Got knocked around by the wind more than I care for and didn't make a few stops that I wanted to due to the gusts, but it was excellent to see a lot of new country.

Heading out on a morning run today, wished all the bugs off:

Wish i could just "wish" mine off.....

argh!! washed... I suppose I could have wished too..

Red sky at night



but then next morning...




Andy was west of us picking up ice heading into Minot in the Meridian

I'm about a week late on posting, but here is a short rundown of my most recent trip:

After buying my first airplane (Husky A1-C) a month ago, I figured it was only fitting that I fly it out to Idaho from the East Coast. The timing worked out perfect to take it to the Round Engine Roundup in Idaho Falls, so I departed on Wednesday morning with a friend of mine for my 2-day voyage west. The first leg brought me to Tupelo, Mississippi for fuel. Little did I know, the best burger in America is served 10 minutes from the airport at the Neon Pig. I couldn’t pass the opportunity, so we took the crew car. I can’t say whether it is actually the best burger in America, but it’s the best I’ve had. Our second leg took us to Neosho, Missouri for more fuel, and then we flew to Lloyd Stearman Field, just outside of Wichita, Kansas where a friend lined up a hangar apartment for us to stay in. The next morning had us flying to Greeley, Colorado for our fuel stop. After filling the tanks, high density altitude and turbulent air near Laramie had us on a long, slow climb to get to altitude. The air eventually calmed down and we were able to climb to 12k’ before getting to the Wyoming Range. Growing up as a flatlander, the views approaching and flying over Alpine were amazing. Flying into Idaho Falls on Thursday evening, we buzzed Rainbow Ranch and landed at KIDA shortly afterwards.

With 18.5 hrs of flying behind us, we were happy to stay on the ground and relax a little on Friday. Saturday was the group fly-out, however, so we hopped back in the plane and flew to West Yellowstone for brunch with the RAF group. Afterwards, a flight over Old Faithful and south along the east side of the Grand Teton Range, down the Snake River from Jackson Hole, and then to Afton, WY gave us ample opportunity to admire some of the best scenery I’ve ever flown over. Once in Afton, we were treated to a factory tour of the Aviat factory before returning to Rainbow Ranch for dinner in the Hoff’s hangar.

Everyone departed the next day, and we made our way to Creede, CO to visit some friends vacationing from Florida. Two days of trail riding, fishing, and exploring the backcountry made me really question whether I wanted to go back to the East Coast. Ultimately, I had to get back to work, so we left on July 4th and flew over the Great Sand Dunes National Park eastbound. A little over 10 hours of flying and fuel stops in West Woodward OK and Poteau, OK brought us to Tupelo again (with hopes of eating another burger). Unfortunately, we arrived around 8pm and everyone was closing early for the 4th. We barely got into a place called Mugshots in time to order wings and a few beers before they closed. We departed Tupelo around 8am the next morning, and chose to stop in Tuskegee, AL for our final fuel stop before dodging thunderstorms in Georgia on our final leg.

While being gone a total of 9 days, and battling 15-25kt headwinds both directions, we put a total of 42 hours on the plane, saw some unbelievable sights, and spent time with some great friends. Not bad for a first trip in the plane.

I think that smile pretty much says it all.

Kurt

I planned on heading over to Carbon County (PUC) from Spanish Fork, but the weather decided otherwise.

I'll be leaving UT in a few weeks, and even though I haven't done a major amount of flying here, I already know that I'll miss it.

As a side note, the Cherokee 140 isn't all that bad when solo.

I don't have much time near mountains, so I went ahead and took it up to ~10k feet and it still gave me 105kts over the ground with a 10kt tailwind.

When I backed off on the power, that went down of course, but still not bad for a brick with wings at altitude.

Was one of those perfect weekends....




Chuck and Grace off to get her tailwheel endorsement


Debbie flying the 150


Gary and Melanie stopped by from Park Rapids





perfect Sunday afternoon

BRD wrote:

Beautiful boat! Specs please.

Hacker Craft 26' Dolphin triple cockpit runabout ("Rebel") based on Nisswa Lake (Gull Chain of lakes). Owned by Lee Anderson (he has prob 20 or so of these gems) I think it has an original Continental 8 cylinder engine.

That boat is way cool.
First thing i thought was "awesome Chris Craft",
shows you how much i know about boats.

Wrapped up Commercial SEL and SES yesterday.

Seemed like the first clear day in ages in the NE.

Apparently hundreds of other pilots and boaters also noticed.

This is probably my favorite thread on this site, amazing photos! Thanks to all who post them

I collected our new toy from north of Auckland a couple weeks ago. Flight home at 10k', 221 knot tas, marginally faster than the onefitty.. Very good for smooth, 2,500' long back country strips

onefitty wrote:This is probably my favorite thread on this site, amazing photos! Thanks to all who post them

I collected our new toy from north of Auckland a couple weeks ago. Flight home at 10k', 221 knot tas, marginally faster than the onefitty.. Very good for smooth, 2,500' long back country strips

That is one sweet Aerostar. Please tell us more about this New steed!

The star has always been on my wish list, and unlike some of our other planes, the minister for fun and finance approved this one! Although her main criteria when choosing a plane is it mustn't be painted brown or have a brown interior..

It's a 601B, non pressurized with the wing extensions, so quite light and 6,000lb gross weight. Neat plane

onefitty wrote:The star has always been on my wish list, and unlike some of our other planes, the minister for fun and finance approved this one! Although her main criteria when choosing a plane is it mustn't be painted brown or have a brown interior..

It's a 601B, non pressurized with the wing extensions, so quite light and 6,000lb gross weight. Neat plane

The last Aerostar we had was a B model, huge fan. Aerostar’s are the best piston light twin ever made. They are fast and have great range, just look at the wing and dihedral. Don’t listen to the fear mongers about the fuel system or what they call quirks. You just bought the closet thing to a jet one can buy and it must be flown like one. Yes they come in fast on approach but like I said closest thing to a jet one can buy.

Have fun and congratulations on that beauty!

Beautiful airplane!

onefitty wrote:

That Aerostar is gorgeous. Always dreamed of having one as my personal taxi; that, or a Twin Commander.

I enjoyed the footage from American Made.