https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/new ... yptr=yahoo

All things considered, he went out in a pretty good way, quick, and after a last flight. He was a true friend to aviation, all the way from the big people movers down to guys like me and my bird. I am so glad I got to meet him, and will never forget his tour he gave me of his place, complete with control tower, and TWO elevators, the ONLY elevators in Custer County! He treated me like I was the CEO of Boeing for hell's sake, even giving me the "special" coffee cup when we were having breakfast. Looked like a regular cup, but he told me the last person to use it was the team leader of Seal Team 6, I about blew coffee out thru my nose. Patty Wagstaff had visited a few weeks earlier, and at various times I've seen Blackhawk helicopters parked on his ramp, and once saw a C-17 on short final to his strip. Flying into his strip was like something out of a James Bond movie, hard to believe what you were seeing, considering where it is located. RIP Joe Clark

Custer County what state?

Reminds me of our neighbor... Beagle Sky Ranch was built by two guys, Ray Bruton and Laurel Miller... Ray died in a sail boating accident sometime In the 70’s...

Now Laurel lives into his 80’s... he would get up every morning, rain or shine and take his little Cessna 140 for a 30 minute or so flight... it was like clockwork, you could count on seeing the 140 taxi to the end of the runway no later than 9AM... On the day he died he took the airplane up at about 8AM, put the airplane away, went into the house, sat on the couch and died right there... best way to go IMO..

Brian


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C180_guy wrote:Custer County what state?

The best one of course, Idaho!

courierguy wrote:

C180_guy wrote:Custer County what state?

The best one of course, Idaho!

Cool - what strip? Always looking to check out cool places.

Anybody here interested in his 7,000' runway and ranch?

Indeed Robert, it will be interesting to see what becomes of it. For those that don't know, the area is well off the beaten path to say the least. Too remote to appeal to many well heeled folk, no restaurants or anything really within an hours drive, and then just small town stuff. It's unique for sure.

Another strip is right up the valley, 17 miles from Joe's. It sits in a very deep narrow canyon and unless you were looking for it, wouldn't notice it. This place: 44.670142 -113.917690

Last I overflew it, this summer, it was full of cattle. No power back there, but that creek running down the canyon would easily provide more then enough hydroelectric potential. TOTAL privacy, and only one way in, and the backyard is spectacular, with May Mountain overlooking the place. Forest service land behind. I like this place better then Joe's, more suited to my kind of flying anyway. It was for sale a few years back, my impression is it was bought by a non pilot. Or maybe a pilot who really likes cattle.

robertc wrote:Anybody here interested in his 7,000' runway and ranch?

We are actively looking for an Idaho airstrip home, but I am guessing this may be a tad outside of our budget.

A few pictures of Joe's setup, sent by a mutual friend. I asked him when I was getting the tour, where did the ready mix concrete trucks have to come from, and I got a lesson in thinking big. "We set up our own batch plant." Those with a construction background will get that....everything was done to the highest standards, in spite of the remote location.

The control tower:

One of TWO tower elevators, this one was pneumatic, and worked like the delivery tube at your bank! Built for a friend who was claustrophobic I believe he said, and as everything else, it appeared to be professionally engineered, "half ass" was not in his vocabulary. The other elevator was a standard commercial elevator like any office building would have, these were and still are the only two elevators in the the county, according to the county building inspector. That inspector is probably still talking about this project.

The tower top, as you can see it was a working tower, ha ha. I earned my creds with Joe I think after he had pointed out one of the peaks and said that he often flew the helicopter up to it's saddle (about 9K) and had coffee up there in the morning. A few hours later, after I got home, I emailed him a picture of my plane up there, that got his attention.

A self portrait of the mutual friend who sent me this pictures, over the Sawtooths, pretty cool.

I sat with Joe and Clay Lacey at Bob Hoovers dinner at Oshkosh in 2015. Heck of a memorable experience!

I grew up in Salmon, and always wondered what the deal was with the place with the control tower down on the Pahsimeroi. I wish I could've met him!