It's gone past midnight here in Australia, so HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone on BCP.

Instead of watching all the horrible "Year in Review" programs filled with stuff I'd rather forget, I'd like to see what you consider your best flight/trip of 2005.

Mine is EASY: my first trip to AK in the yellow-bellied Maule.


I can't remember ever seeing such staggeringly awesome scenery anywhere else but Alaska.



All the way up to Mt. McKinley


and EVERYONE we met was SO friendly!


So, let's make our own flying review of '05. What was the best time you had in your plane??

YB

Great pics Yellowbelly! It's pretty tough to beat the trip to AK, in fact my best trip of the year is pretty tame. I don't have many hours(around 100) but I did complete my glorious return to my hometown in a rental 172 this last summer. There is some really incredible country out there on the beeline from Reno to Grants Pass (249 nm) including Mt Shasta. No radar coverage for a long ways out there at our chosen cruising altitude, so I really felt like I was making a bush run. Did some great rafting on the Rogue river and toured the Applegate Valley from the air on the way out.

Pretty weak, but my best trip so far. I had the opportunity to accompany my airplane broker on the trip from Iowa back out to Oregon to ferry my newly purchased 170, but I had to work. Still kicking myself for that one. Happy New Year!

Zane

You're a lucky bastard to get great pics of the mountain. I was there for a week and didn't see crap My flight back from Alaska was the highlight for me last year as well. Of course there was that 32 hour layover in New Orleans...

For us backcountry folks it has to be the Alaska trip. I was fiddeling around trying to put some pictures up, but I'm illiterate, so visualize. Remote gravel bar mid river somewhere north of Togiak, a C 180 and Pacer side by side, three tents, a camp fire and some fishing poles lying around. Blue sky light wind and...... Well you get the idea. Their were other good trips but that one is on top......Ron

My longest and most interesting trip was to the 2005 Air Venture in Oshkosh. Revisting some Idaho back country strips was certainly the most challenging. But without a doubt, the most fun was had at the Burning Man fly-in.

Zane: There's never anything wrong with a flight past Mt. Shasta. Seems to be an unwritten law that no matter where else you have been, when you go past Shasta, the camera comes out and you squeese off another few frames. At one point on the trip back from AK I could see Rainier, 3 Sisters, Adams and Hood just by turning my head. Hard to beat.

Speedbump: don't beat yourself up for missing the big mountain on a week long trip. I was there all summer and could pick the day. Had lots of this too:



For BCPilots, the journey is the destination

Amen to that.

I guess mine was the Death Valley trip. North Las Vegas to Furnace Creek to Stovepipe Wells to Lone Pine to Coyote Flats (9.988 ft asl) to Columbia (home) via Yosemtite. Amazing scenery and some very cool airstrips.

May we all have uneventful annuals, cheap avgas and always manage to keep the dirty side down in 2006...

Mark

The best trip of 2005 was definately Alaska. We lucked out and saw Mckinley from top to bottom. Glacier bay by self guided Cessna was unreal. When we go back we will take more than two weeks because it is so big (Denali Park is bigger than New Hampshire). In Telkeetna we were the only ones without skis....(insert comment about panties here). Gas averaged over $4 gal but lodging was really reasonable. There are few roads and fewer people. I think there are more airplanes than cars.

My best trip of 2005 was my solo cross-country from Anchorage to Talkeetna to Skwentna to Palmer and return to Lake Hood. I hope my best trip of 2006 is my check ride...which will happen within the next month!

chris

My best trip had to be in Hawaii. My wife and I rented a 172 and flew to Molokai, landed at the leper colony, skirted Maui for a while, flew over a bunch of shipwrecks next to Lanai and flew around Oahu as well. Scenery was awesome! I'll try to post some pics soon.

Toss up:

A gorgeous spring trip through Lake Clark Pass into Bristol Bay, sunny all the way and a bonus stop at Port Alsworth where we were treated to Everts' polished aluminum DC-3 "Salmon Ella" buzzing the runway at about 10' off - WOW. Apparently that's how they tell everybody they're arriving.

An August run up to the North Slope for caribou hunting with some pucker factor added in by all the smoke and reduced vis from yet another summer of forest fires. But we didn't get snowed on. That might be a story for the articles section ....

Here's to cheap avgas, accurate weather forecasts, 3000 hour engines, and a heated backseat for the Cub in 2006!

my best trip was also AK in 2005.
my dad and i were up there looking for our new aiplane. even though we didn't buy one on that trip, we had a blast chasing bear and sheep in a 260hp super stinson on alaskan bushwheels. it was absolutely the most fun i have ever had in the air.




also got to try out a bad little M5-235 on floats with 3 bladed prop and vg's.





got up close and personal with the alaska range and the talkeetna range. as a lower 48'er, all i can say is WOOOOOOOW





and the mighty matanuska glacier...





isn't that stinson the sexiest thing you have ever seen? we were operating out of 500' with 3 guys onboard. it was a blast.....
i hope to be able to fly the new maule up there sometime in the next couple years.

Best trip of the year: That's easy. My daughter Kate answered my question as to what she wanted for her fourteenth birthday by replying "time with me"! She knew I was going to meet John and a couple of guys in Idaho about the week before her birthday. We based ourselves out of Big Creek after an uneventful CAVU trip. She has been flying with me for sometime and can now spell me at the controls and helps with navigating. We hiked, fished and explored old mines for five days. Just got out under a front and weathered in Mcall for another day. Got the last room in town. The next day, we spent seven hours heading home dodging weather. We buzzed the house to let mom know we were home. As we entered the pattern a couple of miles from the house, Kate says she doesn't want to land because she doesn't want it to end. Try a short final while you're choked up and the numbers are blurry! As long as I live, I will never forget this trip.
Now, that being said, Kate made a very specific request. She received an hour of instruction and her own pilots log for Christmas. Watch out boys, there may be a new pilot in a couple of years!
UP, beautiful pictures! The Mat glacier and the Talkeetna Mtns are in our backyard of were we are moving in June. And on that note, we would assure anyone of you that if you find your way up, we would offer a tiedown, bunk and a meal!

I have to divide my "best of" between two. Spending time with my favorite co-pilot (my better half lee) around the big Island of Hawaii was excellent!

Finishing my float rating in Moose Pass Ak is a close second.

Yellowbelly, what part of Oz do you frequent? (My lovely spouse is Australian)

Can't say it was a trip but the most excitement for me was finally getting a strip put in at my place in Minnesota. My land is near Itasca State Park and I put in a 1000 foot strip, bought a Champ with an 0-235 in it. Got my tailwhell sign-off in about five days and landed at my strip. Thought that was pretty good for only haveing a few hours in a tailwheel. But let me tell you.....the pucker factor was HIGH!!! Did several passes before finally landing. When I landed I was shaking from the adrenalin rush. Must have shook for 30 minutes. Sent off emails to my riends saying, "The eagle has landed." Then went back out and did it again. I was pumped.

Hey, dav3469: I can just imagine what a rush it was at Moose Pass. I met Vern this summer at Lake Hood and am still regretting not taking up his invitation to go down there for some fun on floats. One of the dangers they don't warn you about in Alaska is cottonmouth. You fly around all day with your jaw slack, drooling and breathing through your mouth while you try to absorb the scenery. After a few hours, you could strike a (waterproof) match on your tongue.

This pic was taken over Turnagin Arm as I headed for Portage Glacier on my way to Prince William Sound. If I'm not mistaken, this valley runs up near Moose Pass. The railway on the left runs to Seward. Bring back memories??



In Oz: We have been living near Brisbane for a couple of years and decided to give the left hand coast a chance, so we spent the last 3 months driving from Brisbane to Perth. Yes, I know. People HAVE gotten from Brisbane to Perth faster than that on a bicycle, but they didn't have a much fun as we did. Where does your co-pilot hail from?

Great Pics! Yep, that area looks very familiar. I concur with the "cottonmouth" effect.

Lee comes from Manly on Sydney's northern beaches, but lived and worked up on the Gold Coast before coming over here. I am looking forward to an Australian "Flying Vacation" in the next couple of years.

However (you may have more info than I) I have heard that recent legislation has really caused problems with the "air safari" type operators in Australia, and several have had to shut their doors.

My favorite:

06 July, 2005 - the maiden flight of Champ '57B, the Kick-Ass Champ(c). After 27 months, a pile of parts and a pile of money became, once again, an aircraft. I flew an hour before going to work, and another hour and a half in the evening. I didn't get far but had a big smile all the time.

Second-best was the trip to New Holstein, Wisconsin to hang out with the Super Cub guys during the OSH event. Got lost, got rained on, landed at RST in 19G24, but had a heap of fun and met a great bunch of fellow aviators.

Jon B.