Okanagan Complex Fires, Okanagan National Forest, Sept. 2012

Down logs near Leecher Fire Lookout completely burned to ash without hardly scorching any of the standing trees. Its referred to as a cigarette burn.


Leecher Lookout


Old mine Shafts


The Parachute Loft at North Cascades Smoke jumper Base








Casa Jump Plane


The Incident Meteorologist (IMET, or called the Weather Man by the fire fighters) gets a tour of the Casa




Fire camp on the Methow (Pronounced Met-how) River. My last fire camp. My 45th year as a fire fighter and my last fire. I was 63 years old and worn out.

One more. Cactus Fire, near Enterprise Oregon, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest Sept 2011.

Cactus Mountain


Elk Swimming Hole


The road to Dug Bar landing strip


Imnaha River on the right dumps into the Snake River left.


Sky Crane snorkeling in the Snake River above Dug Bar


Fire Approaching Dug Bar


Single Engine Air tanker (SEAT) drops behind the houses at Dug Bar




Smoke Jumpers waiting to be picked up on Square Mountain


landing at Doug Bar


Buildings and pack string safe at Dug bar. Thank you Fire fighters and SEAT

Cigarette burn…if you didn’t have a photo of it I wouldn’t have believed it is possible. Interesting photos tcj

I was inspired to fly by reading an article on the Zenith 701, a kit built stol machine suitable for back country flying. After reading about the 701 and then the ICP Savanna, I ordered the Savanna kit. A year later I had my private liscense, ordered and built the Savanna, and first flight was Christmas morning.

In the next few years I visited 98 airports in Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, and Idaho. Also back country roads, farmer's fields, and desert playas.

I got my fill by then, and sold the plane. It was great to have the experience, but by then I had had my fill. Funny how one can be so stoked to do something, and then done. I managed to not have any bad experiences, or close calls. I simply was done. I still enjoy reading this website, and others oriented towards flying.

That's my short story, tom (Savanna-less Tom)

Why I can give up flying for nearly three months.

While high altitude orientation has value and John Magee Jr. was a poet and pilot, the beauty of backcountry is that we have not "slipped the surly bonds of Earth."

I mentioned in my first post that I quit flying and sold my airplane. I forgot to tell the story of why flying was affordable for me. I built a kitfox Classic 4 and kept it at home. I miss it a lot.

Fresh out of the paint booth at home in Lapine Oregon, 1999


Fueling up at O dark 30


The Aviation Department at Central Washington University borrowed it to use as a teaching aid for 400 Sixth grade girls on career day.


Back to CWU for an outdoor recreation show


A couple of sighting seeing flights

This is locally known as the most photographed barn in the Kittitas Valley


The big bend in the Yakima River Canyon




Landing back at Ellensburg. I miss my Kitfox a lot

tcj wrote:I mentioned in my first post that I quit flying and sold my airplane. I forgot to tell the story of why flying was affordable for me. I built a kitfox Classic 4 and kept it at home. I miss it a lot.

Fresh out of the paint booth at home in Lapine Oregon, 1999


Fueling up at O dark 30


The Aviation Department at Central Washington University borrowed it to use as a teaching aid for 400 Sixth grade girls on career day.


Back to CWU for an outdoor recreation show


A couple of sighting seeing flights

This is locally known as the most photographed barn in the Kittitas Valley


The big bend in the Yakima River Canyon




Landing back at Ellensburg. I miss my Kitfox a lot

Very cool of you to use your airplane to get a future generation into aviation and hopefully a little backcountry too

As a kid I always wondered what it would feel like to fly, I always dreamed about doing the flying myself.
That curiosity, those fantasies never let me off the hook.

Eventually I started to fly gliders.

And little by little I realized:
I fly because it’s “up there” where I feel most alive. The atmosphere asks for - and gets - my undivided attention if I want to stay aloft, if I want to go places.
No distractions, just me, the plane and the sky.

I fly because every time I take off I learn something new, about how those wings fly best, about how weather and topography interact to create challenges and opportunities, and about me when I try to meet them both.

I fly because I love the visual spectacles staged by clouds and sun and scenery - different every time, often surprising, always enchanting.



All of this holds true - to a different degree perhaps - when I fly my 170.

But with an engine up front and a panel full of instruments there’s something else which makes me want to fly: to strive for perfection when it comes to flying by the numbers.

And after a wonderful first trip, camping under the wing, I added: I fly because I get to places I would have never visited and make new friends who share my passion.