WebRuss
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This article is part 1 of a multi-part review of our summer trip from Florida to Idaho then out to Tillamook Oregon then east to NYC then South to Tennessee then home to Florida.
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.
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.
Piper Cherokee landing at KUBS:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKp7x-jifNw[/ame]
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. Had a great dinner at Montana Mike's and then cruised Historic Route 66 in the courtesy car.
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
Piper Cherokee landing on taxiway at KMIO:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=620byxvSm5E[/ame]
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, and got treated to watching an air tractor coming in for a refuel and refill.
Link To The Route on Skyvector
Piper Cherokee Landing 13 KIML:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUq5jHJArWI[/ame]
The next leg took us from KIML to KRKS Rock Springs - Sweetwater County Airport in Rock Springs, Wyoming. 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:
Piper Cherokee landing 27 at KRKS:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilr1PxbVzAQ[/ame]
Pic of us in front of the FBO
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 this morning and had a very slow climb out. Density altitude 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 climbed at 50-100 fpm. Slowly got to 8500 to clear the mountain ridge, then lowered the nose and flight-climbed to 10,500.
Piper Cherokee taking off KRKS:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9NFdSHtuQw[/ame]
We flew west towards and then over a beautiful lake named Bear Lake to the lakefront town of Garden City.
We then followed the highway out of 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.
Piper Cherokee Landing S75 Payette: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d-Xsf8cabE[/ame]
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.
Stay Tuned for Part 2!
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.
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:
[ame]http://vimeo.com/78356287[/ame]
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.
Piper Cherokee landing at KUBS:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKp7x-jifNw[/ame]
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. Had a great dinner at Montana Mike's and then cruised Historic Route 66 in the courtesy car.
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
Piper Cherokee landing on taxiway at KMIO:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=620byxvSm5E[/ame]
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, and got treated to watching an air tractor coming in for a refuel and refill.
Link To The Route on Skyvector
Piper Cherokee Landing 13 KIML:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUq5jHJArWI[/ame]
The next leg took us from KIML to KRKS Rock Springs - Sweetwater County Airport in Rock Springs, Wyoming. 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:
Piper Cherokee landing 27 at KRKS:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilr1PxbVzAQ[/ame]
Pic of us in front of the FBO
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 this morning and had a very slow climb out. Density altitude 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 climbed at 50-100 fpm. Slowly got to 8500 to clear the mountain ridge, then lowered the nose and flight-climbed to 10,500.
Piper Cherokee taking off KRKS:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9NFdSHtuQw[/ame]
We flew west towards and then over a beautiful lake named Bear Lake to the lakefront town of Garden City.
We then followed the highway out of 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.
Piper Cherokee Landing S75 Payette: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d-Xsf8cabE[/ame]
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.
Stay Tuned for Part 2!
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