In central Australia the other day, went for a ride around the big Rock (Uluru) in an Airvan.

Thanks Tomo!!!

Rob, StacEY (aka Beave) and I flew around the valley and up to a new place for breakfast at a private strip(sat not today!). We found a couple of spots on the way to use the bathroom! haha on a lighter note, I had someone say later in the day comment that his friend should have my "backcountrypilot.org shirt because Mooney's don't go in the backcountry." I promtly pointed to the grass in my gear and this picture!

A few more pictures from yesterdays breakfast run...










From our top secret location shown here it was a short walk into town for a delicious chicken fried steak

WOW all that dust and brown grass, I had forgot about that stuff!!
Yesterday flew from Nulato to Marshall, 200 plus miles all at the required 500' and 3 miles vis with rain and wind.!!
I would have taken a picture but not much to see!! will be back in America this fall.
GT

Nice pics! Wish I had some to share but I've not flown in over 3 months now

Friday morning left Modesto and headed up to Westover field to look at a Rotax engine for my Highlander. The engine is still in the plane so I got to hear it run, but "the weav" didn't have time to go fly this time, next time...

Next stop was Lodi for breakfast. They recently re-modeled and it's pretty nice now. The food was pretty good, but I had a tough time convincing the waitress (smoking hot) to make the omelet my way

Then headed back to King Shitty where I found this little gem of a landing spot to try out. For now it'll remain an un-named lake until I find out the legality

The grass was short and was smooth as some runways I've landed on...


Nosedraggers would have no problems here...


Elk tracks I think...


The dirt was smooth and packed as well...

No cows? A lake in central california with green stuff and no cows? It must be radio active or belong to PITA.

bart wrote:Next stop was Lodi for breakfast.

Aaron, good to hear there's breakfast at Lodi again. I missed having that option so close to home. Let me know if you can make it out next weekend!

Fisherman wrote:Very nice! Do you have any pics flying around the Pidgeon Forge area? I used to live on Sugar Mountain just outside of town. Worked in Gatlinberg.

I live in Gatlinburg. Here is a crappy phone pic from earlier this year looking south from the area around kgkt towards Shield's mountain (the ridge just east of Pigeon Forge) and the Smoky Mountains.

robw56 wrote:
Aaron, good to hear there's breakfast at Lodi again. I missed having that option so close to home. Let me know if you can make it out next weekend!

Will do Rob,

Finally made it out of our valley at about 10 this morning, headed to a local strip with a couple locals, for about 1.4 local flight

A bud & I took off for a week of exploring, fishing, camping & just bombing around in the planes. From Nimpo Lake (middle of BC) we headed NW for a couple days toward Atlin, extreme NW corner of BC. Atlin is in BC, but you can't drive there from here, hafta drive in from Ak or the Yukon. Pretty lil place, very old gold rush town, used to be over 10,000 people, now less than 300. It was windy when we arrived, but I had no prob landing on the whitecaps, but I didn't see the 3' swells until I was almost on the water, pretty committed, done flying. Bounced & hit hard 3 times before she settled on. Scary but nuthin' broke.

Beached on a coarse (baseball size) gravel beach in the wind & looking for a way to tie up, a guy on a bike said there's transient parking on a dock 200 yds that'a way. Alrighty then, we head over there & it's nice & calm & the dock said "floatplanes only" so we tied up & walked into town for lunch. When we got back, a C185 was taxiing in & we watched him beach & pull up on the gravel a ways over from the dock, and a lil red car stopped, a woman got out & said "They're parked on your dock!" Oh shit, what now... we hollered that we were told it was a public dock, he said that's OK, but catch me & I'll tie up there too. Turns out he's a retired judge & knows all the local history so we had a great BS, Nothing else to see/do there, the swells had subsided so we headed for the boonies again.

Poked around the mtns/lakes s'more, and went to Whitehorse (in the Yukon now) to meet one of the guys I had emailed a lot about a flyin but didn't make it in time. We're supposed to land just above the dam, and find "2 little docks just past the blue Maule". Well, I come over the mtn & see Whitehorse, a big city, but didn't even see the river, let alone the dam. It's s'posed to be over by the airport so I turn that'a way, and sure enough, the dam. Whitehorse radio didn't seem surprised of my culture shock, after seeing nothing but wilderness for several days, and then all of a sudden be over a big city. Gas was only 2.05/liter (about $1 more than home).

My internet friend came & picked us up, bought lunch, took us to the museum & said I'll be back in an hour to take you back to your planes. He showed up right on time, in his RCMP costume, & said "Sorry I'm Code 3 to a bad accident on the Cassiar hiway". So we got a cab to the fuel/docks & all was well. The dock was right next to a lil road, my wingtip was only a few feet from the gravel. So then we were off to find a good campsite & fishing hole. I noticed the accident a few miles to my left so swung over & saw the 2 cop cars so waggled @ them. Trout lake coming up... sounds good, gravel beach next to the inflow creek. We got heeled in, set up camp, had a snack & got out the fishin' poles. First fish a grayling. second fish a lake trout. Third fish a pike. Never did catch a damn trout on trout lake! Next morning we started to pack up & the wind came up so we decided to sit tight awhile. Wind howled all day so we spent another night, not afraid to take off, but not wanting to get bounced around in the mtns.

Next morning all was calmed down again so we headed eastward towards Dease lake, where my bud has chartered out of every fall for big caribou & griz. bears. (He just got his plane on floats so wanted to explore around for hunting spots he could get in/out of). We get to Dease & decide to top up all the gas cans & fill the wings to the brim as there was no fuel available past there until we got down closer to central BC. Turns out avgas there was $2.75/liter! Ouch, we won't be doing that again! Anyway, we had a good look around up there, bud got chased off a fishing spot by a cow/calf moose, no camera but a good laff.

Got down toward Smithers & started to see roads, buildings, signs of life, etc, so decided to just head 'er for Nimpo & get ready to fly down to 108 Mi. House for the BC Floatplane weekend. It was a great trip, especially for me, as it was my first extended flight away from home. Learned a few things, so next time I will be better packed/organized.

Oh, I totalled up all the gas I bought, divided by the GPS flight time & got 5.3 (Canuck) gals/hr!! YeeHaw!

I'm really diggin' this flyin' thing!

robw56 wrote:

bart wrote:Next stop was Lodi for breakfast.

Aaron, good to hear there's breakfast at Lodi again. I missed having that option so close to home. Let me know if you can make it out next weekend!

I guess I blew it guys, shoulda let everyone on the board know there are "eats" at Lodi again. They were so late on the project that I half forgot that they were open again. I guess I am going to have to check out the "smokin hot" waitress....Anyone up for breakfast next weekend?

Flynengr

Took a newly installed engine and prop for a ride to town and back. Had a lovely journey in the venerable Tri-Pacer...

Clouds were magnificent almost the whole way.

First photo is beneath a cloud deck looking at MacArthur River on the way toward a shortcut entry to the pass over Blockade Lake.



Next photo is a mountain over Blockade Lake, just before popping over into the pass proper.



Finally, a photo of the clouds over toward the western end of Lake Iliamna.



I'll add more photos as I get them...or feel free to add your own. It's a lovely route.

bart wrote:........ For now it'll remain an un-named lake until I find out the legality The grass was short and was smooth as some runways I've landed on...

Lake No-name looks awesome! "Don't ask, don't tell" isn't just for the military.

flynengr wrote:I guess I blew it guys, shoulda let everyone on the board know there are "eats" at Lodi again. They were so late on the project that I half forgot that they were open again. I guess I am going to have to check out the "smokin hot" waitress....Anyone up for breakfast next weekend?

Flynengr

How about sunday?

Hi Rob, I would be up for breakfast at Lodi. What time? If you don't mind disclosing it, what is your "company" frequency.

Mowed the North Forty with the DA40 on my first trip to Oshkosh.

We're thinking about 8:30 at Lodi for breakfast. We're usually on 123.45 unless it has too much chatter.

Sunday late afternoon, the Highlander owner, designer, & test pilot Troy, stopped in on his way back from Oshkosh. Quite the airplane. Long shock absorbing gear and leading edge slats that pop out at slow speed. Greg, Don, and I gave him a tour of my place. He liked our play ground and we liked his airplane. jg