he's doing to sell you a damn chart. No complaints. It is what it is, it just took a bit longer.

I don't love the stretch of Montana east from Billings. We would be in Wyoming before I would remark how amazing the rock formations were.

On the ground Laurel, MT

Sheridan, WY
We continued on past Sheridan and crossed over Gillette. The smoke was very thick and I was almost literally on top of it before I could pick out the airport. I don't have a mark on the map to point to but gradually the landscape went from Billings blah to amazing beauty. The convoluted surface with canyons, draws, gullies, rolling hills and deep stream beds would make this place ideal for someone wanting to be left alone. There is no question why native americans gravitated here. You could pick any random draw and put your entire village there, and until the plane was invented people could have passed by within 1/4 mile and have no idea you were there. You could cover all of it on foot and find resources, hunt, etc. It's an amazing area all the way from Gillette to the Black Hills of South Dakota. It's a bit scarred by pit mines for coal, cricket pumps and pools of black tar like substance but the vast majority appears unspoiled from our lofty perch. I'm hoping the smoke is reduced for the trip back.

I was low on phone battery so I didn't take any pictures until we were on the ground at the Black Hills airport at Spearfish, SD

On the ground in Spearfish.
Yet another flavor of customer experience. Upon landing we were greeted by a golf cart with a "follow me" sign. The kid in the cart directed me to a tie down spot and seemed to understand how I would need to maneuver to spin around on to it. Then he whipped out some chocks and tie down ropes which he deftly used to secure the plane. He sourced us a hotel room and a taxi ride in minutes, and about time we sat down to wait for the taxi it pulled up. An $11.50 cab ride, a nice but inexpensive room and walking distance to an Applebee's.

That's day one in the books.

Crew preparation departing Spearfish.
Time to head east some more. We had made it to exactly where we had planned, with three 2 hour legs behind us. For the second day we would have to have one 2.5 hour leg and one leg of about 1 hour to our final destination. The smoke was still quite thick as we left Black Hills.

Sturgis, SD
Not exactly full of bikes this time of year. We did see some heavy iron either pulling trailers or on one. There were only a hand full of people riding actual motorcycles as their makers intended.

Wall, SD
You can see the famous Wall Drug just ahead of the landing light lens on the wing. At least I think that's it. As a kid I remember driving across the country and seeing the billboards declaring "only 199 miles to Wall Drug", etc. Back in the day when you were inside shopping someone would put a bumper sticker on your car. My dad would have punched someone in the head for that, so we never stopped.

When it was possible to see landmarks ahead I would turn the flying over to #1. At times I-90 would cross our path or follow it. It's hard enough for me to see over the giant schnoz and much harder from the back seat. Rather than fly directly over a road or railway it's easier to offset to one side and keep it visible that way. At one point the kid was flying and I was checking the charts for the 1/4 mile tall antennas out here. I started watching cars and trucks on the highway and noticed that while we were going faster than they were, it wasn't by very much. I thought it was an optical illusion so I dropped down to crop duster commuting height. Sure enough, I was doing 120 mph and not exactly running away from traffic on I-90.

Even a friggin horse trailer is hauling the mail out here.

The next destination was Madison, SD. Of all the way points I had chosen for this route, Madison was just a featureless gas stop until we landed. What a cool town, and even more cool airport. There were several crop duster planes on the ground in various states of repair. One of the crop dusters was a Super Cub. The fuel pumps were not immediately visible so I had to taxi back into a corner and make an educated guess that the white boxes contained the hoses etc (they did). A mechanic stopped what he was doing to help tend hoses and make sure the pump operated correctly.

No one here was in a rush. We walked into the FBO to use the bathroom and rest up a bit. There were several people enjoying the afternoon. It seemed like a big family but there might have been a customer or two. I had just looked at all the cool old pictures on the wall and the bulletin board and when I turned to the gentleman who spoke to us I recognized him from the pictures as the chief flight instructor, chief mechanic, FAA designated pilot examiner and guy who ran the testing facility for knowledge exams. Not many people correctly identify the BT-13 but he did. I had just noticed the list of planes you could rent there, so I commented that in Washington there is not a single tail dragger plane for solo rent anywhere. You can get instruction but you're dreaming if you think you're putting your honey in the plane and taking her for a $100 waffle. Yet, here in Madison you could rent a Super Cub, a J-3 Cub or your choice of two Cessna 140s. He said "yeah, we pretty much have that locked down out here".

We had places to be. Time to kick rocks and get to Willmar. I instructed #1 to get a departure photo of the airport as we left. I'll have to edit later to insert it here.


The land of 10,000 lakes
Minnesota is kind of pretty. It's flat as a pool table which isn't the part I love. But out here you can see hundreds of family farms. In Washington all the homesteads are long gone. Everyone who struggled through life with 100 acres sold out and moved to town, or the kids who inherited the land decided farming wages were s*** and also sold or leased the land out to giant corporations. I had relatives in eastern WA that dry-land wheat farmed 6,000 acres and even they are long gone.
Here you could see the old homesteads still intact. Someone planted trees around the house many years ago for shade and wind protection, and each was seemingly an oasis in the corner of the land they farmed or raised cattle (sometimes a bit of both).


They even farm wind
Bunches of these things in operation and more being erected. We saw probably 20-30 that were under construction. I don't love them, but they're way easier to see than those 1300' monkey bars with cables that dot the area too. Visibility began to clear up and it was possible to see more like 20 miles. A couple more way points and we were entering the pattern to land at Willmar

On the ground in Willmar
On the rare occasions that I buy a lottery ticket, one of these is always on the short list of must have acquisitions.

You can see where I parked in the background while I contacted the guys at the business who will be working on the plane. About the time I took these pictures a guy working at the airport asked if we needed help. He was able to get the hangar open, pull out a really nice Mooney and make room for us. I taxied the plane over to the hangar and spun around so we could push it backwards into the hangar.

Then the adventure began.
Plane in the hangar, our meager gear supplies in hand. The rest of the trip should be cake. All we needed to do was get to Minneapolis. The place doing the work had told us that they could give us a ride, but they had left for the day. So the guy helping us said we could take the courtesy car. Here we go again, right? No push button start at least. This crusty Impala had 215k miles on it.
The arrangement was that we would drive it to Minneapolis and get a room for the night. We could leave the car at the hotel and give the keys to the front desk. One of the guys at the shop said he needed to head into the Twin Cities anyway, so he'd just drive it back. Amazing hospitality. It was over 1.5 hours of driving to get to Minneapolis. All nice country to drive through until you get to the city.

What I really wanted to do was get to the airport and see if it was possible to get standby seats on an earlier flight. I do that often, and if there are seats available the airlines are usually quite willing to do it (your seat will then be available for the next standby passengers). Well I had chosen Alaska airlines, but wished now that I had used Delta or one of the companies that actually flies into town more than once per day. We got to the airport and found the Alaska ticket counter abandoned. The digital board showing flights into MSP indicated only one AS flight inbound and it would land at 10:50pm. I know how the game works. That plane would remain on the ground overnight, and it was our plane for the morning. There would be no early departure for us.

Phone batteries waning, we left the airport and began the search for a hotel that might be able to shuttle us to the airport in the morning.

Not a friggin chance.
Hotel row was booked solid, and they have some extreme capacity. We gradually cast a larger net, and lowered our standards. Using Hotels.com and Kayak I was finding rooms 22-30 miles away. When I finally got down to that level I was a bit perturbed to find those rooms weren't available either. There's a lot of click bait bullshit on those sites. Casting the net out to 60 miles still turned up no available rooms. At one point I found a place 22 miles away and the reservation stuck. On a hunch I called the place directly. Sure enough, the woman who answered said she had no rooms at all and hadn't had one for hours. At least half the places I called after that didn't even answer the phone.

We made our way to a Denny's for coffee and some food. It began to occur to us that even if we found a place 60 miles away, at this hour we would pay $200 for a 30 minute nap and be back on the road. Ditching the car and trying to cat nap at the airport was discarded, as there were no places you could have done anything but sleep upright in an uncomfortable chair. After stretching out our welcome at Denny's we parked the car in a dark parking lot and dropped the seatbacks. I got maybe an hour of interrupted sleep in. We parked the car at a nearby Walmart at about 3:00am and stashed the keys, then called an Uber for a ride to the airport.

We got to the airport around 3:30 and made our way through security and found our gate. Sure enough, the one Alaska plane from the night before.

The news seems to be focused on Texas, but there are over 250 fires going on right now. The loss of lives, property and livestock is stunning. Glacier is on fire, Yosemite is on fire. From the back seat of the guppy I could see dozens of fires that aren't even being addressed.

My girlfriend picked us up at the airport and brought us home. Mission completed. I go back in a month to get the plane and fly home.

Thank you for the story and pictures!

That was an amazing trip report! Thanks so much for sharing!

Ditto the comments of Cam Tom and Ted W!!! Loved reading it.
What an awesome way to spend time with your son.
Amazing flight report and makes this guy (me) remember the times similar that were spent with my son on various flights. They grow up too fast and move on with lives of their own. All I have no are the memories....sure miss those days more than anything.
Too bad Wilmar is quite far south, I'd invite you to visit this beautiful state up in my area, when you return. Quite a bit different up here than the southern part of the state. Woods and water is the scenery around me.

What a great trip! Thanks for sharing. Reminded me of a friend (Flies out of and lives in Kotz, Gump) that bought a Navy N3N a few years ago in California and flew it here with his 12 year old son. It doesn't matter if your kids are adults or younger. Spending time like this with them is a big part of what parenting is all about. Let us know about the trip back too.

Pete

I appreciate the feedback. In a demonstration of great timing, here it is not even a week later and the trip would be scrubbed because of the smoke.

As much as I whined about the visibility, much of what we flew over is now completely black and visibility less than 1/2 mile.

If you enjoyed the first part of my trip then buckle in for the ride home.
The running plan had been to leave the plane for one month and that turned out to be pretty much spot on. After all the smoke that my son and I experienced on the way East I was looking forward to better visibility. What I was not looking forward to was the onset of Old Man Winter, and the atmospheric phenomena he brings forth.
I kept tabs on the weather during them month as well as keep tabs on the progress of the plane but there wasn't much I could actively do about either.
I would like to give huge props to Paul and Eric at Weep-No-More. They were quite helpful with ground transportation from MSP to BDH where the work was performed. It was done on time, on budget and the work performed was excellent.
Where I had instructed them to also do the right tank when he got in there he confirmed that it had been worked on recently (we knew that but didn't know how well). He inspected it carefully and touched it up as needed on his way back out. They do primarily Mooney aircraft but get a BT-13 every 2-3 years.

My companion for the trip home was my favorite woman. We've been together four years and she's only flown a hand full of short flights with me, none of them in the BT. But she is a great travel companion. Her mom retired from Alaska Airlines and we occasionally use her buddy passes. Us getting screwed as we travel standby doesn't even phase her slightly. We work it as a team and it has always been a great adventure.
After the trip I would learn that she was in many discussions with her coworkers about what an insane idea this whole trip was. In the end she said that it was terrifying when we started but was amazed by the beauty and that it was a once in a lifetime amazing experience and she is glad she wouldn't give back.


She's going to kill me for posting that but I think she's adorable.

As soon as the guys in Willmar had committed to a completion date I bought the cheapest tickets I could find. $400 got me two seats from Seattle to Chicago and then from Chicago to Minneapolis. Saturday was travel day. The flight from SEA departed around 10am, putting us in ORD at 4:30 local and 45 minutes to make our next flight. The next leg was of course much shorter and we were walking the corridors of MSP before 7pm.

cell phone pic from the jetway
Eric had said he or someone else would pick us up early Sunday. As the plan solidified he asked if we could get to Flying Cloud airport for a 6:45am pickup. We got a room near the main airport and arranged for ground transportation. Because I'm a cheap bastard, we took the hotel shuttle back to the MSP terminal, and a shuttle van from there.
The hotel called our room a bit after 5am and said their shuttle driver was not there but they had a cab waiting if we could be ready in five minutes. We made it.

The shuttle van driver picked us up and delivered us to Elliot Aviation at Flying Cloud. We held down the big leather couches until Eric pulled up exactly on time in a nice Mooney Ovation. It was still dark as we departed and made a nice 30 minute flight to Willmar. I was not expecting my companion to tap me on the shoulder as we walked away and say "how much are those?".

I have to say it was a really nice plane. I've got plenty of time in a 231 and some in a 201 and Ranger and it's long been my opinion that if the places I'm going are paved a Mooney is the way to get there. Sadly I'm afflicted with the desire to see less and less pavement so with all the willpower I could muster I said "a half million". Minutes later we were standing by a Kermit (the frog, not Weeks) green E model that was for sale for about what my Citabria is worth. The tacky upholstery and brushed on paint didn't even phase her.

We had been on the move since the hotel expedited our departure, so upon seeing the BT up close and verifying that the jug of oil I had dropped shipped was there we arranged to borrow the airport car. This was the same car my son and I had slept in and left at Walmart when we brought the plane East.

We queried our phones for a place to get coffee and breakfast and found a cool little spot where the cops hang out. It was exactly what we were looking for. When I had used the airport car last time I broke the cardinal rule of not putting gas in it, so this time I filled it up completely and we made for the airport.

We paid up, got the written guarantee and sticker for the logbook. Paul helped me push the plane over to the gas pumps where I completed my preflight.

Full of gas and not leaking any of it
I wanted to get heading west. Still planning on using about two hour legs, I was eager to see if we could get to Bozeman, MT for the night. It would be a leisurely pace and should be attainable.

The Friday before departure I was monitoring the weather along our route of flight. I was a bit sick to see the winds forecast for Saturday to be 41-65 knots over the ground in places like Great Falls and Livingston. The predictions also showed that by Sunday it would be actually quite calm. That was encouraging. In addition, we had both taken time off through Tuesday and could take more if needed.

The big P&W R985 cranked up just like it's supposed to. I kept the oil cooler shutter closed until the oil temperature and pressure stabilized. We flew from BDH to PIR Pierre, SD


About the most altitude I like to see

Another view from the back seat

The winds had been coming from the NNW which caused me a bit of a crab angle but I was still making 110-115 knots across the ground. Picking up the ASOS at Pierre winds were quartering 11kts gusting to 16. An uneventful landing, followed by familiar ritual of immolating a credit card in exchange for 100LL and access to a bathroom.

It had been getting cold in the back seat. I pulled the heater knob on the dash in my end of the plane but I'm not sure it was ever hooked to anything even at the factory. I was getting some radiant heat from my 9 cylinder friend up front but the drafty nature of sliding canopy aircraft robbed my companion from any of the benefit.

She was doing her best to stay warm in the back, adding layers and moving around, and even sitting on her feet one at a time. It was on one of these position changes that she bumped something.

Meanwhile up in my end of the plane I have just suffered a partial (but significant) power loss over South Dakota. Nothing like an off airport landing to wake you right up. Fortunately we were over wide open expanses such that Ray Charles could have made a successful off airport landing so I focused my attention on gauge readings starting with that oil stuff. Gooey stuff contained and pumping at the appropriate temperature and pressure. Manifold pressure - oh look the throttle is pulled back. I'm asking over the headset if she had bumped anything back there. No response. I turn and look and she is putting a headset cup back on. It had come off and she had retrieved it but must have bumped something. Note to self: Expand on the passenger pre-flight briefing.

Continuing West with the Badlands in the distance off our left wing I could see the clouds to the Northwest were not looking good. Our plan was to fly Southwest from Rapid City, hook around the Black Hills and then into Wyoming, and that direction looked pretty good. But it wasn't look like it would stay that way. With my passenger freezing out in the back we landed at Rapid City so we could get her warmed up and review the plan carefully. Winds at RAP were about the same as Pierre. So far the BT is turning out to handle cross winds with more grace than my Citabria.

Upon digging I could see some of our waypoints had legal VFR conditions but the temperature/dewpoint spreads left me a bit clammy. Meanwhile outside the temperature was plummeting and it included precipitation. I asked the front desk of the jet center if they had a hangar I could put the plane in for the night. $44 for heated space. That P&W doesn't love freezing conditions for starting. Given that Rapid City had hotel, cars, restaurant etc we made the decision to live again for another day.

The jet center got us a deal and a shuttle to one of the chain places you stay but forget the name of the minute you walk out the door. No complaints, it was $80 for a nice room. We ended up renting a car and finding dinner in town. We were pretty sure based on the weather that night that we could be there at least a day maybe more.

Gassed up (again), ready to depart Rapid City (KRAP)
The next morning was Monday and it broke clear and cold. Not only that, it was severe clear across the entire route. With a bit of a break we might actually make it all the way to Ephrata. The front desk at WestJet offered to let us leave our rental car with them and they would take care of returning it to the terminal. We took them up on their offer. Prior to getting to the airport we dropped into a Ross where my passenger picked up thick socks and more layers. She was ready for the next leg.

I took a downwind departure from Rapid and took a heading that would take us within sight of Mt Rushmore, then across the Black Hills into Wyoming and within sight of Devil's Tower. After that we would pick up a heading for Gillette, then Sheridan and finally landing at Laurel, MT (because I couldn't think of a place that was better).


The video above is from the camera in the back. It starts just after departing RAP and shows the Black Hills. You can see Rushmore and Devil's tower if you know what they look like, but I gave them plenty of room.

I had a camera also but managed to drop it in the belly of the plane. I'm going to retrieve it this weekend and pick the footage from it.

The winds blowing between Sheridan, WY and Billings, MT were pretty sporty. The ASOS at Laurel 6S8 (I think) indicated quartering 16G23. Okay. So far I had been lucky just doing exactly as I've been taught. There's always the option of a go around. The landing was completely uneventful other than the additional power required to taxi. My companion ran inside to thaw while I pumped more of Philips finest into the tanks.
Using the power setting of 25" x 1800 rpm and leaning by ear I consistently got 16.7 gallons/hour at what turns out to be around 115kts. So you burn twice as much as a C172 with half the seats. Oh and a tiny luggage compartment. But what a sound, eh?

Off we went, facing some mild turbulence and headwinds as we passed Livingston, Bozeman and Butte. From Butte we deviated over Anaconda and Philipsburg, then rejoined I-90 and into Missoula where the tower gave me a straight in.

We stopped at the same jet center my son and I stole the car from when we headed East. I stood grinning as the woman handed me keys to a white GMC and listened carefully as she told me to go through the gate where I would find the car (with the company logo all over the door).
Gassed up (again) and full of late lunch we were given a couple of XXL matching hoodie sweatshirts to increase our chances of survival over the pass Westward.

Last picture taken as we passed South of Spokane

What a great tale. The BT-13 was always one of my favorites I think because they were frequently listed with a fresh overhaul in Trade-a-plane for somewhere south of $8K when I was a wee lad. The T6 was always more in money and quantity. I had dreams of course until I realized that 80/87 was almost $.90 a gallon.

Dan