It’s on the list too! I wanted the kids to be a little bit older before we did Oshkosh.


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Today we did our annual New Years Flight a few weeks late. Fog threatened to ruin our day, but it broke enough to get into our plan B location. After lunch, it burned off just enough to get in to visit a friend at his private strip and let the kids play in the snow. The flight home was some of the most beautiful flying I’ve done in a while. Allen and Emily got some great shots of my plane from their 170.



Thick fog over Afton.


Walking to lunch in Alpine where we met up with some friends.



We stopped in at Heiner’s to let the kids play in the snow and visit some good friends.




Heading home.






Some amazing shots Allen and Emily got of our plane.




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Wow! Those are some great shots, Cory.

Looks like a great day. Also looks like someone else has a pretty sweet airstrip just soutwest of Heiner when I looked at Google Maps.

Havent seen Sprocket in your pics in quite a while.
Have your kids outgrown him?

It’s hit or miss on whether Sprocket comes along. Sometimes it’s a must and other times I don’t think it ever crossed his mind. I guess he’s getting to that age. Kind of sad to see but it’s one less thing to have to keep track of.


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Looks like a fun trip. You will have to stop by in the summer and say hi. I try not to be up in WY in the winter if I can help it! I didn't know Gaylan pushed the snow on his strip in the winter!

I would love to. Do you have a strip at your place? I know there are a few around.

Yeah, he keeps it plowed down to the grass. We love his place.


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Yes, we have a grass strip in our community. I live about 300 ft off the strip. Look up 32WY. Private, but you have permission to come see me.

Sweet! I’d love to! I’ve looked at that strip before. My wife’s family has a cabin about 1.5 miles NE of your strip on the other side of the highway. Maybe I could talk you into letting me park my plane there for a night or two when we visit the cabin.

It's been a while, primarily because Tapatalk has taken away the ability to post pics in a reply. That combined with work and weather that hasn't let me do as much flying as I would have liked. So, I've taken a few minutes to figure out my Flickr account info so I could upload a few pics so I could update this thread with some of the things I've been doing.

Adam and I took a flight down to Mexican Mountain one Saturday afternoon about a month ago just to get out. It was a long way to go for a 15 minute hike, but still fun. We did a little recon flight over Temple Mountain too.

Next up, at the end of last year I got involved with the UBCPs. Long story short,I had the opportunity to go fly the Utah Backcountry with the director of the Utah Division of Aeronautics, Jared Esselman, the GA manager for SLC airport, Dave Teggins (first time in a small plane), and his intern Alex Clark. Dave and Alex are developing a Passport Program for the state of Utah and want to include a few backcountry strips. So they reached out to the Utah Backcountry Pilots Association and I was asked to advise them. I figured the best way for them to decide what would fit what they are looking for was to see them in person. It was a perfect day to introduce them all to some great strips. We visited four strips and I showed them several more. All in all probably about 6.5 hours of flying all over the state and they loved it!

The before pic leaving SLC. Love the performance of the 205. Performed great even with all of us and a good portion of my normal gear.


Mineral Canyon for a lunch stop.



Checking out the south canyon off of Angel Point.


Mandatory inflight selfie.


Fry Canyon looking NW.


You can't see them but some cool Anasazi ruins in the slot next to the strip.


Ibex in great shape.


Back at SLC. A long but fun day of flying. They loved it and we have a really good backcountry/GA advocate and ally in the new state director.

Sounds like a great day and excellent PR. Way to go!!!!

And most recently, while not backcountry, I thought I'd add it in here. Last week we took our kids to Beijing, China for spring break. Why China? Sadie and Tyler are in an immersion program at school. Sadie is conversant and Tyler is progressing nicely. We saw all the requisite places and loved watching our little blue-eyed, blond hair 8 year old blow there minds when she would start speaking Chinese. The Chinese people were so warm, open and welcoming. We had an awesome trip and will be going back. Our kids were treated like celebrities. People wanted to have pictures with them, touch their hair, etc. And, we got to eat fried scorpions! Actually quite yummy! And to keep it aviation related, we flew over and back on a 787. Very cool plane. The crews were great and one of the captains on the way back was really cool. Announced our names over the PA announcement for the kids to hear and invited us up after to see the flight deck.

The Lama Temple


Boiled and fried dumplings for lunch with noodles. Also chocolate and banana fried dumplings for dessert.


Great Wall. Kind of disappointing because of the visibility but we can say we've been there. Definitely going back though.


Tiananmen Square with the Forbidden City behind us.


Sadie and Adam and the local paparazzi. Tyler was being shy.


Scorpions on a stick. Tastes like popcorn. Those standing up are still alive. Those on the pan have been fried.


Giant pandas! The highlight of the trip for the kids.


Adam and Sadie at the Summer Palace.


Dee and I at the Summer Palace.


The flight deck of the 787. Other than the controls being in the wrong place (I'm an Airbus guy) it was a really nice cockpit. For you Hotrod180, look close and you can see Sprocket made the trip!

180Marty wrote:Sounds like a great day and excellent PR. Way to go!!!!

Thanks Marty. I've been doing a bit of work with them and Jared is definitely pro GA and pro backcountry. He used to work for AOPA. He wanted the UBCP to create a 5 year plan (which we have done) and intends to help implement it. His goal is to establish a true backcountry network, like Idaho has, here in Utah. I think we have an opportunity here to make some real strides in rehabbing, developing, and establishing new strips in Utah.

It looks like you have added the VG’s. I am flying a 1966 206 (small horizontal stab) at the moment and it definitely runs out of elevator with 1 or 2 up and no gear in the back. Did the VG’s make any difference to that?
It also looks like you still have the original wing (no STOL kit). What difference did you find with the VG’s in general?

JamieG wrote:It looks like you have added the VG’s. I am flying a 1966 206 (small horizontal stab) at the moment and it definitely runs out of elevator with 1 or 2 up and no gear in the back. Did the VG’s make any difference to that?
It also looks like you still have the original wing (no STOL kit). What difference did you find with the VG’s in general?

Hi Jamie,

In my mind the VGs are mandatory. Huge difference in stability in roll and authority in pitch. With out them, I feel that it flew like a three wheeled shopping cart. With them it is solid and responsive all the way to a stall, which is 10%+ lower, although they only advertise 5-8% depending on the CG. Check out my thread on the install and a results. Those early 206s have the smaller flaps like the 205 too, don't they? Anyway, get the VGs. You won't regret it and will wonder why you hadn't already done it! And spend the money to have them paint them. I painted them the first time I put them on my first 205 and had them paint them the second time. It's a day job with 2 of you working on it. Maybe less if you've done them before and have more than 2 sets of hands.

https://backcountrypilot.org/forum/c205 ... lete-14296

Thanks. I dont own it but felt like it would benefit from VG’s. It has the big flaps but also has flap gap seals which may be degrading takeoff at 20 Deg, With flaps 40 for landing the gap seals probably have less of a negative effect. I am realy liking it, especially when loaded, so capable and comfortable. It has the IO 520 and cargo pod. We have a 180J with sportsman, VG’s, O 520 and cargo pod, so its pretty capable too but not so comfortable or easy to load, esp for the people in the back (5 & 6). I am not looking to swap but if I was carrying loads all the time I’d be into one in a heart beat.
Love the stuff you do with your family.

Thanks! I have the IO-520 in mine as well. I'm not sure what they did with those early 206s in regards to the cargo area. The 205s ends about 8 inches aft of the rear seats. I put an extended cargo area in about a year ago and that made a big difference as well. I carry 85# back there all the time. I was considering a cargo pod, but for now I'm good with the extended baggage area. Maybe as the kids get bigger I'll have to reconsider.

Where are you flying? For work I'm guessing?

Flying mostly for fun, some for business. Non commercial ops. Cattle Farmer (Rancher) here in NZ