I landed safely at portage, had a great dinner and a good night of sleep.  I got up in the morning, got a weather brief from DUATS and then walked down to the plane.  I was so excited and nervous I could not eat breakfast.

I spent a good hour reviewing the NOTAM the night before and I had a good plan on getting to Airventure.   I looked at the sectional several times and tried to get a good idea of the location of the two checkpoints. As both of these points are GPS fixes it did make it pretty easy to find them. The actual locations of the fixes on the ground however are a different story.  More on that later. My first flight in was on Thursday and I wanted to get in early in the morning to have the least stressful landing experience.  I had experience flying int sun-n-fun in Lakeland FL and I knew that early was better than late. I did a good walk around inspection of the plane as I didn’t want yet another incident. I topped off the fuel, started the plane ran all the pre-flight checks, programmed the GPS with the route and launched off into the air.

The route from Portage to Airventure was pretty simple.  Take off and fly northeast towards RIPON, which also happens to be the name of the town where the fix is located, join the gaggle of aircraft headed to  FISKE and plan a landing at OSH. I knew from reading the NOTAM that I needed to be at 1800 feet and 90 knots.  Getting to that speed in a Comanche takes a subtle hand. Finding RIPON was really easy as it is a big town and the GPS fix is almost right in the middle so there is little chance of confusing this point.  FISKE is a different story.  When I reached RIPON I had a bit of trouble finding the railroad tracks.  They are not really visible from the air as there are trees grown on both sides of the track that obscure them from sight.  Once I figured out that the line of trees was the railroad tracks it made the navigation easier.

Note, that a straight line via GPS from RIPON to FISKE will not take you over the tracks you have to navigate visually as the tracks are slightly south of the direct route between the two fixes. I must admit I never really located FISKE visually on the ground  I just watched my GPS and listened carefully for the arrival crew to call out my aircraft.  They called me something like a Cherokee low wing so I had to guess that they meant me. I added the ATC audio to the video so that you hear what I heard.  I had some fun with the folks at FISKE and I found the chaos at OSH a bit frightening.  The tower folks seemed a bit stressed out.  This is a long video and it would not hurt my feelings if you skip ahead to the really good bits.

Flight from Portage to Oshkosh

Landing at Oshkosh is really no pressure.  Only hundreds of other pilots watching and critiquing your every move as you try to hit the dot on the runway and turn left into the grass before another aircraft climbs up your tail.   I did a pretty good job of landing on the orange dot and I think my landing way pretty good.  Some young smart-ass pilots were standing beside the flight line with scoreboards letting us know how they thought we did on the landing.  I was pleased to see that I got three 8s and one 9s. Due to the age of my Comanche I was entitled to park in the Vintage parking are, which was right next to runway 18/36 and the daily air show.  After landing I had to taxi quite a ways but it was very much worth it. I was able to lay under the wing of my plane and watch the air show in shaded comfort.

Describing the sights and sounds of Airventure is difficult.  Airplanes, people and something to see in every direction. One of my favorite things to do was walk around the vendor hangars.   Any company that has anything remotely to do with aircraft was there in these enormous hangars selling their wares.

There was every kind of product a pilot could ever imagine. Oh sure all the big names were there selling radios and GPS units.  What I really enjoyed were some of the quirky vendors selling cooling scarfs, memory foam seat cushions and miniature replicas of every sort of model of aircraft.  I did end up buying a few trinkets and a couple of spare parts for my bird but nothing all that spectacular.  That magneto repair at St. Louis ate up all my spending money. After a wonderful day, which concluded with a spectacular airshow, I was able to easily depart OSH.  I posted a few pics on my Facebook page and a friend who lives in the area saw the post.  She invited me to dinner with her family.  So I departed OSH, flew south until clear of the airspace , then turned east and headed to New Holstein.

The flight was pretty coming across the lake, over the wind turbines and landing in the grass at the airfield.

 

 

 
Departing from Oshkosh and flying to New Holstein I had a wonderful dinner and gabbed with old friends.  What a great evening.  Sorry, but I forgot to turn on the camera for the night flight from New Holstein back to portage.  I will just say the sky was dark and beautiful all the way back. Best night of sleep I had in a while.  Must have been all that fresh Wisconsin air. Stay tuned for part 4!

After spending a few days as tourists in St. Louis, My wife went to her conference and I flew north towards Oshkosh. The flight up there was very easy. I made one stop for refuel on the way up.
Link to the Route on Skyvector

I chose an airport a bit out of the way because airnav.com told me they had the least expensive fuel in the area and as usual they were correct.  I saved around 20 cents a gallon stopping here.  What a great little airport.  They had a homey FBO office on the end of the main hanger and a large agricultural spraying operation going on.  I had to negotiate my landing with a
couple of air tractors coming in and out as I was landing.  Nice folks at the FBO and they even helped me pump the gas.
Video of landing at Monmouth C66
I was experimenting with different positions for the camera on the airplane so you will notice the camera is on the right side and mounted a bit lower. My plan for Airventure was to stay at a hotel located next to a small municipal airport located in Portage Wisconsin.   Again I was influenced by the fuel prices on airnav and the ease of access to Oshkosh. I would fly in and out of Oshkosh each day and sleep in a bed at the hotel.  I must say it all worked out great.

The Ridge hotel, located about 3/4 of a mile and a short walk from the airport, was nothing fancy but it was inexpensive, had a bed, a good working shower and a restaurant that served simple comfort food and ice cold local beers.  My favorite beer for this trip was a local brew made by New Glarus Brewing called Spotted Cow and it was really tasty with a cheeseburger with an over easy egg on top.

Video of Landing at Portage C47

The Portage municipal airport was a great spot. The manager was a character!  He cussed like a sailor, yet went out of his way to be hospitable to all guests. The airport is located about 48 nautical miles southwest of Oshkosh, the flight would take me less that 20 minutes and  provided me with access to low price fuel.   I really enjoyed gabbing with all the pilots coming from and going to Oshkosh.  I will probably use this same place again as it was a gem.

After an uneventful yet enjoyable flight to Portage I put my knapsack over my shoulder and made the short walk over to the hotel for the night.  I needed to get plenty of rest and be ready for my first flight into Oshkosh.  After a good dinner and a couple of cold beers I kicked my feet up and relaxed and got prepared for the flight to Oshkosh the next day. Stay tuned… part
3 coming soon!

On July 18th I experienced a partial loss of power in my Piper Comanche while approaching the St. Louis Down town Airport.   I requested an expedited landing into the airfield as I thought it best to get on the ground.

Video of approach and landing at KCPS

 

A note about the video.  About 1:10 you will see the engine stumble and notice that it seems to sound different and run differently.  After the landing you will see the fire truck parade.  It seems the approach folks got a little excited and declared an emergency for me.  I requested an expedited landing as the engine starting running rough and I lost the ability to generate some power.  I did not declare an emergency I only requested an expedited landing as I was unsure if I could do a go around if it was needed.  In the end, it was discovered that my right magneto had a broken rotor brush.  Seems it was still working sometimes and was throwing the engine timing off.  It all ended safely so no worries.

After landing and filling out paperwork with the fire department, we went on our merry way and I thought that was the end of it all.  No it was not.  A few days later I got a call from a very polite gentleman from the local FSDO.  He wanted to let me know that because of the incident, he was tasked with investigating the situation and wanted to meet with me.  I agreed to meet and then he asked me to bring my log books.  I explained that I was on vacation and did not have that information with me.   No worries he said you can send that along later.

Before I got the call from the FAA representative a few fellow pilots urged me to fill out a NASA report.  That is essentially a report where a pilot tattles on themselves for what we did wrong, which can help if any legal actions might be taken. I am glad I did so and believe it was a wise precaution.  It also helped me to organize my thoughts and present my finding when I met with the FAA representative.

So we met at the FBO and he asked to see the regular documents – my medical certificate and my pilot’s license.  I produced them and showed them to him.  Then he asked me what happened and I explained pretty much what I wrote just below the video above.  I asked him why all the fuss as I never declared an emergency and only asked to be expedited as a precaution.

This was news to him.  He was not aware of those circumstances.  He seemed to understand though and he wrapped up the questions by asking to see the plane. I took him out to the plane and showed him the standard documents. AROW – Air Worthiness Certificate, Registration, Operators Manual, Weight and Balance.

He looked at the engine, took a picture of the data plate and that was pretty much it.  He asked if I would start the plane, which I did and I flipped to the right magneto and it started popping and backfiring and generally running like crap.  This seemed to satisfy him that an actual problem existed in the plane.

He asked me about my plan to get it fixed.  I told him I was going to take it to the local shop on the field.  he asked me to send him a copy of the log entry once it was fixed, plus copies of the most recent annual inspection entry and the AD compliance report.  I explained that it would be a few weeks as we were on vacation.  He gave me his business card and that was it for that day.

When I returned home I had an email from the FAA Inspector reiterating the request for the documents.  I scanned them and emailed them off to him the next day.   So now we wait. I have emailed him back and asked that when the report is finalized that he email a copy to me.

Hello All
The summer trip has come to an end. We had a good time. It was much shorter than planned but we still did some fun stuff.   Our trip this year took us from Ocala to St. Louis then on to Oshkosh, Petit Jean State park, Memphis, Nashville, Crossville, and Spartanburg.

Link to the whole trip on Skyvector

The first leg of the trip took us from Ocala to West Georgia Regional Airport in Carrolton Georgia for a refuel stop.  Nice little airport.  We borrowed the courtesy car and went into town to grab a quick lunch.  The cheap and quick option was a Subway sandwich shop just a few miles down the road. We returned to the airport, lunch in hand and gabbed with some other pilots in the lounge for a bit while we ate and then climbed back in the plane and flew on to our next destination – St. Louis.

Video of the Landing in Carrollton

After lunch and a refuel we continued on to our first destination KCPS St. Louis Downtown, which is located in Illinois across the river from St. Louis proper.  I must admit it was very cool to look down the runway at the St. Louis Arch just across the river.  The flight was pretty easy we had good weather and a light tailwind so we picked up a few extra knots and cruised at about 135 kts at a70% power setting.

Video of the landing at St. Louis Downtown 

A note about the video.  About 1:10 you will see the engine stumble and notice that it seems to sound different and run differently.  After the landing you will see the fire truck parade.  It seems the approach folks got a little excited.  I requested an expedited landing as the engine starting running rough and I lost the ability to generate some power.  I did not declare an emergency I only requested an expedited landing as I was unsure if I could do a go around if it was needed.  In the end, it was discovered that my right mag had a broken rotor brush.  Seems it was still working sometimes and was throwing the engine timing off.  It all ended safely so no worries.  The repair was simple and was completed by the shop on the field in a few hours.

We called ahead and the FBO, Ideal Aviation, arranged a rental car and a hotel for us at very good rates. For the next four days we stayed at a Drury inn and Suites to the east of the airport in O’Fallen Illinois, which was a bout a 20 minute drive from downtown.  I must say I am a big fan of that hotel chain.  In addition to a complimentary hot breakfast they also offered a complimentary simple dinner and free adult beverages every evening.    We would get up in the morning and have a lovely breakfast and then spend the day as tourists and return for a hot dinner and a cold beer.  From now on I will try to stay at this chain when I travel.

I have to say that visiting the Arch was pretty cool.  It was a very easy drive from our hotel.  We drove across the Mississippi river and then right into downtown.  Finding parking was very efficient and inexpensive.  A short walk got us from our parking to the steps of the courthouse, where the above picture was taken.  Then a quick walk across the street and into the park under the arch allowed for a close up view of this magnificent structure.

Another interesting stop was the Cahokia mounds.  This is the remnant of a native american city that lasted some 300 years.  They build pyramids and had a whole city with walls and even their own version of Stonehenge – but with wooden poles.   Here is a link to the museum website: http://www.cahokiamounds.org/

So this was our first few days in St. Louis.  After this my wife went to her conference, and I continued on to Airventure at oshkosh.  Stay tuned for part two.

Day 15 July 23rd
We were so close to the holy land, Notre Dame University, that we considered it our duty to make the pilgrimage. This day we flew from KDVN Iowa to KSBN South Bend Indiana. This was a very easy trip. I flew slightly southeastward to stay out of O’Hare’s airspace and just south of Lake Michigan.

 

I didn’t use flight following this time, as it was a short hop. We did see several other small aircraft in the area and I swapped between CTAFs for several of the local airports and was able to self-announce and navigate the slew of municipal airports without causing any problems for the local traffic.

The Route on SkyVector

The landing at South Bend was pretty much uneventful. I did however initially line up on 9 right instead of 9 left as instructed. I caught my mistake when I was still far enough out that it did not cause any issues for all the passenger jets landing there. I did confirm with approach at South bend that they wanted me to land on 9 left and then did confirm that I should land on the runway with the big “9L” painted on it. I guess it was a slow day and they were feeling snarky.

The local FBO, Atlantic Aviation loaned us a crew car for a few hours and we went on campus, visited the grotto and the bookstore as I needed a new hat. A quick shout out to the really great people at this FBO they treated us as nice as the folks coming in on the Lear jets. I had them top us off with fuel and this waived any landing and parking fees.

After visiting the grotto, lighting a candle for all my aviation family, and buying a hat, we headed back to the FBO and traded the crew car for my plane. The ground control folks wanted to know our destination and we ended up chatting it up about us flying to Niagara Falls. The departure folks even wished us a safe journey to the falls, some really nice people in that tower. Our planned route took us northeast along the coast of Lake Erie and then finally north to the town of Lockport New York.

 

Link to the route on SkyVector

The flight along the lake was easy going and we stayed on with flight following all the way. We did run into a few clouds on the way up and I had to climb up to get over the layer. Once we reached the northeastern edge of lake Erie, the clouds stopped and we made a leisurely decent into the town of Lockport. A few words about this airport, the runway was in rough shape as you will see in the video. The western edge of the runway was full of potholes and were marked with orange cones so I had to land to the right side of the runway. You will hear my wife’s comment in the video that it was a bumpy runway.

All during this trip I looked for small airports and local attractions that we could patronize. Lockport was a gem of a place to stay. We found a locally owned and operated motel, Lockport Inn and Suites, right out of the 50’s that was super nice and there was a fantastic Greek diner, Kalamata Family Restaurant, which served really good food. In fact I tasted some of the best haddock I’ve had in a long time.

Day 16 July 24th

We arrived late in the day and got a great night of sleep in our motel. The next morning, we rented a car and spent the day exploring Niagara falls. We walked around and looked at all the falls and generally had a good time as it was my first trip there.

To top off our evening we went to the local drive-in theater, Transit Drive-In Theater, and ended up seeing the Disney movie Planes 2 which was really fun. Lockport boasts one of the few triple feature drive-ins that shows three different movies on three different screens at the same time.

https://www.transitdrivein.com/

Day 16 July 24th

Today we departed Lockport in the mid-morning for KAQW Harriman and West Airport in North Adams, Massachusetts, where lives my mom.

The trip was pretty short and easy. There was no fuel at Lockport, at least I could not find anybody around to unlock the pumps, so I flew to another airport not too far away. About half way to our destination, just west of a beautiful lake was a little private strip, that is open to the public, called Skaneateles Aero Drome in Skaneateles, New York. Pronounced scan-eet-alice. Nice place and inexpensive fuel!

The Route on SkyVector

After the refuel we flew pretty much directly to North Adams, which took us right over Albany’s Class C airspace. There was a considerable haze on the mountain ridges as we approached our destination, so I had to stay at a bit higher altitude than I planned until I was sure I had cleared the ridge line obstacles. Once I was sure we were clear of the wind turbines along the ridge, I descended into the valley and landed.

Landing at Harriman and West is a bit intimidating to the uninitiated, especially when landing on runway 29. The downwind leg takes you just over the reservoir which is a lake that sits on a hill at about 1200 feet. Just after coming abeam the numbers and reducing power you are suddenly looking at a lake just a few hundred feet below you on the side of a mountain. If one is not prepared for this spectacle, they often stay too high for the base leg or extend the downwind much longer and turn late.

A quick note about this airport. It is run entirely by volunteers. The city does not have the funds to maintain it so the local pilots keep it up all on their own. I think that is great and they seem to be doing a fine job. 

We stayed here three days with my mom and enjoyed some home cooked meals. We visited a few of the local attractions and even drove up Route 2 to the top of the mountain so we could take a picture of the valley.

Day 20 July 30th

This day we left North Adams KAQW and flew a southerly route to Wurtsboro Sullivan N82.

We were there for the next four days for the wife’s 20th reunion of Up With People. The trip there was a bit nerve racking. We were in the lull between fronts as the low pressure system was spinning over upstate NY. I had to time it well to get out of North Adams and get to Wurtsboro before the next wave of storms. Fortunately my calculations of storm movement and direction were accurate and we made an uneventful, if a bit bumpy trip there.

Route on SkyVector 

Sullivan county is just a few miles off the Hudson river in upstate New York. The premise of the movie Dirty Dancing is based on this area. There are several vacation lodges with cabins and rooms all over the area and we saw many city dwellers dipping their feet in the ponds around the county. We stayed at a really wonderful place with a great bonus. Across the street from the hotel was a coffee shop, with homemade bagels and a microbrewery. It was like a one stop shop for all my vices.

While I was there, I ended up taking a short flight around the area with a couple of the other husbands who got dragged to the event. We got fuel at Kingston Ulster 20N and got chatting with the attendant and he let us in on a little secret. There is a fantastic restaurant at Sky Acres airport 44N. So we flew down to sky acres, which happens to be an uphill runway on the side of a hill. It was kind of fun landing there. We got all excited to eat only to find out it was closed during the week and only open on the weekends. Oh well. We did also find out that the company Sky Geek – www.skygeek.com is also based at this airport. All in all it was still a fun day for us and after parking the plane we went and drank beer with other husbands. I put this day in the WIN column!

Day 9 July 18th

 

 

Planning the Route

Much planning and discussion of the route for this trip took place for weeks before the actual event. I discussed the route with several other pilots and finally came up with what was considered a safe and survivable route.

The numbers (Best Estimates)

Miles traveled: 6600
Hours of flying: 68
Gallons of Fuel: 680

The Entire Route on Skyvector (Best Guess)

A Few Words on Back-Country Flying

My original flight training took place in the western mountains of Massachusetts, so I had some relevant experience with flying around and understanding the weather phenomena that occur in mountainous terrain. I did however recognize, that the mountains were much higher and the risk was greater in the Idaho back country. I devoted quite a bit of time to reviewing everything I could find about flying into the Idaho back country and more specifically, Johnson Creek airport. I read pamphlets, web articles and watched many videos on the subject. I also started obsessing about the weather about two weeks before we departed so I knew the weather patterns well.

One video that was particularly well done and very informative is this one by Greg Swingle:

I feel these factors, good route planning, studying up on back country flying, and knowing the weather patterns were essential to the success of the trip. Having a backup plan was also very useful. I had a plan A, B, C and sometimes D for each leg of the trip.
Day 1 July 10th

We loaded the plane to within 60 lbs of gross and headed off northwestward. The basic plan for getting to Johnson Creek was to fly four hours, refuel and then four more hours before stopping for the night. Out first planned stop was M83 McCharren field for a quick refuel and stretch break. I picked up flight following just after lift off. For the next four hours they were a constant companion in my headset.

Link to Route on Skyvector

The flight went well until we got close to our destination. I was turning east, then west, ascending and descending to avoid the rain clouds that popped up. About fifty miles from our planned stop at McCharren, I realized we were getting low on fuel. When I state that we were low, we were down to the FAA safe minimum of 30 minutes remaining fuel. I changed plans and went to the closer planned alternate of KUBS Columbus-Lowndes County Airport in Mississippi.

KUBS was a nice stop. The FBO was in the midst of a face lift and a crew was working on the interior. The bathrooms were clean and in good shape and they did have a nice little pilot lounge in the making. After refuel we took off and had to deal with the Class C airspace right next door. What a pain! instead of letting me turn west then north I had to turn south then east then north and go all the way around. Quite frustrating but I understood afterward that had I gone east then north I would have ended up right in the middle of the approach path for incoming flights. We finally got back on track with flight following and continued to KMIO Miami Municipal Airport located in Miami Oklahoma. Quick note Miami is pronounced “my-am-a” at this particular location as it is a Native American word.

Link To The Route on Skyvector

Had a few moments of excitement on the way in to KMIO. Encountered some moderate rain and approach guided me around the worst of it. Went through about 4 miles of downpour that brought visibility way down.

Oh! The best part. The runway at KMIO is closed for repairs. I saw the NOTAM during my morning flight brief on DUATS and called the airport to confirm. The airport manager let me know there was no issue and he instructed me to land on the taxiway. No problem!

NOTAM: MLC 08/194 MIO RWY 17/35 CLSD PARL TWY 4000FT X 50FT AVBL SR-SS VMC 1408121402-1408261400

What a wonderful place. There is one of the longest restored sections of Route 66 running right through the middle of this town. When I called ahead about the runway I also asked about a courtesy car and the manager arranged one for us. Our ride was a big old Ford Crown Victoria that was a retired police car. It swayed and rattled but ran just great and got us to dinner and our hotel just fine. We had a great dinner at Montana Mike’s and then cruised Historic Route 66 in the courtesy car. While on Route 66 we saw a bunch of restored landmarks including an old gas station, a theater and several shops along the way.

Day 2 July 11

Departed KMIO picked up flight following and flew to our planned refuel stop, Imperial Municipal Airport KIML located in Imperial, Nebraska. We got a great tailwind, which is unusual when traveling west.  The airport itself was located in the middle of acres of corn fields. The runway seemed to be made of a series of cement tiles connected together, which made my tires click out a tune as we landed. I picked this airport because it was on our route and had some of the least expensive 100 octane low-lead fuel, commonly called 100LL for the plane. Our Piper Cherokee burns about 8 to 10 gallons of fuel in an hour and goes through 40 gallons every four hours of flight. Finding less expensive spots to stop for fuel really saved us some cash.

Link To The Route on Skyvector

The next leg took us from KIML to KRKS Rock Springs – Sweetwater County Airport in Rock Springs, Wyoming. This was the big moment where we flew up to and then across the Colorado rocky mountains. I had thought about this moment quite a bit as I would be flying at 10,000 feet, yet I would only be a few thousand feet above the ground as the peak elevations here would be around 8000 to 9000 feet. Fortunately the northern route afforded us plenty of vertical clearance and an wonderfully scenic flight path.

While on flight following we got treated to ATC rerouting several flights due to heavy precipitation over Denver. We stuck to our flight plan of MBW to CKW to OCS which kept us out of the rain. Here is a pic of the storm over Denver. It was enormous.

The ride into the mountains was turbulent. I was stuck below a near solid cloud layer at about 10,000 feet and bumped along all the way to KRKS. ATC lost us on Radar for a while between Medicine Bow and Cherokee, but picked us back up as we got closer to Rock Springs. Interesting note about the runways at KRKS the 09\27 runway is huge! (10,000 x 150 feet) I hesitated for a moment and had to check the sectional to confirm the runway altitude to set my pattern altitude.

Link To The Route on Skyvector:

The hospitality here was great we were warmly welcomed and chatted it up with the locals about flying conditions on the way in. Got a ride from some nice folks to our hotel. The following day we planned our travel to S75 Payette.

Day Three July 12th

Took off from KRKS Rock Springs early morning and had a very slow climb out. Density Altitude (DA) was already 2000+ at 8:00 am. The field is 6765 feet so DA was 8765+ feet at takeoff. With full fuel and 60 lbs under max weight, we rolled down the runway almost 5000 feet and then climbed ever so slowly at 50-100 feet per minute (fpm). At sea level a normal climb for this plane even fully loaded is around 500-600 fpm. This poor climbing performance made me a bit nervous because the mountain ridge ahead of us was about 8300 feet high. Slowly got to 8500 to clear the mountain ridge, then lowered the nose and flight-climbed to 10,500 feet.

One part of the flight that was particularly scenic was the trip over Bear Lake.and through Logan Pass. We flew west towards and then over Bear Lake to the lakefront town of Garden City.

Once over the lake, we then followed the highway past Garden City to the west through the mountain pass into Logan Utah. Really something to see as we approached Logan and the mountain pass made a dramatic drop off a few thousand feet down into the valley where the city of Logan resides.

Link To The Route On Skyvector:

We continued our flight over the BYI to BOI VORs and then started our decent to S75 – Payette Municipal Airport in Payette, Idaho. Payette is a great little airport with friendly folks. They had the best price on Avgas, also offered 91 octane Mogas, and had a nice courtesy car. I made a bit of a bumpy landing coming in from the south as the rough terrain around the airport produced some turbulence.

I was a little worried about the climb out in the morning. We planned to take off early to the north for that slow climb up to altitude. The following day was the arrival at Johnson Creek.
Day Four July 13th

We set out early from our hotel, drove the courtesy car back to the airport and departed from Payette. Actually had no problem at all taking off as Payette is 2228 ASL and the morning air in the valley was cool with no wind.

For our first landing at Johnson Creek Airport I chose the southern approach. That means I flew southeast from Payette, over Emmett field – S78, turned northeastward to horseshoe bend, then north along the railroad track up to Cascade airport. After that I turned northeastward and followed a road through the notch in the mountain range until I intercepted Johnson Creek. From there I turned north and followed the valley right into Johnson Creek Airport.

The Route on Skyvector:

A brief note on landing at Johnson Creek. The preferred landing runway is 17 as the runway has a 10 degree upwards slope to the south. The canyon walls top out at about 8900 feet ASL but the runway is 4933 ASL. That means you have to fly the pattern at about 5900 feet very close to the runway. When approaching from the south you have to fly the downwind leg very close to the runway and very close to the trees in the canyon. For a first-timer this was intimidating! I found myself watching the trees and the altimeter and struggling to find the altitude that felt safe.

The landing pattern cannot be squared out like we might do back at home. I flew the plane north bound past the field to what is designated as the widest part of the canyon. At this point did a descending 180 degree turn to the left as I added flaps. This did not allow me to descend enough and I was high on final. This is a common rookie mistake. When I was abeam the numbers I should have been a maximum of 800 feet above the runway, however those trees looked really close at that altitude and I opted to stay a bit higher. To make the landing I did a side slip and held it almost all the way to the runway. My first landing was a bit steep and fast, but the runway is 3400 long so I had plenty of space to let the plane roll and burn off speed.

A couple of other points to consider. I was moving way faster in that thin air. Although my airspeed indicator said 70 knots it was in reality closer to 80 knots over the ground. Things happened fast. The direction of the wind through the canyon that day also created an updraft on my downwind leg. I was reducing power and still climbing. I had to push the nose down and reduce power quite a bit to get down to pattern altitude.

Once we landed at Johnson Creek. We camped for the next week. The daytime temperature was almost 100 degrees, at night the temperature would descend to about 45 degrees. This made for some cold nights. The good news is that there is a shed full of extra camping gear left behind and donated by other campers so we were able to find some extra sleeping bags!
The scenery here is breathtaking. The mountains are tall and steep and lush with green. The valleys are spectacular as they are full of life and beauty

Our campsite next to the river with all the comforts of home.

Day 8 July 17th

On this day we went to Sulfur Creek ID74, pronounced “crick”, for the famous $20 breakfast. Had a bit of haze during the flight in that we later discovered was smoke. The breakfast menu is very simple. Yes or No. The food was fantastic. The breakfast consisted of eggs, pancakes sausage, home-made apple butt and piping hot coffee. We were able to sit outside and watch other planes come in and land on the runway.

My landing was a bit of an adventure as I think I hit a gopher on landing. Look and see:

Sulphur Creek is a fly-in resort with lodge and cabins. The price to stay there was a bit steep, but you do get all your meals included plus a warm comfy bed in a cabin. After freezing a few nights I was tempted to plunk down the cash for a warm bed!

Remember when I mentioned back on day 1 where we flew through some precipitation near KMIO? Well, it seems that precipitation included some very abrasive droplets. The propeller on the plane was stripped nearly clean of all paint on the back side. I made arrangements with a prop shop in Boise Idaho to fix my prop and re-balance it.

On the flight south from Sulfur Creek we flew to KBOI Boise Air Terminal/Gowen Field Airport to get the prop re-balanced. As we traveled south towards the airport the valleys were filled in with smoke and only the very peaks of the mountains were visible.

It was a strange experience to see the mountains this way, as only a few days earlier we saw them quite clearly. This also significantly reduced visibility. As I got closer to Boise I estimate I could see about 3 miles in the smoke, sometimes it was even less.

As I got about 20 nm from KBOI, I radioed approach to gain access to the Class C airspace. I was denied and was told to hold outside the airspace. I ended up flying a little racetrack pattern for about fifteen minutes while I waited. I was then granted svfr access and given a specific altitude and vector to fly. I did not see the actual runway until it was very close. Approach guided me to a left base for runway 10R and then turned me over to the tower.

The local prop shop kept my plane overnight and the wife and I spent the night in a local hotel. I slept almost 12 hours as sleep out there in the woods was not as warm and restful as I had hoped.

I wanted to create a small toolkit for my airplane.  Nothing too fancy here.  Just a simple tool bag that would cover the basic repairs I might encounter.

At the top is the tool bag bought at Big-Lots for $5.99

Top row left to right

• Digital Volt/Ohm meter
• Soldering Iron & Solder
• Lengths of wire
• Super glue gel (resealable)
• Twine
• Electrical tape
• Ratchet screwdriver & bits in container
• Small hex head driver
• Box cutters
• Medium hex-head driver
• Medium flat-head driver
• LCD Flashlight
• 3/8 socket set with extension
• Sockets: 1/4-3/4
• Spark Plug Socket

Second Row Left to Right

• Twist Pliers
• .032 Safety Wire (Aviation Grade)
• Diagonal cutters
• Mix of common bulbs, screws, fasteners in container
• 1/2 dozen different size zip ties
• Hex head wrenches: .050-3/8
• Wrenches: 9/16 – 3/8
• Mini Vise-grips
• Small adjustable wrench