Bucket list trip that did not disappoint. The plan was to fly two cubs, but one guy still has his in bits so we went in the 170, two up. That was a good choice, its a long way from BC. Home to Castlegar, customs at Porthill which I highly recommend, can clear either way. Then a long day, Cutbank, to Ed Obie, Chinook

Next day to La Sueur Montana with a stop at the Cattlemans cafe

Then a short smokey day to Rushford, awesome lounge and courtesy car (This was our big takeaway, how nice the airports were, lounges, courtesy cars, friendly FBOs. Canada could learn a lot here) Got stuck a day waiting for the smoke to clear.

Friday we got in to New Holstein Taildragger fly in. AN AWESOME event, really friendly and lots of nice planes. Really well organised, delicious food and a great venue. The highlight was the fly out to an ice cream farm. Probably a bout 500 plus people turned up to watch a flight of 13 land in a hayfield. About 1000 ft, uphill with a great little ramp at the threshold. Free ice cream then lots of kids wanting to see the planes.

Smoke was an issue so we left early Sat to fly into Osh. Honestly an anticlimax after stressing about doing it for years, Toughest part is joining the line, we got lucky and it was not busy. Sunday was apparently a total nightmare.Made it!

Osh is huge, and a bit overwhelming. For me I looked mostly at warbirds and Cubs. Bought a few tools.
Lovely L5 restoration by a really nice guy.






Finally met Zane and his lovely wife, but we didn’t get to hang much as they were networking and we were constantly distracted. Was so awed by the stardom I didn’t get a selfie:)

I was looking at ATV hubs for my cub, I think I will go this route.

Looked at a lot of cubs, and several Badlands Travellers. Some of the cubs have gone way over the top with oxygen and IFR panels. Price tags to match. Jay at Javron was very kind with his time, and obviously super knowledgeable. Would be my first choice for a cub kit. His product is superb. Nice Husky.

Great to see Hal got his Traveller flying again, he's a legend.

Jared Garretson was doing build assist on planes, and the Badlands he had was slightly more polished, but its still a much less finished product. Performance seems amazing.
Good flight home after leaving a short hop on Wednesday nigh. Tales of long taxi times on Thurs morning last year had me scared.
America sure is pretty. Mississippi, Missouri rivers and a whole lot of farmland.



Cleared customs at Coutts Alberta, (Sweetgrass USA) another grass strip where you can clear either way.

Last day was tough start from Lethbridge to Castlegar with smoke blown in from Washington State, then an easy trip home.




All in all a great trip, 33 hrs flying time, 2 1/2 quarts of oil. 170 flew like a dream, such a great plane.


Overall impression was how nice it is to fly in the USA, great airports in good shape, super friendly and kind people and some really classic characters. And of course Oshkosh never disappoints. Would really recommend New Holstein, I only wish we could have stayed longer.

Nice one, Charlie! Great pics. Really enjoyed meeting and hanging out with you and Tye. Hopefully see you closer to home before long.

Nice report, thanks for sharing!
A few of the airports I stopped at in BC weren't so bad, but there definitely aren't very many of them compared to flying the US. We're spoiled here, at least in the lower 48 on that count.

I think I might be done with AirVenture. The storms and fires seem to have gotten worse each year. I did make it to Oshkosh last year, but had to detour 800 nm on the way home to avoid a thunderstorm that was parked over Mullen Pass, my normal route over the Rocky Mountains. I stayed on the ground 2 days on my way to the event because of thunderstorms that prevented me from leaving Billings, MT. The middle of summer is just too hot, too stormy and too smokey to reliably plan long XC trips anymore. Fortunately, the PNW west of the Cascades is often flyable year round so I'll get my ya-yas locally until it is time to hang up my headset for good. I've had a good run, but fuel costs, weather and maintenance headaches mean flying isn't the long term retirement party I was hoping for.

You gonna be at Orcas thise weekend, Charlie?
I plan on heading up there saturday morning.
Look me up if you're there.

Not sure, I do love that fly in but trying hard to paint my cub wings. If I do it will be Sunday. I have been meaning to come and have lunch at Port Townsend. Ill let you know if I do.

I made it to OSH this year, with a delay in southern MN to wait out the smoke inbound. Weather was near perfect for us westerners....first day was the normal sauna, but then days were highs in the mid 70s and lows in the lower 50s (!!!!), great weather for sleeping in a tent! Consumed about 30 gallons of water, nearly wore out a pair of shoes, and enjoyed myself. I didn't take a lot of photos.....the event is a visual and auditory happening, and photos don't really do it service.

Departed Thursday morning.....but a B-52 landed just before I got marshalled....."airport is closed" Why?? "the airport had to remove all the runway lights because of the risk of the BUFF's wingtip landing gears would take them out, and now we have to put the lights back up" Really? The airport is closed during hours of darkness tonight, so why not replace them then? "Uh, no" So, I was a little late getting out of there.

Trip home was long and low....headwinds got stronger as one got higher, so I stayed at about 500 agl the entire 1000 miles or so. Got into Lemmon, SD about 6 Central time, which was 5 Mtn time, so called it a day. Great stop, relatively cheap gas, a WONDERFUL grass runway, an "interesting" crew car, cheap hotel in town with air, and a great Walleye dinner at the R Bar in town.

Next day, arrived to Bozeman at 85 degrees and zero wind.

Good trip, all in all. Best stops: Lemmon, SD, New Ulm, MN, Winona, MN. You won't go wrong at any of those spots. FBO in Winona is about to change owners, so that may change. They're the only one of the three without a crew car. New Ulm also has a grass runway (now being rebuilt) and two crew cars.

Nice TR Charlie! I'm jealous. I almost packed the 210 up and headed down there, but kept hearing rumors of bugs to spray and don't like being more then an hr away from my air tractor in the summer. Next time you gotta swing up to northern AB and visit!