Where did you fly today?

Sun Oct 03, 2010 8:00 am

Re: Where did you fly today?

m7flyer wrote:...It was a great flight....along the LA river .....

Did you guys break in them bushwheels with a couple of riverbank landings?

hotrod180 offline: Posts: 10535; Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 11:47 pm; Location: Port Townsend, WA

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Sun Oct 03, 2010 12:50 pm

A friend of at the fire departmemt has been bugging me to take him flying. We decided to take advantage of the nice weather and take a little tour of the SW Cascades.

Took off from Kelso, jumped over the overcast layer and made stops in Morton, then Packwood and headed south for a air tour of Mt. St. Helens. There would be a lot of neat stuff to fly low over if the National Monument folks weren't so uptight..... Then flew south to Cascade Locks, made a quick stop at Daybreak and returned to Kelso. Weather was great, but one of those days it seemed like we had a headwind both ways.

Mt. St. Helens Crater

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Mon Oct 04, 2010 8:56 am

Re: Where did you fly today?

It's more back-forty than back-country, but Daybreak is one of my favorite little airstrips. I stopped off there for an hour or so on the way back north from the antique fly-in this summer. I keep meaning to go down there & camp with some friends (after clearing it with the owner, of course), but we never seem to get our schedules squared away. It's just far enough away from home (160 miles or so) that other (closer) destinations usually get picked for day trips. Darn price of gas anyway!
I've never heard it mentioned here, but some of the supercub guys like to go down & camp on Cottonwood Island - it's just south of the confluence of the Cowlitz & the Columbia at Kelso. Ever been in there, Fern hopper? I've eyeballed the island a cople times while flying by, still not sure exactly where they land.

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Mon Oct 04, 2010 12:15 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

hotrod150 wrote: I've never heard it mentioned here, but some of the supercub guys like to go down & camp on Cottonwood Island - it's just south of the confluence of the Cowlitz & the Columbia at Kelso. Ever been in there, Fern hopper? I've eyeballed the island a cople times while flying by, still not sure exactly where they land.

I'll chime in on this one. Flew down there with Kelly and Larry (guy who owned the Stinson that Nate recently bought). I didn't land, they said it would be too rough for my tiny tires, but did a low pass. They had a couple spots, one was on the dirt track north west side of the islands. You can kinda see where it looks like a runway. There was a quad rider out that day but down and off to the side watching us. There was also another shorter spot they hit, same area, but I'm not sure I could pick it out right now.

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Mon Oct 04, 2010 12:26 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

Craig,

How are Kelly and Larry doing these days? They seem like some great guys to tag along with. If I only lived closer....

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Mon Oct 04, 2010 12:57 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

mountainmatt wrote:Craig,

How are Kelly and Larry doing these days? They seem like some great guys to tag along with. If I only lived closer....

Kelly seems to be doing pretty well. Larry moved to Montana. He's been building a cabin there and sounds like he found work as well.

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Mon Oct 04, 2010 4:22 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

hotrod150 wrote:
m7flyer wrote:...It was a great flight....along the LA river .....

Did you guys break in them bushwheels with a couple of riverbank landings?

LOL, I think the LA river is better for car chases than backcountry flying, I wish. :cry:

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Mon Oct 04, 2010 6:32 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

Looks like your over Watts....

Thats about as backcountry as it gets... you even need a gun to keep the black bears away. Just land at an abandonded school and keep your headon a swivel.

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Mon Oct 04, 2010 6:55 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

e-gods, i go there once a month as it is...used to drop the 182T in ontario a lot, but the vis. is so bad, it is barely VFR...

now being a little smarter, i park and stay in vegas and let SWA run me down and back the same day!

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Mon Oct 04, 2010 7:44 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

hotrod150 wrote:It's more back-forty than back-country, but Daybreak is one of my favorite little airstrips. I stopped off there for an hour or so on the way back north from the antique fly-in this summer. I keep meaning to go down there & camp with some friends (after clearing it with the owner, of course), but we never seem to get our schedules squared away. It's just far enough away from home (160 miles or so) that other (closer) destinations usually get picked for day trips. Darn price of gas anyway!
I've never heard it mentioned here, but some of the supercub guys like to go down & camp on Cottonwood Island - it's just south of the confluence of the Cowlitz & the Columbia at Kelso. Ever been in there, Fern hopper? I've eyeballed the island a cople times while flying by, still not sure exactly where they land.

Ya daybreak is one of my favorites too, even though it's not really in the boonies.

I have only been out to Cottonwood by boat. I have seen planes landing on some of the sand bars and islands from Longview to Cathlamet, especially Whites Island at the north end of Puget Island. (Think excellent fly in summer steelhead fishing and camping) From what I have seen hiking around on the island you would probably need big tires....

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Mon Oct 04, 2010 7:48 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

fern_hopper wrote:
hotrod150 wrote:It's more back-forty than back-country, but Daybreak is one of my favorite little airstrips. I stopped off there for an hour or so on the way back north from the antique fly-in this summer. I keep meaning to go down there & camp with some friends (after clearing it with the owner, of course), but we never seem to get our schedules squared away. It's just far enough away from home (160 miles or so) that other (closer) destinations usually get picked for day trips. Darn price of gas anyway!
I've never heard it mentioned here, but some of the supercub guys like to go down & camp on Cottonwood Island - it's just south of the confluence of the Cowlitz & the Columbia at Kelso. Ever been in there, Fern hopper? I've eyeballed the island a cople times while flying by, still not sure exactly where they land.

Ya daybreak is one of my favorites too, even though it's not really in the boonies.

I have only been out to Cottonwood by boat. I have seen planes landing on some of the sand bars and islands from Longview to Cathlamet, especially Whites Island at the north end of Puget Island. (Think excellent fly-in summer steelhead fishing and camping) There is also another nice dredge spoils island further down river, but from what I hear the USFWS owns it now From what I have seen hiking around on the island you would probably need big tires....

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Wed Oct 06, 2010 9:31 am

Re: Where did you fly today?

aktahoe1 wrote:Looks like your over Watts....
Thats about as backcountry as it gets... you even need a gun to keep the black bears away. Just land at an abandonded school and keep your headon a swivel.

Looks more like about over Boyle Heights to me- if ya wanna be politically incorrect, that'd mean more brown bears than black bears. I'm not even gonna touch that "abandoned school" remark.... [-X

I lived in LA until I was 35, but didn't take up flying until I'd moved to the PNW. I'm curious where you guys go to get away from the city that dosn't involve too long of a trip? I don't necesarily mean off-airport, just away from the big city for a day.

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Wed Oct 06, 2010 9:44 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

Looks more like about over Boyle Heights to me- if ya wanna be politically incorrect, that'd mean more brown bears than black bears. I'm not even gonna touch that "abandoned school" remark....
I lived in LA until I was 35, but didn't take up flying until I'd moved to the PNW. I'm curious where you guys go to get away from the city that dosn't involve too long of a trip? I don't necesarily mean off-airport, just away from the big city for a day.

You got it. Boyle Heights it is. About a mile from my job.

Having a plane makes it easy to get away for a day. About an hour up to Pismo Beach. Big Bear is even closer. I can get out to a bunch of desert stuff in less than 2 hrs. The Chicken strip just north of Death Valley is in range for a day trip. Kern river is about an hour.

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Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:25 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

m7flyer wrote:

Looks more like about over Boyle Heights to me- if ya wanna be politically incorrect, that'd mean more brown bears than black bears. I'm not even gonna touch that "abandoned school" remark....
I lived in LA until I was 35, but didn't take up flying until I'd moved to the PNW. I'm curious where you guys go to get away from the city that dosn't involve too long of a trip? I don't necesarily mean off-airport, just away from the big city for a day.

You got it. Boyle Heights it is. About a mile from my job.

Having a plane makes it easy to get away for a day. About an hour up to Pismo Beach. Big Bear is even closer. I can get out to a bunch of desert stuff in less than 2 hrs. The Chicken strip just north of Death Valley is in range for a day trip. Kern river is about an hour.

When I was down there (L.A./O.C. area) last winter in my 182, I found it pretty fun flying out to Amboy (call ahead for permission or at least check in at the gas station after landing), Bacon Strip Ranch, Catalina Island and buzzing the Santa Ana canyons, and mountains, too. Had lot's of fun flying low in the desert as well, but just not too many landing options.

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Wed Oct 13, 2010 8:50 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

Tuesday October 12 Pacific City lunch run, October 13th me and Z to Grants Pass to get the Z mans 170. What a sweet flying day! Sun, smooth, well except at my home base. 26G32 Kts.

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Wed Oct 13, 2010 11:12 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

Thanks Rob, my personal airline captain. He didn't even make me do my usual autopilot duty.

Dad and I flew to southern WA today and I overflew KPDX tower at about 2000 ft. 737's were taking off underneath us.

Beautiful day for flying here in the NW.

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Fri Oct 15, 2010 8:38 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

The way a Cub's front seat should look. EMPTY!!!

Out playing today in my friend's 1940 Reed Clipped Wing J-3 Cub. Sure is fun being a back seat driver.

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Fri Oct 15, 2010 8:43 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

Dang that thing is fast!

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Sat Oct 16, 2010 12:48 pm

Re: Where did you fly today?

Got a buddy with some land outside the next town over. Been wantin to have a strip there and have somone fly in since he bought it, many years ago Last weekend we walked it, drank some beers. Picked the best path, drank some more beers. Smoothed out some of the rougher spots with some empty beer cans. Measured it,drank some more beers(Forgot how long it was). Then covered the empty beer cans with dirt, drank some more beers, and called it a day. Pretty damn good day, I'd say.

Today, me and another buddy flew in to try it out. Pretty cool, everything went well, and he was really happy about it.

Here's a picture of our planes,and my buddy Durtbag with his mobile control tower/Rodent Assault Vehicle(RAV)

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