Went to Johnson creek this summer . Way too many people .The amount of battshit crazy airmanship I witnessed every afternoon was pretty sad. …..

low rider wrote:Went to Johnson creek this summer . Way too many people .The amount of battshit crazy airmanship I witnessed every afternoon was pretty sad. …..

That's precisely why I haven't visited there for a couple years....which is sad.

I live right here in Idaho, and I've actually never been there for that exact reason. Seems like a shitshow to me.

CParker wrote:I live right here in Idaho, and I've actually never been there

Meh...it's a beautiful spot. Pick a time out of season or on a weekday and visit.

I usually stop in sometime in early October. Rarely another aircraft there. Its a gorgeous spot.

Staying away from JC because people show up overconfident and underprepared doesn't make much sense to me.

There are times when it is crowded, but most of the weekends in the summer there are less than ten planes there and it is very quiet.

I go every year. My kids love it there, great camping and there is a lot to do. It's close enough to set up base camp for excursions to the Middle Fork and Big Creek drainages.

I generally stay away from flyins, because getting away from crowds is one of the more appealing elements of backcountry flying. If I am feeling a little social, the human population density at JC is just about right most of the season.

The time of day can important for the strip and the area in question. The error bars on what you'll find in the canyons in the area in mid-day can vary from substantial to startlingly large well beyond 1630 or even 1800.

I once happened into JC on a day the ridge tops had moderate turbulence north of JC all the way towards the Main Salmon...sharp, dramatic chop that was foretold by the dry line moving through and the winds aloft. Pretty uncomfortable. Things flying around in the cabin at times. Things quieted down as I flew south to JC, and so I landed to snooze for the evening. I conveyed the description of what lay ahead for the folks in the Stinson that were about to take off for Mile Hi a bit later...that it was going to be a rough ride and it might work out better to wait to see if things calmed down later.

I'm really thankful they found the trail back to Cabin Creek.

Flying lower powered planes into the backcountry makes a lot of things that are existential for any sort of a good time remain as really good ideas when you have more power up front.

Who knows what would have happened in perfect conditions in better evening air an hour later. But it is nice to be able to choose to take off later or have another night under the stars to wait for the calm and frosty cool of the morning.

It’s not the airplane! Flying most anything in the backcountry is 10% airplane and 90% pilot!

In many cases I've seen at places like Johnson Creek, including Johnson Creek, the ridges around the airport intimidate the somewhat uninitiated. To fly a "normal" downwind, you need to be down IN the canyon, and thus close to dirt, which gives a lot of pilots a bad case of the quivers. So, they fly their downwind ABOVE the ridgeline, which is way higher than is healthy for most planes. Start an approach high, and the result is often too high/too fast or both over the runway.

That certainly appears to be what happened here. In the mountains, sometimes you have to fly close to terrain. If that makes you REALLY uncomfortable, best to stay out of the mountains.

This sounds a lot like the Bonanza that crashed at Warm Springs the weekend of the Eclipse in 2017. He was high on downwind above the ridge, turned base close in because of the opposite side of the canyon, and made a steep fast drop on final. First touchdown was about 1500 feet down the runway, 2-bounces, and finally held it on the ground and tried to brake with 500 feet of runway remaining (I found his tracks and measured it). He went off the end of the runway and hit a tree, no injuries, but I assume the plane was totaled.