Not today, earlier this summer, Bridger Montana for a fly in breakfast. 20 or 30 miles away, I spotted this isolated old church.

Later that day, Henry's Lake pilot's campground, WHICH REMINDS ME! At some other point this summer I had planned to overnight there, and when I over flew it, I saw a big RV parked right by the canopy over the picnic table, shown in this pic. Now maybe the RV'r was a pilot, or meeting a pilot, or somehow was related to aviation somehow. Or, maybe he was a tourista, could give a hoot about flying, and just glomed onto this spot to park for the night. No way I was going to land there and pitch my tent next to him, it kinda pissed me off. Then I remembered I had 3 hours of fuel left, and continued onto Rexberg, where I threw my tent up in an isolated area on the north end of the strip. At 1 in the morning, I found out the local medical emergency chopper was based about 150' from my tent, as they came in for a landing. Back to sleep, then at 3:30 they took off again. Not that the noise and it's landing light were much worse then when the large industrial building, (not a hangar) just north of me, halogen security lights clicked on about 11:00, after I had taken some pain to make sure I was out of the rotating beacons rays (any pilot who has made a impromptu overnighter at a small strip knows there are two things to avoid 1. automatic pop up sprinklers 2. The all night long strob action of a rotating beacon), then I thought of the campground at Henry's and that RV again. Oh well, I still had a fun time, and I at least provided some late night amusement for the chopper crew I'm sure.

Yesterday we continued from Whitehorse - Watson Lake - Fort Nelson - Dawson Creek. Found no fuel available in Watson Lake but with long range tanks we had more than enough to make Fort Nelson. (CARS guy said he hoped it would be repaired by today but call ahead if you are going through there soon). Wind started to pick up and we landed in Dawson Creek with 16 gusting to 24...almost down the runway though so a little sporty but I managed to get it down without embarrassment.

Got it tied down in a nice grassy spot and a local guy generously offered us a ride to a hotel.



Today we made it to Red Deer and called it a day. Planning to clear customs in Cut Bank but todays wind down that way.... well, a man has to know his limitations.



Red Deer is always a fun stop. Lots of interesting airplanes. It's been a couple of years since I stopped here. Tankers all over this year.. I assume these are made for fire fighting??







And just like at the airlines... the co-pilot does all the work! I haven't pumped fuel yet on this trip.

Saturday we made a quick run over to JL's place near Gull. Perfect day!

Mille Lacs shining in the distance.

Pete and Ashley in the Husky








colors starting to change


9Y2

Great pics once again BRD. I see 88F has found a new home. She was based here in Michigan. I hope new owner is happy with her.

Kurt

Thanks Kurt, Pete is really enjoying the airplane! He does think it needs 31 inch tires now though..

Have been out the last couple of evenings as the colors start to change. They are not quite peak, but getting there. My wife paints water colors and likes to get the soft late afternoon light to see the contours and depth of the terrain. Here are some photos all within a 25 mile radius of our strip. The photo quality isn't great, but I figured I would give you a quick tour of our back yard.

Pete


The Hudson Just off the end of the strip


Gore Mt, the local ski area. About 1 1/2 miles from the strip. 2,500' vert., 100+ trails & 14 lifts


The Backside of the ski area


I live about a mile up the road that heads up the little valley.


The Hudson about 15 miles upriver from where we are. Looking upstream towards the town of Newcomb & the High peaks.


Some nice colors on a ridge of Moxham Mt. , which is a couple miles North of the strip.


Looking west past A brook trout pond on the edge of the Siamese ponds Wilderness area. It's roughly 15 miles past the pond to the next road.


Another backcountry pond, looking East here.


Our strip, looking North and at the town of North Creek.

Ok, I am definitely not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. I uploaded the thumbnails instead of the full size image for four of the photos. Here they are in order.









Pete

First try with a camera on the outside of my airplane. More to come as I refine the setup. Thanks Zzz for the BCP stickers!

Boy, you folks sure are saving me a lot of avgas with these awesome pics of your journeys. [emoji6]

Keep em coming!!!

Turner Ranch / Sierra Valley - best time of year to fly


AKT


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I know it’s kinda a lame pic. But seeing this view on a dead calm nice day through the west entrance of the narrows headed east through Lake Clark Pass is very calming......I’ve seen it much worse. Hats off to the Air Taxi drivers that do it almost daily.

South Lake Tahoe, CA

TVATIVAK71 wrote:I know it’s kinda a lame pic. But seeing this view on a dead calm nice day through the west entrance of the narrows headed east through Lake Clark Pass is very calming......I’ve seen it much worse. Hats off to the Air Taxi drivers that do it almost daily.

Not lame if anyone has been there. I've developed a love/hate relationship with this place. The pass on a nice day is the most beautiful place to fly. On a bad day, I couldn't imagine a worse place to be. It's a regular route for me. With two engines, I've done it at night. Can't say I liked that but we have synthetic vision, GPS waypoints programmed and a good autopilot/avionics that will fly it safely above 2500'. On a nice day, <1000' is where the fun is though.

Love:


Hate: (terrible pic but you get the point if you recognize the terrain on the 600)


Both of these were taken with no pax, under part 91.

asa wrote:

TVATIVAK71 wrote:I know it’s kinda a lame pic. But seeing this view on a dead calm nice day through the west entrance of the narrows headed east through Lake Clark Pass is very calming......I’ve seen it much worse. Hats off to the Air Taxi drivers that do it almost daily.

Not lame if anyone has been there. I've developed a love/hate relationship with this place. The pass on a nice day is the most beautiful place to fly. On a bad day, I couldn't imagine a worse place to be. It's a regular route for me. With two engines, I've done it at night. Can't say I liked that but we have synthetic vision, GPS waypoints programmed and a good autopilot/avionics that will fly it safely above 2500'. On a nice day, <1000' is where the fun is though.

Love:

IMG_1684.jpg

Hate: (terrible pic but you get the point if you recognize the terrain on the 600)

IMG_2325.jpg

Both of these were taken with no pax, under part 91.

Yeah, that’s an awesome route to fly. These days I only fly it 4-6 times a year so I can pretty much pick good days to go. Even then a good VFR day can change for the worse on a dime. Wish the Navajos I flew in a previous life (Penair) had instruments like your operation does. Some of ours still had Loran’s in them, but even then they still seemed to get the job done. I do love the new technology upgrades! Nice pics!

TVATIVAK71 wrote:I know it’s kinda a lame pic. But seeing this view on a dead calm nice day through the west entrance of the narrows headed east through Lake Clark Pass is very calming......I’ve seen it much worse. Hats off to the Air Taxi drivers that do it almost daily.

I don't want to live in a world where this is a lame pic.

Zzz wrote:

TVATIVAK71 wrote:I know it’s kinda a lame pic. But seeing this view on a dead calm nice day through the west entrance of the narrows headed east through Lake Clark Pass is very calming......I’ve seen it much worse. Hats off to the Air Taxi drivers that do it almost daily.

I don't want to live in a world where this is a lame pic.

AMEN! Can I get a witness?

Zzz wrote:

TVATIVAK71 wrote:I know it’s kinda a lame pic. But seeing this view on a dead calm nice day through the west entrance of the narrows headed east through Lake Clark Pass is very calming......I’ve seen it much worse. Hats off to the Air Taxi drivers that do it almost daily.

I don't want to live in a world where this is a lame pic.

What I meant by lame was it was taken out of the side window rear seat and it provided a not so flattering view of the west Narrows. Tried out the front window but it’s with a GoPro and those damn prop lines were streaked across the windshield. Guess I coulda turned further northeast straight into the hill so the back seater coulda gotten a better pic. Then I woulda been nit picked by peeps telling me I was flying on wrong side of pass. This is all said in jest BTW! I’ll get a better pic next time....in May.LOL

Debbie was out in the 150 Saturday evening and then I went and looked at the last leaf hurrah on Sunday afternoon.

Got in Friday from the west coast. Traditional wing image...


Saturday evening:







Sunday afternoon:

^ Awesome Fall colours, really spectacular!!

Here is a very short video of a 172 we guided into a small spot in the middle of the Southern Alps. The owner wanted to prove it was possible with a full load aboard, so we took a few extra precautions (high air pressure, freezing cold morning, nil wind as one-way only):

To Leadore, (north) for breakfast, about 140 miles, depending on how you measure. Against my best intuition, as the south wind was already evident at dawn, and almost all the time that means it will do nothing but get stronger. I've been flying there once or twice a year since my ultralight days, so for almost 40 years now. The surviving options to eat at have changed over the years, one (and always just one, pretty much) goes down and another takes it's place. For a couple of years there was none....or at least they were not open when I was there. Now, I am happy to say one is back up and running. A very short, 2 minutes, walk from the broken up asphalt strip (more gravel then anything) there were two locals and two outa town hunters there, and once the subject of elk herd sizes came up, I butted in and mentioned I'd just flown in and about 3 miles from where we sat, saw a herd of at least 50. That led to one old boy, a local, telling me that he used to fly pipeline patrol, having had a 180 and a Super Cub for some years. That led to me telling some lies, then him, and a good time was had by all. Turns out, he was 87 years old, so he had more lies to tell then I did.

I also found that despite having a total seating area of maybe 12 or 15 in the cafe, and the co-joined bar having another 15,20, or 30 at most capacity, they have a big Halloween show scheduled. So, if you have not made plans yet for All Hallows night, fly into Leadore, and for 10 bucks, you will get to see these two:

A while back I had a lady friend who was a semi pro stand up comedian, (and a ex city cop) she got paid for it anyway, and traveled around the west doing her thing. She is no longer with us but damn I wish I could take her to this show. Do the math, with a total audience size of 30 to 50 people as an estimate, I think these two jokesters may just be taking the gig for material for their act. They may be doing a Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, etc.) type thing, goofing on the locals. I suggest they proceed cautiously. In case they end up doing Netflix specials, you can say you saw them here first. BTW, if I had a nickel for every bar in the west with the name Silver Dollar, I'd be even wealthier.

Getting rid of some coffee on the way back. Cars and even slow trucks were passing me going over Gilmore Summit, I was making about 56 GPS, while indicating 80 +. Back at my strip, I had a 18-20+ mph direct crosswind, no surprise, but I cheated a bit on my 18' wide strip and angled her in just a bit and got it down OK, my major X wind option always being landing direct into it but that's in tall brush and grass so I need to shut down the engine when I do that to make it easier on the prop.