Short, 20 minute, flight to dinner in the flatlands of Illinois with my daughter. Any time in the plane is fun. Any time with daughter is fun. Her facebook status was the best though: "Got to fly with Dad today! My favorite! I am one very very lucky girl. ✈"

This past weekend, to Silver Lake,OR.


Mahogany Mountain, private strip, permission required.


The Cowboy Dinner Tree, waiting for our 30 oz steak and whole chicken dinners!!


Our cozy cabin for the night!


Our leader, Zane, has left his mark!!


The famous restaurant with small portions-NOT!


Airstrip property owner, Mark and Little John.

John, that is really funny. I've never been to the Cowboy Dinner Tree, I think I've been framed.

A good year flying so far for me. I counted 13 new strips bagged, some here in Utah and 8 in Idaho. I hope to get a few more at the Hi Sierra Fly In, and earlier!

Today I landed for the first time on Freemont Island in the Great Salt Lake with a guy who has been flying on dirt strips forever.

We hit the ridge strip a couple of times first, and then to the beach strip for a couple of landings. Both are pretty rough and ultra narrow- as in 4 wheel drive roads!!

I had been wanting to get out there for some time, but was loathe to go alone as there is nothing published about them, length, etc. Now I will be ready to take pax or lead others.

I am sorry, but I still don't have the code to upload some images. I will keep trying; at least I have an Avatar now....

Cal

Returned from 2 weeks in the Sedona / Cottonwood AZ area. First time the Grand Canyon overflight was really clear and nicely lit with the early morning sun. We flew the ZUNI corridor (most eastern north south corridor) at 11,500, over flew Marble canyon and then fuel stop at Bryce Canyon. Full fuel departure was interesting as the density altitude was nearly 10,000 ft so the Pacer spent a bit more time getting off the ground!! All in all, a great flight back to Ogden Utah,.
john

1950 Super Chipmunk with IO-540 Yeehaw!!!

Very nice!

Hey Little John,

That looks great, I've always wanted to do that. Is the owner of Mahogany Mountain okay with people flying in to stay the night at the Cowboy Dinner Tree if they call ahead? If so is the number on Airnav.com correct? Or are you just personal friends? Would love to check it out sometime soon!

cheers
Tyler

Glad you made it over John! Our trip last weekend for scrubbed due to our friend's business being robbed. I'm hoping to get over there before the summer is over!

Chosstronaut, if you can't camp on his runway, Silver Lake is a stone throw away.

Skalywag wrote:1950 Super Chipmunk with IO-540 Yeehaw!!!

You don't smoke!.....

Oso Loco wrote:A good year flying so far for me. I counted 13 new strips bagged, some here in Utah and 8 in Idaho. I hope to get a few more at the Hi Sierra Fly In, and earlier!

Today I landed for the first time on Freemont Island in the Great Salt Lake with a guy who has been flying on dirt strips forever.

We hit the ridge strip a couple of times first, and then to the beach strip for a couple of landings. Both are pretty rough and ultra narrow- as in 4 wheel drive roads!!

I had been wanting to get out there for some time, but was loathe to go alone as there is nothing published about them, length, etc. Now I will be ready to take pax or lead others.

I am sorry, but I still don't have the code to upload some images. I will keep trying; at least I have an Avatar now....

Cal

Awesome Cal! I've avoided them for the same reason. However, a friend from college told me a few years ago that he knows the family that owns the island and that they don't mind them being used. Hearsay, so take it for what it is worth.

I've avoided Promontory for the same reason. However, a few years ago I finally hit Spiral Jetty (another road) as well as Black Mountain. Last year Black mountain was smooth...but rough this Spring from sheep in the area.

Just a quick stop today at one of our local LZ's. Looking out at the Ruby Mountains and East Humboltd Range.



Runway:

What's with the small tires, Mike? Looks like you took the 35s off.

Rob, yes, I'm trying some worn out 29's for a while as I'm planning on making some x-countries and will save pavement wear on the 35's. They'll go back on in a while. That was my first rough landing with 29's and they worked great! There are some large badger holes around so I was a bit leery but that spot was above the holes. I'm still working on judging where I can land with the 29's. I look at a lot of spots I know the 35's can do with ease but I haven't learned the limits with 29's yet. I gained more confidence with them today.

Maverick and another friend and I came up with a quick way to lift the BH's for tire changes so swapping out tires only takes about 30 minutes. The 35's are bad-ass and I love the LZ's they open up. They were on 4-months and only made 3 pavement landings. It gets to be a pain planning trips to stay off pavement however so the 29's will get some air time.

blackrock wrote:Maverick and another friend and I came up with a quick way to lift the BH's for tire changes so swapping out tires only takes about 30 minutes. .

Are you jacking it by the axle? Or lift strut / motor mount?

We made a bar that runs between the gear leg strut attach fittings - in line with the axle but inboard. That way we can keep the jacks inboard of the tires and avoid interference between the jacks and tires.

OK, ready for fire season to be over. Flew to Cascade (u70) yesterday to spend they day up there with my girls. Horizontal visibility sucks. Pretty smokey from 9500' all the way down to about 5500' MSL. Yuck.





Cascade was a happening place. There were two other airplanes in the pattern when we came in, they were refuelling an ag plane with Jet-A, and the Sky Crane was there, we saw it land as we were getting ready to depart, that is a pretty impressive flying machine. I don't know ag planes very well but the nearest one has a round engine... that plane looked "experienced".


20130728_100549 by scottf, on Flickr

sky crane has been there for about a week... was operating every time I went in for gas from JC.. gas was 5.76 a gal a whole bunch cheaper than McCall...Ray Arnold was there my last stop.. always a pleasure to shake the hand of a mountain flying legend...

Detroit Lake, OR for breakfast, too busy on weekends with all the boats! Lucked out with a day off between jobs!

The ph# on AirNav is correct for Mahogany MTN, call ahead for permission. We could park for night beings we were staying at Cowboy Dinner Tree.

Nice, John! Did a little of that today myself. Good start to my Minnesota vacation.