Since the new year, I’ve been reminiscing thru old photos and remembering my first solo helicopter X-country. It started in Class”B” PHNL -> Kalaupapa -> PHMK -> PHNL.

And of course the doors were off! The best air conditioning on earth! The trades were gusting over 20kts. Which is a calm day in Hawaii. Plenty of sunscreen is recommended too.

I feel totally blessed. All the kind people who helped me: Manaloa Helicopters, Robinson (RHC), ATC dudes in Hawaii are totally cool and my instructors!

The little ship that I conducted all my pre-licensed Private solos:

[img]https://backcountrypilot.org/index.php?

circa JUN-2015

Location: Bella Bella, BC. An “oasis” in the vast granite mountains of British Columbia. The airport manager (First Nation Local) was super friendly. In fact everyone in Backcountry Canada is super cool and friendly from my experiences.

Note: Best to have amphibious floats along the coast. The tides and currents are massive, good to keep ship at an airfield overnight.

Photograph: Relaxing in the long Summer evening before departing to Terrace, BC…

My dad late 50’s or early 60’s.Believed to have been taken at Lac Du Bonnet Manitoba.
My dad started his Canadian military career as an aero engine tech & was assigned to an aircraft in case a mechanic was needed when away from base.

Daryl

First car; First plane (1989). Tools and coveralls are in the trunk of the MGB . . .



First airport car. Going all-in on air cooled motors

I’m in my “Spring Cleaning mode” (a few months early). Found some pictures of Catalina Island:

“Airport in The Sky”. Hangar Mr. Wrigley kept an immaculate DC-3 for many years.



The “Tower” at Catalina:



Toyon Bay, originally a DOD Intel training camp, then renovated into a school for the owner to teach math/science/Spanish. I launched my first radio control (RC) glider from the surrounding hills and it did not end well!



Parked to get some “Buffalo Burgers”:



There’s a climbing bolt on this pinnacle for top roping. Must be at least 50 years since put it in:



Video summary of the Island. Climlb aboard. G&R tune: “knocking on heaven’s door”



Carry on men…

2 extremes from the "good ol' days". The first is me under a crashed, home made hang glider. I used bamboo poles and 6 mil plastic tarp material with lots of duct tape. Most of my flights ended like this.


The second image is also a long time ago, and long before I knew there was such a thing as backcountry flying. I was a nuclear engineer working in the nuclear weapons program. That government program used a number of private jets to move "experts and guards" around various weapons maintenance sites operated by the Department of Energy. The jets were all confiscated from drug runners and put to vary different uses. This was a flight to Amarillo, Texas for work I was tasked with at the PANTEX nuclear weapons site.

Flyhound wrote:Most of my flights ended like this.

Did any flight not end like that?

Hanging around the Apollo 11, CSM: Columbia after returning from orbiting the Moon:

July 26, 1969, USS Hornet (CV-12), Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Did any flight not end like that?

Yeah, once I got rid of my home made hang gliders with parallel bars for shifting my weight and got a "store bought" HG with weight shift simplified by a pod hung from the CG, I had lots of great flights that ended with a reusable glider.

Here's my Moyes Xtralight launching from Sandia Crest in Albuquerque


And here's the same glider pulling away from the launch ramp:


I had some magical flights from this site. Lots of good memories.

Video is about 5.6 years old. Follow me into the deep forest where few have seen (much less explored).

Note: “LZ.noname” is a dormant volcano in my catalog of Heli only landings.

Location: Coastal Mountains, Cam: GoPro, Music Huey Lewis — The Power of Love

Port Hardy, BC @ the edge of paradise:



The South most fiord glacier on the West Coast:

Fun fact question —

Please select (only one letter) the airfield name in the following photographs:

A) Jerry’s motel and backcountry restaurant

B) Washington State relaxed spa and grill

C) Beaver Marsh, 2S2

D) Formerly known as Ski Do

Mid 1960's, Johnson Flying Service, Missoula, MT. My days as a gas boy before flying there.

Approximately (6) years ago:

Departed Ala Wai Harbor to Hale Lono Harbor for a multi day fishing trip.

Credits: Camera GARMIN VIRB, Music Neil Diamond, “Solitary Man”, Edit app iMOVIE

The winter of 1988 I plowed snow, telemark skied Brundage Mtn, and hung out at the McCall, Idaho airport. I rode along with Mike Dorris on the mail run along the South Fork and Warren. Here are a few pictures I took and some are almost identical to the Idaho Magazine article "The Last Mail Run" in 2023. It's the same 185 with a few changes like prop, "V" brace, Wing X, and updated instrument panel. Pat Dorris was sitting next to Mike and Marquita and I were in the back way back then,
https://idahomagazine.com/article/the-last-mail-flight/

Before the Cessna 208 Caravan there was the Piper 23-250 Aztec. A formidable Part 135 workhorse in Hawaii. Now completely deprecated.

Note: An Aztec 23-250 flew hundreds of missions to French Frigate Atoll, a coral runway. Contracted by University of Hawaii.

I used to instruct in mine for guys trying to get 500 hours ME for the airlines. My ship on Lagoon Drive, PHNL.