I just got the book by Galen Hanselman, Fly Utah! It is fantastic. It is much more than a flight guide to back country airstrips. Each strip has all the specific details as described on his website,,, http://flyidaho.com. Of course, this is awesome and worth the price of admission, but I was really impressed with the "Ground Section". There's a whole history lesson and activity guide for each airstrip . It is easily a lifetime's worth of work.

Even if you never plan on flying in Utah, get this book! It is wonderful and worth far more than $60. (14 gal of avgas?... c'mon!) He even offers a money back guarantee but I can't imagine anyone would ever exercise that option! The book's great.

I have Fly Idaho, it's a good one. I wish all the info for each place was all together, instead of runway pix in one section & narrative in another.
Also wish it was a bit easier to find the info you want- you have to figure out what region an airport is in, then look thru that region's info to find it. Coulda been alphabatized or something, easier to deal with. Maybe a future edition will be different.
Is the Utah book laid out the same way?

Eric

zero.one.victor wrote: Is the Utah book laid out the same way?

Eric

Yup, it is pretty much the same layout, pix and runway graphics in front, cultural stuff (propwash and other drivel) in back. The difference is that there is more runway information than previous books, like gradients, landable/unlandable color coding, etc., and more stories, some of which are quite fascinating.

The book took a huge amount of time and effort to research and publish, and it shows. It will become the Utah backcountry pilot's bible, just like the Idaho edition did.


Rocky

Damn

Some people would bitch if ya hung em with a new rope. I agree with Spinner and Rocky. I think it is a great book and greatly appreciate the effort that Galen put into it.

shortfielder wrote:Damn

Some people would bitch if ya hung em with a new rope. I agree with Spinner and Rocky. I think it is a great book and greatly appreciate the effort that Galen put into it.

What's the big deal? Even the best publications have room for improvement. It's not like he giving it away for free. I'm sure Hanselman's doing quite nicely from the venture, which will allow him to continue to improve subsequent editions.

You're right, Gary, I would bitch if ya hung me with a new rope. I much prefer an older, broke-in rope-- much more comfortable. But not too old- I wouldn't want it to break before it finished the job it was intended for.

Eric

Quicksilver

It's no big deal. It just seems that Galen has invested a few years and atleast 1 airplane in the gathering of information for the backcountrypilots that are interested. It seems that he has put a tremendous amount of effort into gathering for us, the most and best information available.

And yes he sells the book for $60.00. If he sold 2000 books that would give him $120K. I don't think that would be any "fat hog" for him considering the effort and dedication that he has ut into this and the other books. I don't think that he is in this primarily for the money. He has to love what he is doing. It does seem that he does try to improve on his books from one to the next.

I know that no matter what you do, or who does it, there is almost always a different and/or better way of doing it. I guess I'm just a little more accepting. When someone does something for me I just appreciate it and am not so quick to find fault.

Gary

shortfielder wrote: And yes he sells the book for $60.00. If he sold 2000 books that would give him $120K. I don't think that would be any "fat hog" for him considering the effort and dedication that he has put into this and the other books. I don't think that he is in this primarily for the money. Gary

A. He'll be lucky if he sells 1000 books.
B. Each book probably cost him $30 in such a small run.
C. He probably spent $30,000 flyin around takin all those pictures.
D. If he's lucky he might be able to buy four or five tankfulls of gas at today's prices!

My kudos to Galen, it really was a labor of love!


Rocky

RockyTFS wrote:C. He probably spent $30,000 flyin around takin all those pictures.

Don't ever feel bad for a guy who flew to every strip in the Fly Idaho and Fly Utah guides.

RockyTFS wrote:
A. He'll be lucky if he sells 1000 books.
B. Each book probably cost him $30 in such a small run.
C. He probably spent $30,000 flyin around takin all those pictures.
D. If he's lucky he might be able to buy four or five tankfulls of gas at today's prices!

My kudos to Galen, it really was a labor of love!


Rocky

Yep, we're stealing from him - not making him fat. To have access to this level of info for every strip out back in Utah for the equivalent of an hour's flight.... Sheesh, we're lucky. Galen, keep up the great work!

That's not to say it's perfect. I too would like to have the airstrips ground section immediately following the Air info. It seems more intuitive as a user to have it this way, but whatever...

Bottom line... if you don't have it, GET IT.

1SeventyZ wrote:

RockyTFS wrote:C. He probably spent $30,000 flyin around takin all those pictures.

Don't ever feel bad for a guy who flew to every strip in the Fly Idaho and Fly Utah guides.

Zane, I surely don't feel bad for Galen; these (somewhat tongue in cheek) points were merely meant to illustrate my belief that he isn't likely to get rich on these books.

I'll probably never get into half of these strips in Utah, but before his book I only considered a quarter of them even an option due to the difficulty of getting really good onsite info on them. As in the Fly Idaho book, I use his cultural and site info to decide whether they are interesting enough to bother with before deciding whether I dare put my plane into any of them!

Rocky

RockyTFS wrote:

1SeventyZ wrote:Don't ever feel bad for a guy who flew to every strip in the Fly Idaho and Fly Utah guides.

Zane, I surely don't feel bad for Galen; these (somewhat tongue in cheek) points were merely meant to illustrate my belief that he isn't likely to get rich on these books.

Rocky...I know..I should have used the winky face. I was just playing on the old saying "don't ever feel bad for a guy who owns an airplane," meaning that ol' Galen is a fellow to be envied.