iflyidaho

One word: “HOME OF NAPOLEON DYNAMITE” & “HOME OF THE MOST AMAZING SANDWICH SHOP IN IDAHO – NEW YORK STYLE DELI”

The “mountain” range between Malad City and Preston Idaho is great, amazing rock formations, a narrow canyon and beautiful rolling hills. On short final this time I saw my adrenalin addicted buddy this time make the sign of the cross on his chest, right before we landed. My head went to super speed mode thinking “did I miss something” – nope! It must just be flash backs from our good times in high school making bad decisions together.

After tucking the plane away for the night, we took the state courtesy car for a joy ride to town, looking for a steak and beer which we later found the city can’t serve beer in restaurants but sell via drive through at the gas station (as seen in video). Our hunger found peace at the New York Style Deil, I’m somewhat of a food snob and this place scored a solid 10 out of 10!! What a perfect way to fill us up before heading to the hotel.

At the hotel we realized that one they had “hot spring pools” and two we were the only guest – creepy!!! It was like the makings of a horror movie, just imagine a little ugly motel far from the city limits, with a pool, slide and lots of chain-link fences to keep the local kids out, but no people! Oh and we had a bubble tub/shower in the room with us, right next to the bed – weird. *The hotel was nice inside and I would stay there again, just a bit creepy and weird.

Tip: Pilot friends, honestly it is worth flying here to take the courtesy car to town and grab a BBQ beef sandwich at The New York Style Deli

Question: How to remain safe while flying low to the ground? Truth be told I’m afraid of heights and enjoy the ground rush but want to stay “safe”.

This was going to be the destination where we planned to stay the night, however a quick phone call from the beloved wife who was booking our accommodations reviled there are no hotels in Malad City, just a B&B that was already closed for the season!

What was surprising is that the airport in Malad City was awesome, it seemed brand new compared to some of the ‘good ol’ boy’ strips I’ve been landing at. The city is beautiful, from the air it somewhat reminded me of a quaint French village. I would like to revisit the city sometime with the family, maybe speaking French looking for cheese and wine 🙂

Taking off from American Falls we pasted by Taryn’s family house as they waived bye! Now following interstate I-84 we came up on Pocatello much quicker than expected, talking with tower I couldn’t help but think how weird it was not to land, landing at Idaho airports is what I do 🙂

Now the city of Pocatello, Idaho I have never been to, but the surrounding geography is beautiful, I had no idea!! What a blast it was watching the extensive train operation and then flying low and slow through the canyon south of Pocatello while following the interstate. I remember the canyon opening up to a beautiful farm filled valley, complete with the iconic barns and houses you would see in old movies.

After a little searching we found the Downey airport. The funny thing about Downey that I didn’t notice from the air, THERE IS A TURN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RUNWAY. Take a close look at the picture and see for yourself, I couldn’t help but laugh :-)o a beautiful farm filled valley, complete with the iconic barns and houses you would see in old movies.

After following the Snake River at 500 feet for the last 200 miles we arrive in American Falls, Idaho. No air traffic and feeling a bit rusty made my pattern a lazy, on short final I actually noticed my adrenaline junky buddy Sean, knuckles go white holding on and thought to myself “if hes scared, are we going to die?” …. turns out we were ok and the landing was good.

Taryn’s mom is awesome and came to the airport to pick us up and take us to one of American Fall’s “famous” restaurants to get some much needed Mexican food!! Having a bit of adventure ahead of us still Sean and I had to check out pretty quickly so that we could get to our destination before dark.

As determined as Clark Griswold was to get his family to Walley World in the movie “Vacation” I have started to feel the same way when it comes to flying my family. I am sure all new pilots go through the phase of being comfortable behind the controls of an airplane but uncertain about taking their young family flying. Having a pilots license for almost a year now I have only flown my wife twice and my little boy once to Nampa for breakfast.

So today was the day, we’re going to Sun Valley!! Our little guy did great he just hung out in the back seat playing with is toy repeating “airplane airplane airplane” then fell asleep. The wife and I had a couple good talks and the chance to reconnect a bit while sightseeing and taking pictures. It felt good being able to show the wife the south fork of the boise river that I had told her about after a previous flight earlier in the summer.

The funny thing about Sun Valley airport is that they control tower is blind and deaf, we’re talking the Helen Keller of airports. The airport sits in a hole, so the radios are hit or miss and they don’t have radar. So I’m flying my little putt putt airplane at 100 mph trying to dodge Bill Gates in his G4 going 500 mph and tower cant see or talk to either of us – awesome way to have fun, right! Additionally the way Sun Valley airport is setup forces planes to land and take off in opposite direction, meaning we’re eye-to-eye with departing traffic playing a variation of “airplane chicken”. Lastly its like a big whirlpool of wind – more on this later.

So i’m long final, maybe seven miles out, I see the airport and I hear “Gulfstream 123 ready for take off”…. “Gulfstream 123, wait Cessna on final”. I think to myself poor guy is probably going to waste $1,000 in fuel sitting their waiting for me, but then thought it was kinda funny as I slowed down to 80 kts (sorry Mr. Trump, go fluff your bangs because this is going to take a while). Knowing the winds can be tricky I get a wind update, I cant recall the numbers but I remember two things, 180 difference in direction between the two reporting stations and I’m landing with the wind in my favor, what happened next was a surprise…

I’m five feet above the runway, my controls are soft and I’m going fast. It takes about two to three seconds to figure out what is going on when something new or unexpected happens and my brain was buzzing. I look at my airspeed thinking I must have screwed up, nope good. I look at the runway and think “wow, fast”. Then it breaks through I’m landing with a tail wind, “wow, fast” I think again. Then touch the main wheels down and remember a previous landing when my nose wheel touch early while I was quicker than normal turning me hard and fast while scaring the hell out of me. This experience is at the front of my mind while I keep that nose high off the ground, until it gently fell to the ground. Looking around as I’m pulling off the runway for the waiting G4, I notice my landing took three times the distance and the wind sock indicates a 15 kt tail wind. Fun!

Mexican food, gondola ride to the top of the mountain, a long walk and a short nap; we’re ready to head off into the sunset – literally. The sun was directly in our eyes on the flight home, Aiden was upset to be locked in the car seat and we learned the hard way that without a four hour nap he really ‘hates’ airplanes. I enjoyed watching the wife sing “Old McDonnald” to Aiden at the top of her lungs over the deafening noise of the engine, trying to calm him down and thought how being middle aged isn’t all that bad if you spend your weekend outside of Costco and Target and in the air.

Tips:

1. SUN has courtesy cars provided by Hertz!
2. The town seems to have no food between 4 and 6PM
3. Do not crossover the gravel pit when heading East, tower wants you on the East side of the valley before cutting to the North.

Questions:

1. When the sun was directly in our eyes it was difficult to see through the windshield, how do you compensate for this?
2. Tail wind landing tips, what could I have done differently?

Departing north from Mc Call, we circle the 18-mile shoreline of the Payette lake. Dark yet clear blue water, big green pine trees, and a few million-dollar houses tucked within the dense forest make the sightseeing tour well worthwhile! Heading west, the sun is beaming straight into my eyes, and the windshield reflection is so bright I need to zig-zag across the sky at an angle so I can keep an eye on the rising terrain below. We are keeping south of New Meadows and using the distant highway 95 as our only source of navigation.

Dropping into the Council Valley, we have trouble determining whether the airport is in fact an airport, or whether it’s a long road in front of someone’s house. The numbers typically painted on the runway are nonexistent, and the way the hangars are set back from the runway makes it almost look like a road in front of a ranch. The air is calm, the lighting is beautiful, and the landing is uneventful. Taking off is a bit different, however. The runway is on a slight decline, so starting off down hill, we get our speed up pretty quickly. Suddenly, it seems like the runway is ending, just a few hundred feet in front of me. I look down just shy of the 60 MPH I need to fly and think, “Commit or quit! We’re close; we’ll make it. Hmm, I thought this was longer… 3,000 something.” Lifting off with less runway in front of me than I’m comfortable with, I think, “Way too close!” Then I look down and notice that the descent angle has changed again and there are still 2,000 feet of runway left that I just couldn’t see while on the ground. After that, it all makes sense.

Following the small rivers and streams that cross through the golden rolling hills of this area, I can’t help but think how lucky I am to have been able to spend the afternoon doing something like this. The only radio chatter is a pilot practicing in Emmett, the sun is low on the horizon, the air is smooth, Jon is flying and my calculations have us on the ground in Boise just before the end of civil twilight.

Perfect end to a perfect weekend!

From Cascade, we departed North towards the lake, which was once again another good lesson in density altitude. We were off the ground in about 1,100 feet, but we weren’t gaining altitude like I’m used to. We followed the shoreline of Cascade reservoir, with the tamarack resort to our left and the million-dollar houses on our right. It was a pleasant afternoon flight full of birds, fly fishermen and jet skis, and it gave us a much different perspective of the Cascade Valley.

“Jon, that looks like a runway,” I said. (Remember, Jon has never been in a small plane before). “Ron, it is a runway. It has a windsock.” Ahhh. We found the grass-strip of Donnelly (U84), and I sat there thinking to myself, “Wow, those trees are tall—and you land in between two rows of them.” Maybe next time.

After circling my mother-in-law’s house, located just to the south of Mc Call, I checked the Mc Call AWOS (Automated Weather Observation Station). To my horror, we had a 70 degree crosswind at 10 kts gusting to 20 kts. I crossed mid-field, thankful that I’d gone up a couple of times in Boise during nasty, gusty crosswinds. This was different, though. The winds were stronger, we were at a high altitude (Mc Call is 5,000 feet above sea level), and the runway was both narrower and shorter than the huge runways found at BOI. I’m thinking, “I’ll shoot it twice, and if I can’t get it down, we’ll just fly back to Boise—no big deal.”

“Jon, sorry man, you can’t talk. I’ve got to pay attention.” Jon quickly stopped talking and continued to take pictures. “Jon, sorry, no more pictures.” I didn’t want any distractions; I figured I needed to fly a perfect pattern, have perfect power settings, and use a super-controlled approach as I turned base to final. “McCall area traffic, 870 short final 34 McCall.” I snapped as one hand gripped the controls, four fingers of the other hand held the throttle, and my thumb rested on the carb heat just in case I needed a full power go- around. A little bump to the right, a little more rudder pull-back, then back some more, and I landed smooth and on the centerline. “I need a beer!” I thought as the plane slowed to a roll, knowing I’d have to settle for just a burger.

Tip: A short 15-minute walk towards downtown, and you’re at Paradise Burger, home of the best damn Hawaiian burger I’ve ever had. We’re talking lean meat, pineapple, ham and super-sticky teriyaki sauce on a bun made from the local bakery (which also has great sandwiches but is closed on Sundays).

The trip to this point was a really good lesson in density altitude. After clearing the mountains just North of Horseshoe Bend, we went slightly to the east into Garden Valley. This valley was beautiful. It was lush and green with dense pine forest—a must-see place from the air. Continuing to head north, I really noticed how poorly the plane performed at altitude when I was flying at 7500 feet MSL and wanted to continue to climb to get extra clearance over the mountains in front of me. At 80 MPH and full power, I noticed we were lucky to be gaining 100 feet per minute. Sometimes, I would look down and see us loosing altitude due to downdrafts. I started to get a bit nervous for a while, thinking we might not be able to clear the ridge. I kept my nose up, did a series of S-turns to see the terrain below, and kept to one side of the valley where I could turn and descend if caught in a bad downdraft. It was a relief clearing that ridge and descending into the Cascade Valley. The cows, pastures and alpine lakes were a much welcomed and pleasant sight!

After landing in Cascade, we walked into the little shop and started shooting the breeze with the locals. To our amazement, we met the guys who have the mail contracts for all the backcountry strips, lodges, etc. Jon had talked to me about these guys earlier in the day and mentioned that we should take one of these bush planes into a back strip and camp for a few days or take a hike. Our discussion with Ray from Arnold Aviation was great! He informed us that we could fly to one strip, have fresh food dropped off at another location, and be picked up at a third location. So basically, we could do a super long one-way hike, eat fresh food, and be miles and miles deep into the Idaho wilderness area! They can fit four or five people into one of their Cessna 206s and charter it for $400 per hour. We pick the drop off and pickup days, and it costs less than $100 per person. Ray’s advice was to do this before the start of hunting season, which is September 15th.

Question: I have an issue seeing wind direction from 1500 feet above a runway. What are your tips for seeing that darn wind sock??

Tips: Coastal pilots beware: If you are accustomed to flying at sea level and you fly the same way in Idaho (low to the ground, heavy loads, middle of the day departure), you will probably hit a mountain. The bears and mountain lions will eat your flesh and the squirrels will eat your bones. No one will ever find you, so don’t fly this way.