Last week I took the basic mountain canyon flying seminar from Lori MacNichols' school in McCall, ID, which I highly recommend to anyone planning to fly in the the high country. I decided to fly commercially to Boise, drive to McCall and rent Lori's Super Cub rather than fly my Maule MX-7-180 because I was concerned that a weather or maintenance delay during the 4 day flight would cause me to miss the last basic seminar of the year. It was also slightly less expensive to do it this way than flying my own airplane from North Carolina because of fuel prices and lodging along the way.

Cabin Creek ID with Lori's Super Cub on 31" bushwheels

Here's a link to my travel blog: http://www.maulepilot.com/mccall/mccall.html

You come into Thomas in a flight of three? My wife and I were standing on the side of the runway when three planes came in. I thought one of them was Lori's cub with her in the back seat. If it was you, nice landing We waved but the only one to wave back was Lori. I tried to tell my wife it was because the pilots were focused on what they were doing

That was probably me and Lori in her Super Cub at Thomas Creek. The other two airplanes weren't with us and actually cut us off in the pattern at Mahoney after we left Thomas.

Thanks for the compliment on the landing. I usually fly a Maule with 8.50x6 tires and I was still getting used to the sight picture in the Super Cub with 31" bushwheels.

Sorry I didn't wave, but you're right, I was focused on the landing and didn't see you wave.

Who can name that 14er? It shouldn't be too hard but a different perspective than most are used to.

Don't know it's name, but it looks landable

coloradokevbot wrote:Who can name that 14er? It shouldn't be too hard but a different perspective than most are used to.

That would make an awesome video if anyone could land on that. I think I'd pay money to see it.

courierguy wrote:Don't know it's name, but it looks landable

At 14,255 that would be pretty darn impressive!.. and probably not the best idea

Landing on Longs Peak is for the ANG boys in a Chinook.

Somewhere in the area between Smoot and Dingle Wyo., coming back from a breakfast run. This is an area that has a few small scattered ranches in 30 miles or so and that's all, 8 to 10K peaks with some nice bumps at 7K or so. The brush has the good sense to be scattered and short, the ground is smooth, and hardly any imbedded rocks. The kind of terrain that makes it hard to get anywhere, at least for me. I've been landing this area years before I got the Airstreaks, pretty fun and no people or nothing. This old cabin caught my eye, way up high all by itself, and no doubt built before all wheel drive or maybe even cars, makes you wonder why they went to all that trouble, then you look at the view they had of Bear Lake. Upon closer inspection, I could see someone went to a whole lot of trouble and extra work to neatly build a tower foundation inside the existing cabin! They must have dug the footings by hand, and you can see they laid up cinderblock rather then pour concrete. I'm guessing the tower people wanted to lease the site, and the rancher didn't want to lose the cabin, so a compromise was reached. Never seen anything like that before, pretty cool.

Well thank goodness everything in this country doesn't have to wind up looking like a Kwik-e-Mart.

Great looking terrain, BTW

courierguy wrote:Upon closer inspection, I could see someone went to a whole lot of trouble and extra work to neatly build a tower foundation inside the existing cabin! They must have dug the footings by hand, and you can see they laid up cinderblock rather then pour concrete. I'm guessing the tower people wanted to lease the site, and the rancher didn't want to lose the cabin, so a compromise was reached. Never seen anything like that before, pretty cool.

Groundlooper met me in Corvallis and we went around ticking off some of the shorter and grassier strips south of Corvallis he had never been too, then wound up camping at Toketee for the night. I made a video with some footage I got...



Thanks for coming with me Craig, it was awesome to finally fly with someone else.

Sorry, I love this game. That 14'er is actually a 13'er - Mt. Meeker. Long's Peak is behind it - and barely distinguishable in your pic!

'Greg

coloradokevbot wrote:Who can name that 14er? It shouldn't be too hard but a different perspective than most are used to.

Well dang...if it is only a 13'er then I could land my Luscombe there

Looking at this closer - I am off my rocker. This is indeed Longs Peak - Meeker is off the screen to the right.

Some local beach combing, nice cool morning, in the 60's, and dead calm

On Wednesday flew from SPB to Kapowsin (86WA) with my wife and primary CFI to retrieve Emory Board's new plane. Kapowsin is a nifty airpark east of Tacoma. The gentlemen selling the plane was a WWII fighter pilot and had some pretty neat stories and pictures to share. At 91 he got around a helluva lot better then many 60 year olds I see with the FD. Wife and I headed back south, made a quick landing at Fantasy and then returned to Scappoose.

A few photos of the flight.

Flight of 2 about to depart


Mt Rainier was out


Sellers really nice B&C bull elk


Cheesy smile for the wife self photo

Flying the Cumberland Gap in NE Tennesse and Southern Kentucky. Different than what I am used to, but beautiful in a different way Another great day to explore as a pilot

DBI wrote:Flying the Cumberland Gap in NE Tennesse and Southern Kentucky. Different than what I am used to, but beautiful in a different way Another great day to explore as a pilot

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.

coloradokevbot wrote:Who can name that 14er? It shouldn't be too hard but a different perspective than most are used to.

THAT, AT VERY LEAST, NEEDS A LOW APPROACH ON FILM!!!! That could be one of the coolest spots to land I have seen. How long is the platue? Smooth? At very least if you ran out of room you can still airmail off the side...