As most everyone knows, I'm a greenhorn in the flying world. Having flown into Johnson Creek sitting right seat in years prior, I felt I knew what to expect, so this year I finally stepped up to the plate and made the journey to the largest, most manicured sidecountry airport in the northwest.

I departed the world of day job stress in search of another brand of stress: trip preparation. I drove down to Grants Pass and tied up my loose ends on the plane, weighed all my gear and pilot meat like a good boy, and although I was shooting for 5:30am, we departed 3S8 at 6:30am for McCall, ID on Friday morning.

Within just a few minutes we were greeted with the beautiful Crater Lake and Mt Scott in the southern Cascades.



We stopped at beautiful Burns, OR for a pit stop. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo, but little did I know that the image of this quite little eastern Oregon airport would later be indelibly etched into my memory.

We finally made it into McCall after bucking an 18 kt headwind component across eastern Oregon, and immediately ran into friends on the ramp. I had been text messaging with Jr. CubBuilder so I knew he'd be around, but we also ran into Wannabe and CAVU. Jr was flying solo so I pawned the notorious box of T-shirts off onto him to haul into 3U2.



Having arrived in McCall around 12:30pm, we were on the backside of the recommended mountain flying schedule. The wind was picking up and I just didn't really feel like playing rodeo clown to get back in there. We got a hotel room across the road from the airport and then set out in search of a cheeseburger. I fell asleep that night with visions of smooth air, while Bear Grylls of Man vs Wild explained the best way to take a leak inside a snow cave....



The next morning we debated on which route to take into Johnson Creek, and Wannabe showed us a nice southern route which isn't quite as intimidating as the craggy canyons NW of Krassel. We aimed for Landmark and then turned north to JC.

Jr.CubBuilder and Brown Whiskey framed against Cascade Reservoir:




After several anxiety filled nights of flying the tree-skimming downwind to runway 17 in my dreams, it was a relief to setup a good approach and rollout to see this:



and the this:



1 approach and 3 landings later I pulled into a parking spot and was greeted by none other than Mr. Scout, who informed me that I actually made 4 landings.

There's something about several acres of well groomed grass than really relaxes a guy. Even Skychicken and Brownie appear more at ease:



We soon heard the tale of this poor guy, who supposedly made a faster than recommended approach and found the limits of the 182 nosegear:


Photo: Jr CubBuilder


I got the plane tied down and delivered a few shirts to HiCountry, who was departing back to Nebraska.



Then the shirt mob was upon us.



I can't think of a nicer place to sit around and watching landings and takeoffs.

View to the north:


View to the south:


Rob Burson had offered up $50 to the best survival pack item, to be awarded at JC, so we all converged to Mr. Scout's plane and spread out the contents of our packs and vests.





It was at this point that I was caught in possession of a firearm. Redneck minds = blown. Whoever heard of an armed liberal?



Had a good time chatting with the Maule Bros under Yellowbelly's wing:




It really was rewarding to meet and shake hands with so many people from our forum. It's always strange to put a face with a username and have the person look absolutely nothing like what you expected. A few guys that I thought would be much older were way younger, and vice-versa.

Here's the members who attended that I can recall without thinking too hard: Jr.CubBuilder, RockyTFS, CAVU, Grassstrippilot, Abe, Mr.Scout, Jmtgt, N6EA, bmuggoch, Rob Burson, M6RV6, Bob White, Alex, Yellowbelly, Silvaire, Savannah-Tom, Sojorrn, M5guy, Galen, watkinsnv, m7flyer, skymaule, skybobb, hangar trash, iceman, shortfielder, Mr. Ed, wannabe, hicountry, farmer seth, and several others whose usernames I can't remember now. I can see your faces though.

I sold all 50 shirts that I brought with me. I sincerely apologize if anyone who wanted a shirt at the fly-in was denied. I had this great plan to compile a list of all the people who specified how many and what type of shirt they would buy, and so at first I told folks who wanted shirts that I had to make sure everyone who had called dibs was settled up. Well, after an hour or two of that, I said screw it, first come first serve. I have 80 shirts left in the box, so anyone who missed theirs can buy online in the next few days.

The thing about our fly-in...and in my opinion, this is a good thing...is that it just lacks organization. You're at a great airport in Idaho, free to meet and hang out with whoever you choose, and there's really no agenda. We probably should have had a group dinner to bring everyone together in one place, but oh well. Maybe next year we can have a proper awards ceremony, and bestow upon those posters who deserve them, some "special" awards.

I had kind of been suffering some anxiety about the takeoff out of JC in the muscular 145hp 170B, so my dad and I decided to blast out on Sunday morning and get a start on the journey home. It was a good thing too, since we later discovered that southern Oregon was shrouded by smoke from northern CA fires.

To my relief, and in complete accordance with the POH, Skychicken Charley leaped off the ground and soared out of JC and down the canyon drainage over Yellow Pine:





Two relieved pilots...


I'm pretty sure that's still skiable down there...




Standing in line for the fuel pump at MYL... who thought anyone would ever look so eager to buy $5.60 Avgas?


I have no idea what I was trying to explain here. I'm sure you guys can come up with some colorful captions:



After a breakfast sandwich and a latte in McCall, we said good bye to Jr. CubBuilder and struck out for Burns. Eastern Oregon has some weird terrain and topological features, spotted by the occasional oasis like this:


This was the most seat time I'd had in a while, and after the leg from McCall to Burns I was greeted with winds 13G18. This supposedly aligned perfectly with runway 03, but as I lined up on final I could see that the sock was waving at us like a Rainbird. An attempt at a wheel landing erupted into chaos as we made a radical sweeping arc for the upwind side of the runway. Just as I threaded the runway edge lights and into the dirt shoulder I poured the coals to it and straightened out, and went around. I had better luck with the other runway, but the damage was done: Giant hole chewed in my boxers.



My dad looked at me like I was nuts, and he is probably right. My crosswind chops just weren't up to snuff, and I was about to get another rude awakening from the school of tailwheel ground handling before long.

A mild bumpy ride home ended with at a giant wall of hazy smoke in the southwest end of the Rogue valley. About 14 miles from Grants Pass I concluded that the ASOS was indeed correct in reporting 1.5 SM visability, so I retreated to Medford, which was reporting 5 SM. This was the worst visibility I had ever flown in, and it was getting worse.

I had been on Flight Following with Seattle Ctr and Cascade Approach just to avoid getting skewered by another aircraft, so I left them for Medford tower who informed me that the wind this time was only 30 degrees off runway heading at 8-10 kts. Another carrier landing and bounce, the expected weathervaning, and it was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride into the grass alongside the 150 ft wide runway. When's the last time you saw a small Cessna go off the edge of a 150 foot wide runway?? I suppose I could have fought harder to straighten it out, but that brought the risk of a full ground loop and possible tucked gear, so I just ran 'er out into the weeds!

Biggest thanks to the collective stiff upper lip of the Medford tower controllers, your reserved commentary is much appreciated. I debated about whether to share this story, because my ego was thoroughly deflated, but it's becoming a more entertaining memory with each day that passes. My dad and I joked later that if we ever groundloop an aircraft, we're going to immediately jump out swatting at ourselves and rolling on the ground yelling "Bees!! Bees!! For god's sake save yourselves!!" If you've seen the movie Tommy Boy, you know what I'm talking about.

Great trip for a father and son in an old airplane, we won't soon forget this one. Thanks dad for being the autopilot and taking all the photos. Thanks to everyone to showed up, I hope you all had a great time. I look forward to seeing everyone next year. I'll bring more T-shirts.



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1SeventyZ wrote:Because my ego was thorughly deflated.

Good story...

And I guarantee you... There is no one here. Not one single "old pro," who hasn't had to change shorts after a good E ticket ride headed straight for the weeds. This past Sunday I came within inches of leaving the pavement at Jean Nevada, and had picked the line that would have got me thru the runway lights without hitting anything. Pure luck and good brakes are the only thing that saved me. Certainly wasn't piloting skill.

Gump

Great TR and pics Zane, nicely done! You know what they say about any landing you can walk away from...

1SeventyZ wrote:Another carrier landing and bounce, the expected weathervaning, and it was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride into the grass alongside the 150 ft wide runway.

Sooo....... are you telling me that not everyone lands like that???



Great TR.

Zane,

Great report. You and the Maule Bro's do a great job with your stories.

As I related in the check in post "Every now and then us tailwheel guys get slapped just so we remember who's really in charge."

Some of us just get slapped harder and more often.

Mark

Zane, great write up and pictures!! I wish I was at JC to meet you all. Maybe next year. Hey, being that I'm still a student pilot, I've had plenty of interesting landings too !

Zane:

Great report and quite ballsy of you to disclose details that we would have been otherwise oblivious to. However, you should keep in mind that it usually seems worse to the riders of the plane than to outside observers. What you need is a totally objective measurement of your landings. You should adopt the MauleBros SVDM technique: the Sun Visor Deflection Method. I see you have lovely set of Rosen sun visors. All you need to do is paint a set of colored arcs ala the ASI, near the pivot point of the visor to indicate the degree of "difficulty" you experienced on your last landing. You can then tell the passengers: "Look, it's barely in the yellow arc, so stop whining!"

Colin

Let me translate what my bro YB just said (he was helping me reconstruct a hangar door today and probably got too much sun)

If the visors stay up - it was a good landing (even if people come up to you afterwards and ask 'WOW!. are you guys alright?')

Great report Z-man and kudos for fessin' up because there's nothing worse than an ostensibly perfect tailwheel pilot with a lot of boring stories to tell.

Here's mine - it was a Citabria, which is supposedly one of the most benign taildraggers ever produced. It was a perfect 3-pointer but then it just went right (or I guess we should say WRONG) never really figured out just why but dude- I missed that runway light by no more than about 3/8ths of an inch.



God be with us

BTW: might not be obvious to everyone but, as you said, sometimes it's better to just let her go into the weeds rather than do some radical move trying to 'save' her. Of course that's not true in all situations but it is often an option.

great post Zane, It was really nice meeting you finally and your dad. I think it's just great you two can share flying and camping together. Sharing your landing with us is a good thing. I shared my total screw up at Columbia with everyone here in the hopes someone might get something out of it that I didn't know before. Remember it's not IF you're gonna ground loop it's WHEN....BTW great music on the video... WHo is that?  Gotta get that CD. Butch

Great video Zane, we will have to wait for Bruce's comments, he had the official short take off , well until I left

Seeing all the photos really bumbs me out.Looks like everyone had a great time and that was the place to be and get some fresh air!.Maybe we should start a post for the best no show excuse.....Mine is .1/4mile visiblity in Tahoe on my planned departure Oh well maybe next time...........Glad everyone had an Epic trip and I am loving all the trip reports and photos..........Vail

So....now we are not supposed to depart the runway, thread thru the runway lights and stop in the dirt on crosswind landings?

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the compliments everyone. There were definitely some people who were missed. 1/4 mi viz is a good excuse to stay in bed though.

I'm working on repairing my ego, but frankly I just need some more seat time, and I need to think harder about x-winds.

The music in that video is "Vail of Plenty" from the Black Hawk Down soundtrack, and "Someday Soon" by Wilco.

SixTwoLeemer wrote:So....now we are not supposed to depart the runway, thread thru the runway lights and stop in the dirt on crosswind landings?

Thanks for sharing.

Actually, it's fine but you need to understand it's an advanced manuever that should only be attempted with the proper training and kevlar underwear...

Great trip report Zane! With a little luck I'll make it next year.

jmtgt wrote:
Do not forget the blinders......you want no memory of the maneuver being executed!

Just another reason why I have always JUST CLOSED MY EYES

It has worked so well for so many for years

Great report! Sounds like you had a really good time. I'm planning a trip to the lower 48 for 2010, I'll try and make it coincide with the fly-in.

Was this the same time as the Supercub.org get together at JC?

Phil

Zane, I was glad to meet you and your dad. I don't think that you can really realize how great that is that you could share this experience with your dad. I was going to take a trip with my dad but he passed away before we got it done. I enjoyed your pictures, the one of the large reservoir in eastern Oregon is called Beulah Reservoir. Also a great video and music. I have a video of my landing at JC. I will try to get it posted somehow. Bob

If you didn't have to buy parts, all is well. Nice report and movie.
E

Zane you landed in Burns and didn't ring my cell phone. I live right on the approach end of 12. Oh, Belay that, I was in Klamath Falls doing the Collage thing with my Daughter. So I wasn't home anyway.

Great trip report. Love the pics and the movie.

C ya, Bub