I was doing some hill flying yesterday about 30 miles from home, hills that will soon be too deep in brush and grass but right now are green and just right. I saw something I havn't quite seen before,numerous ant mounds that looked just like a bushel basket turned upside down. About 12" high with much steeper sides then the usual more tapered ones. Very hard to see from the air as there was grass growing from the tops, and pretty hard/firm also. I didn't even notice them (being more concerned with identifying the big rocks present) until rollout, then I felt a bump. Walking my touchdown path I saw I had ran directly over one. Once again, I'm amazed the things the Cub style gear(Roberts mod for the S-7 and 29" tires at 3.5 lbs pressure can handle. What would have been a deal breaker with smaller tires was a non event.

5 miles away at another site, I was now on my guard, and landed on a hill side with no mounds, I thought. Though I had managed to pick an area free from them, there were many very close to where I landed, that I had again failed to see, they were really camoed in there just right. I got some good pics but I have to reduce the file size before posting, hard to believe from the ground that they are so hard to see from the air. I mean, you absolutely can't miss them once landed, airborne they are tricky bastards to spot.

I also saw wolf tracks right out on the county dirt road by my driveway, not the first time, and not dogs. We do have grey wolfs in the area, just a little uncommon. Besides the shapes and size of the paw prints, I found out one of the identifiers is a wolf will walk arrow straight, dogs tracks wander all over, these were not wandering at all, he had someplace to go.

Finally put together a video from our trip last weekend out to Dirty Devil and Happy Canyon airstrips in Southern Utah. It was my dads first time landing at both strips as he doesn't fly in the backcountry much. Good thing I was there! He's a pretty good pilot, but he had a hard time locating the strips on final for some reason. It was kind of funny, we were never in any kind of a sticky situation. Anyway, watch if you want to.

It was such a nice afternoon here in Northern Colorado that I left work early, got ahead of the Denver traffic and up to Fort Collins, and flew to Long's Peak and back, dipping down around Estes Park, Lyons, up to Poudre Park and back to FNL. Not a shred of wind. Nothing, even around Long's Peak.

Mt Hood recon... We waved to climbers on their last pitch, a whole single file line of them making the summit.


8am light was really nice.


Finally went flightseeing at St. Helens, perfect day for it. Maintained the 2000 AGL rule above the rim. Not sure I'd want to get any deeper in there.


Had that 172 up to 13,000 MSL today looking down on top of Hood, 3 souls aboard, the air was absolutely perfect. Good day.


Topped it off with a donut at Lenhardt.

Wow Zane, nice shots of the volcanoes!

Wow is right, those are pretty neat shots Zane! Wouldn't that just rip you a bit...climb so hard only to see a light aircraft go by loaded with people.


Southern Manitoba today!

Boring in comparison but still flying! And our snow is finally disappearing !

Devils Tower

Spearfish, SD


Mount Rushmore

Custer State Park

Hay Springs, NE

Tonight I'm in Mondell, WY

Too bad I have commitments yesterday and today Soy or I would have come up and joined you. I drove to both Custer State Park airport and Hot Springs airport last Friday with a buddy of mine.
Have fun
HC

Yep, too bad Hicountry. I would have enjoyed the company. Lovely country. I had a lot of fun. Custer St. Park and Custer County are both gems. I'm going to bring my family back up. Hay Springs, NE was cool, too. Very nice grass strip - nobody there. Walked into town to the steakhouse/watering hole. Fine folks.

Lots of potential for unimproved strips... Probably lots of private property, though.

I'm looking forward to the shootout up at Spearfish to kick of the NBWAW.

hicountry wrote:Too bad I have commitments yesterday and today Soy or I would have come up and joined you. I drove to both Custer State Park airport and Hot Springs airport last Friday with a buddy of mine.
Have fun
HC

Soy
My wife ,son and I camped out a few years back at CUT......very nice place and fine folks at the FBO too......just gotta fine time to get back there

Dropped in on an old airstrip that shows as abandoned and no longer listed, at Woss on Northern Vancouver Island. Used to be pretty good. Took a video landing and another couple passing Victoria Peak going up and going back. I remember a Dash 8 out of fuel with fog at Hardy and Campbell landing there once.

amacbean wrote:Finally put together a video from our trip last weekend out to Dirty Devil and Happy Canyon airstrips in Southern Utah. It was my dads first time landing at both strips as he doesn't fly in the backcountry much. Good thing I was there! He's a pretty good pilot, but he had a hard time locating the strips on final for some reason. It was kind of funny, we were never in any kind of a sticky situation. Anyway, watch if you want to.

Awesome! Can't wait till Caveman!

Soaringhiggy and I met up over Twin Falls to play in the desert. First stop was Laidlaw Corrals. The strip is in good condition.




Big Southern Butte on the way to Cox's Well


Headed West


Cox's Well - nice strip with great views


View from CW


It was really tempting to make a surprise low pass; better judgement prevailed .


Great Rift



Bear Trap Cave and Airstrip



Soaring Soaring


Before it got bad...


Can't get home from here yet (Bing Crosby used to own the adjacent ranch, Stevens-Crosby airstrip, looking south)


Looks great the other direction towards Owyhee


At least I had company, for a while

It was fun, we need to do it again soon. Flying with Blackrock is a great experience. That bearhawk is some plane, now if I just had 3 years and a cash of cash I would start.

Looks like a good time playing in the desert!

Very nice, it's cool to see some of the other Idaho airstrips.

I landed this hillside 3 different places/ways today, another new site and just 3 miles from home! But, only for a few more weeks and then the grass will be waist high. I live in a frigging STOL aircraft theme park. It's rare I don't land a new site almost every flight even though I've been flying the area 30 some years I keep finding new ones! The same deal with this other new site a mile away, I had eyeballed it in the past, when the grass was taller, and saw just enough of the rocks to keep me off it! So last year I made a mental note to hit it before it got overgrown, mission accomplished. Both of these are public land and not farmed or anything, just grazed. This place down the ridge from my place I land every year, especially in the winter on the skis. Like the others, it will soon be overgrown. SE Idaho is nice and green right now, we are in our 2 week long spring, it will soon all dry out and catch on fire again

Very nice CG!. We should get together and go play this summer sometime. A fall camp out on the desert would be fun, too. Maybe a mini southern ID BCP get together.

I would be up for that!

I know my son would as well, he loves planes and folks that flyem.

Let's go. My plane is rip roaring for adventure.

Attended the Columbia Seaplane Pilots Association annual Meeting/BBQ at Lenhardt. Great group of people, but too small! Even if you're not a float pilot, I recommend joining the group to help support float flying interests in Oregon. They went to bat big time on the Waldo Lake, despite facing a losing battle.

http://www.c-spa.org