Skylane wrote: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

Bub, how could I forget you? I actually planned to call you, but somehow your phone number didn't make it into my new cellphone contacts, so anything short of calling your name through an alpenhorn into the surrounding lands wasn't gonna find ya.

Nice story Zane! I would have loved to have been there. This is my first post on the site, though I have been reading since the start.

My first solo runway departure - I had about sixty hours total in the log book, eight of which were the training flights comprising my tail-wheel endorsement more than a year earlier in a Husky.

After deciding on a model and searching for the right plane for the better part of a year I bought a 1954 170 in July in Ohio. I picked it up and flew it to meet my family in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for a vacation. Then it was back home to western Wyoming where I lived at the time.

I planned a fuel stop at a small uncontrolled airfield in Eastern Minnesota. As I approached for a standard 45-pattern entry I could see one, two, three other planes in the pattern (thinking to myself "why aren't they making their radio calls?" "I guess they don't need to 'technically'." "At least I am being dilligent...". I was not yet very well versed in the key strokes of the Garmin 250 XL, and I was transmitting and receiving on what I thought was the "active" frequency on the unit.

I came in a little nervous about the eight knot X-wind and wheel landed very smoothly, rolled about 100 ft and proceeded to quit flying the plane. Immediately I weather vaned and rode an arc of rapidly decreasing radius out in to the dirt where I did a skidding tail-loop maneuver that was sure to please any crowd.

When the dust had settled I looked towards the facilities to see that there was a pancake breakfast/local air show at this airport, and that hundreds of people had just witnessed this spectacle.

I taxied up and this old guy who was serving the go juice said "that was a pretty neat trick you just did out there feller!"

The lessons learned per hour ratio due to the humbling though not catastrophic mistakes on that long cross country flight home will never be so high again. Now I'm glad that it happened that way. I really learned how to manage crosswinds and what's more: I have the story to tell. It seem that maybe you already feel the same way about "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride".

Zane,
I am a leaf on the wind and I have patience, patience, patience. The only way to make a wheel landing is to chant! At least that has worked for me so far!
So you manage to get into JC and then it is home base that slaps you back to reality. Isn't life grand? I definitely have ingrained the Bee's, the Bee's into my repertoire of stories. I just flew into Columbia O22 and after I landed Mark- N6EA told me that the very runway 17, I chose is the one the iceman -Butch ground looped. All I could say is I am glad you told me that after I landed.
Great Report

Great Pictures,

Looks like everyone had a grand time. Sorry that I missed it. My son and I were at JC during June 10 thru 12th.

I would have held out for the fly-in but thought that it was for C-180s only! Oh well maybe next year. Then I can vie for the prize of most distant flight, from KEVV(Evansville, Ind)

I am based at MO6(Wash. Mo.) but picked up my son and left from KEVV.

Thanks guys

Bob

Nice pix, commentary, and movie Z$. You still need to get that plane into SJC.

Zane, very good report. I especially like the video. Thanks for doing BCP.org for us.

Cheers...Rob

Thanks for the report, Zane. It was great meeting you and your Dad at McCall and then at Johnson Creek. I enjoyed talking with other BCPers over there, too. I wish I'd had more time to make the rounds and meet everyone, but most folks were still out flying Saturday a.m. Imagine that! Conditions were so perfect. I haven't seen Big Creek that pretty (or busy) in a long time. I'm already looking forward to next year. Thanks again for shirt , the site and the fly-in.

CAVU

Maybe you have seen this before..........from a fellow C170 pilot who introduced me to my first plane, a 1952 C170B.

ODE TO A TAILDRAGGER
Tail dragger, I hate your guts, I have licenses, ratings and such
But to make you go straight is driving me nuts.
With hours of teaching, and the controls in my clutch.
It takes a littlr rudder-no less.
A little too much.
You see, I learned to fly a tricycle gear
With one up front and two back hear.
She was sleek and clean and easy to steer.
But this miserable thing with wires and struts,
Takes a little bit of rudder, easy
That's too much.
It demands your attention on takeoff roll,
or it'll head for the boonies as you poor on the coal.
Gotta hang loose, don't over control.
This wicked little plane is just too much.
Give her more rudder, oops.
That's too much.
With a lot of zigzagging and words obscene,
I think I've mastered this slippery machine.
In fact, I think I like this thing.
It's not so bad if you have the touch.
Just a little rudder, easy,
Not too much.
I relax for a second and from the corner of my eye,
I suddenly see, with a gasp and a cry,
That's my own tail swinging by!
You ground looping wreck, I hate your guts.
Give her the rudder. Great Scott!
That's way too much!


As I was told when I became a flyer of conventional geared aircraft.....there are those that have and those that will.
HC

Great story, Zane. Thanks for the shirts!