I had to fly to Kilgore Idaho the other day to check up on a past solar job I did for a rancher there a couple of years ago. He didn’t ask me, and I just assumed his initial OK to land at his place was still current. Right off I saw something that made my (free) trip out worthwhile to him: he had neglected to tilt the array I made at a steeper angle for winter, resulting in heavy snow build up and greatly reduced power. They were all in church I think (so was I, different religion) so I left a note, as if the tracks didn’t tell the story. This area gets so much snow all the ranch houses are closed up for the winter, in fact my past solar customer is the ONLY full timer that winters over for miles around. At least I knew if I was forced down I could spend the night inside one of them in an emergency.

As long as I was in the neighborhood I thought I’d fly along the Centennial Mts. towards Island Park about 35 miles away, where I have a fellow crane operator buddy who flies a Kitfox. Once that was done, I realized I’d never landed on Henry’s Lake, near the (very mild) Continental Divide/Montana border. The wind sculpted hard packed snow gave the gear a good workout, so I landed at the snowed in Henry’s Lake airstrip to eyeball everything, all was well. Then it occurred to me that I should check one service station a mile away along the highway, more fuel is always a good thing. Sure enough, a big empty field with plenty of snow machine tracks right there, so I landed and slow taxied up and parked. Then as I got to the pump I realized I saw no cars, then smelled smoke....turns out the business had burned out a short time ago.

Off again, I headed over the pass to West Yellowstone Regional Airport, the “new” one, I heard it was closed in the winter. But I didn’t see any x’s on the runway so I left some tracks there just for the hell of it and flew off to the old West Yellowstone Airport site. It’s right on the edge of town, and still in use, by me anyway, I land there about every 10 years, starting 30 years ago. It’s now a staging area for the tourist snowmobilers, so all packed down, I could have used the wheels. I landed when no one was within a half mile, unnoticed. A retired air force pilot friend of mine (involved in the early testing of the F-102, man he has some scarey ass stories) lives in a condo nearby, I wanted to show him the ski setup and that I was still kicking but they were out that day, next time. A short walk to The Pancake House and a great seafood omelet (it’s always great to find ANY restaurant within walking distance of a landing, a real bonus when the food is great).

Since I was now headed home, more or less, I thought a flight across Yellowstone Park and then into the Grand Teton National Park would be a good way to go. I’ve flown this many times before, but never in the winter. A whole lot more landing areas if needed, then in the summer, and about 70 miles of nothing except great scenery. They don’t plow the roads so it felt, and was, real remote.

Once at the north end of Jackson Lake, I had a huge emergency landing area if needed, and the views of the Tetons are so distracting that when on final for the controlled strip, I forgot to call out at the 5 mile mark until prompted, at the 3 mile mark... I was just gawking, seen them lots of times but they never get old. A local there with a hot rod Zenith 801 was giving away free gas, what a deal! I took him for 8+ gallons, didn’t need it (easy to say after getting home, seemed like a good idea to get a bit at the time), and I got to check out that blue and orange bird once again. For those who haven’t had the opportunity to check out Ben’s bird (STOL), wow is it ever tweaked, polished, and fine tuned, and I’m not just saying that because he bought me off with the free gas. It made me want to throw rocks at old beat up Honey.... thanks Ben, I owe you!

From there it took another hour to get home, with the stretch out of Jackson, before Alpine, getting a little bumpy. This inversion of the last couple weeks made for smooth air at most levels but above 8K there was some air moving around, warm air though! This is a great circuit, a total flight time a little below 6 hrs, a LOT of landings, a lot of screwing around and side trips to look at interesting things, seen it all before but never in the winter. Plus 3 on airport, but off airport, at the same time, landings. One of the great thing about ski flying is all the things you aren’t wearing out: brakes, tires, and hardly even the gear in the right snow.

Thanks for the report! Awesome.

Once again, awesome trip report with pictures! Thanks Tom. And Ben, that's a sweet ride!!

Nahhh, you can not claim work as part of that day. Great combination of blue skies, skis, photos, flying, and writing --perfect level of detail. Looks like spring here in AK, yet we are still at least a month away from such bright, crisp light.

Thanks

Courier guy, your photo day trip was a great way to start mine. Thanks.

Great pic's Tom. I still remember flying up the highway from Cody and breaking out into Yellowstone. Circling over the upper and lower falls is still my favorite.

Awesome Trip report! I thought it was cool you threw in the Zenith 801 also...I live just about an hour from Mexico Missouri where the Zenith STOL's are manufactured. I also have a friend building a Zenith 750. Its pretty awesome!

Yeah, loved it. Thanks for the TR.

Sweet: we are so lucky to be able to fly!

I was out flying when I heard Tom call the tower... When I hear the word "experimental " my ears perk up.. Sure enough the tower told him to call at five miles out for 19. Tower let me extend my downwind leg and for the record Tom was 4.2 out when he contacted tower.... It happens all the time here as ALOT of pilots are so busy looking at the Tetons they forget to check in... I give all the tower guys/gals here a ride so they can see our perspective of the valley and to get them addicted to aviation and experimentals in particular.. Tom is a great guy and I spent several minutes looking at his plane trying to figure out how to put skis on my nosedragger..... That ski flying looks like a HOOT...

i grew up in West Yellowstone, they rent out the airport to a tire testing co. In winter. I use to go to the gas station that burned down they did not know my age

pitman11 wrote:i grew up in West Yellowstone, they rent out the airport to a tire testing co. In winter. I use to go to the gas station that burned down they did not know my age

Yes, about 5 years ago I met an airport worker at the pilot's campground, and i asked him what he did in the winter. He drove for the tire testers. I asked what the absolute grippiest tire was and he instantly responded "Bridgestone Blizzaks". They would squeak on glare ice! Not good year round, too soft of rubber but for ice none better.

I have tried to find out how long the old airport site has been closed, I'm thinking 40 or 50 years?? You know, Pitman? If I remember I'll ask next summer out at the "new" one, when they open back up to wheeled traffic

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/MT/Air ... ellowstone good info, i have some friends on the chamber board i have been wanting to talk to them about doing a ski/plane fly-in,

pitman11 wrote:http://www.airfields-freeman.com/MT/Airfields_MT_W.html#yellowstone good info, i have some friends on the chamber board i have been wanting to talk to them about doing a ski/plane fly-in,

Thanks Pitman! Great find, so about 1965 or so it fell out of favor and the new airport took over, interesting.,

courierguy wrote:

pitman11 wrote:i grew up in West Yellowstone, they rent out the airport to a tire testing co. In winter. I use to go to the gas station that burned down they did not know my age

Yes, about 5 years ago I met an airport worker at the pilot's campground, and i asked him what he did in the winter. He drove for the tire testers. I asked what the absolute grippiest tire was and he instantly responded "Bridgestone Blizzaks". They would squeak on glare ice! Not good year round, too soft of rubber but for ice none better.

I have tried to find out how long the old airport site has been closed, I'm thinking 40 or 50 years?? You know, Pitman? If I remember I'll ask next summer out at the "new" one, when they open back up to wheeled traffic

I LOVE Blizzacks, I used to drive I-70 40 to 50 times a year in the winter to go snowboarding. Put them on an AWD Subaru and you can get through just about anything. One morning as I was driving I-70 west of Denver they shut down the freeway and were turning around everyone because there was too much snow on the road and it was still coming down. I got off on the frontage road and bypassed the turn around and got back on the freeway Continued the remaining 80 miles to Vail driving through 6-8'' of snow.... at 70mph Then once at Vail it was like I had the place to my self with fresh pow all day long!