Thought I'd join the trend of having my own running trip report here.
After trying to leave my in laws place on the 29th, my trusty C180 sprung an oil leak. A nice hangar owner, the luck of an AME coming up the next day, and some investigation and we found that the governor base gasket was leaking. Replaced the gasket and life is good. Forgot to clean the oil out of the piano hinge on the oil fill door, so had to make a quick circuit to make sure that's where oil was spraying from and not leaking again. Made good time on the flight home as we had a good tail wind.
Love the hoar frost on the hill tops.

Always fun to share the skies. Any of you guys flying big iron around northern Alberta this morning?

River is almost freezing up.

Decent tail wind.

After dropping the wife and daughter off I headed down to my parents to pick up my trusty hound Torque. Only his second flight but he jumped right in so he must enjoy it.


David

Torque needs Mutt Muffs, like Molly's:



Cary

Ya I know he does. I wanted to get him in the plane and see how he'd do before buying a set. Now that I know he likes them I'll be getting a set for him.

A1Skinner wrote:...we found that the governor base gasket was leaking. Replaced the gasket and life is good...

You do have the whistle slot up high in the crankcase breather tube, correct???

marcusofcotton wrote:

A1Skinner wrote:...we found that the governor base gasket was leaking. Replaced the gasket and life is good...

You do have the whistle slot up high in the crankcase breather tube, correct???

Yes I do. The first thing I checked once I got the cowling off was that the breather tube was clear and it was...

A1Skinner wrote:Ya I know he does. I wanted to get him in the plane and see how he'd do before buying a set. Now that I know he likes them I'll be getting a set for him.

Heads up, they're sometimes a 2-person job. Bear does ok with them but Healy has a little peanut head and they tend to slip off. My wife has to turn around and "reinstall" them a few times each flight.

We're actually thinking about getting her the next size smaller. Want to buy a slightly used set?

CamTom12 wrote:

A1Skinner wrote:Ya I know he does. I wanted to get him in the plane and see how he'd do before buying a set. Now that I know he likes them I'll be getting a set for him.

Heads up, they're sometimes a 2-person job. Bear does ok with them but Healy has a little peanut head and they tend to slip off. My wife has to turn around and "reinstall" them a few times each flight.

We're actually thinking about getting her the next size smaller. Want to buy a slightly used set?

What size do you have. Torque is pretty big. Just shy of 10lbs. Never measured his head yet.

I'll look and tell you tomorrow. We got the same size for both, though Healy was at the lower end for that size. Bear's a meat head. He only weighs 50 lbs but he's got a nugget.

Well it was another year for our annual fishing trip up to Bistcho Lake. Ended up with 2 182s, a Citabria and my 180 and 12 guys. The weather was beautiful, with about 4 hrs of really windy rough lake conditions. Steve and Debbie continue to do a great job running the lodge, and have done more improvements over the last year. Simple things like a fish cleaning shack sure make life easier.

The flight up. We went 3 per 0lace and more gear. This allowed some relaxation as you can see my brother with his feet up in the bubble window.

Didn't take us long to get on the fish again, this 7lb 9oz jack I caught within an hr of arriving.

We caught many fish and had a great time.

This is about 1130 pm. Fish were still biting.

We pulled up under this bald eagles nest and fished for a while. The pair kept a close eye on us but didn't seem bothered at all.

More fish!

Some shenanigans involving boat jumping and trying not to lose expensive electronics in the lake.

And more fish! Biggest one of the weekend was a 15.5lb Pike. Biggest Walleye was 5lbs 2oz.

Crew of planes and strip looking west.

Rest of the strip looking east.

Steve the lodge owner and I discussing some very important business.


Trip home. Dodging clouds. Thunder storms were forecast for later in the day, and I'm sure they happened. Ended up landing at home with 40mph headwind.
All in all it was another great trip. Looking forward to next year!
David

Fantastic David! Looks like great fun!

Kurt

Hard to beat fishin n flyin with ur buddies!!! Thanks

Great TR. Looks like a blast! Did you do this same trip last year?


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Crzyivan13 wrote:Great TR. Looks like a blast! Did you do this same trip last year?


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Yes we did Evan. Just with one plane and 4 guys. I wrote up a TR on it. viewtopic.php?t=17449

Thanks guys, it was fun. Looking forward to next year!

A1Skinner wrote:

Crzyivan13 wrote:Great TR. Looks like a blast! Did you do this same trip last year?


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Yes we did Evan. Just with one plane and 4 guys. I wrote up a TR on it. viewtopic.php?t=17449

Thanks guys, it was fun. Looking forward to next year!

Thats what I thought. Looks like an awesome little trip

Ya it's a lot of fun. Not too much flying, but great fun with good friends.
There's another lake about 15 minutes away that I'd love to hop too, but it'd be a one passenger and light load strip. Tall brush almost touching the wings and short. A 182 just crashed there recently. There's no boats or cabins there either, so would just be a day hop over from Bistcho. May try it next year.

Good Alberta boys... hoar frost on the mountains but shirts off fishing. Hell, its sunny, it must be warm!

Love those late light days. One of my sons is canoeing the Yukon river this week, bet they don't see a lot of darkness.

Have you seen the show Letterkenny yet? Hilarious, but you might have to be a rural Canadian to get it.

A buddy of mine bought a bushmaster the other day and isn't tailwheel rated yet. So I got to go ferry it home from Aberdeen Saskatchewan for him. 550 miles and 8 hrs later we made it. It was a long slow bouncy flight. At a couple points cars were passing us. We had a brutal headwind the whole way, but it was still fun. And what a fun airplane! It's a 180 hp swinging a bit 78" Mac. On 31s. Off the ground and climbing at 30mph indicated. The extra 4 feet of wing make the roll rate a little soft, but that's why the rudder is there I guess!

Gary checking out his new plane.

Making a whopping 75mph.

An even worse 49 kts.

Saskatchewan landscape.

And home.
Fun flight, and fun plane. Excited to wring it out on a calm day and see what it's really capable of. It'll be a good plane for Gary to learn his tailwheel with and he'll have fun dialing it in.

Easy to recognize Gary. He hasn't changed much. With this new found common interest, I think I should make a better effort to reacquaint.

Well, haven't been flying to much, just a few short flights here and there. Been to busy with my new career as an AME. Really loving the work. Rebuilt a Scout last winter and have some super cub wings almost finished here now. All while trying to keep mt regulars up and running with annuals and small repairs.
My big news is that I officially own my own airport now. It's not currently registered but I will be getting that rectified shortly. Then a hangar and residence will get built this winter. Moving the business out there. 3700' of grass. Maybe build a float pond along side it one day. So stop in and visit once in out there!
Gonna be fun!!