North Idaho Mountain Flying

6 posts in this topic

Posted

My plane was back together and the weather report said a perfect day for flying. I sent out a few text messages inviting a few friends to meet up at KCOE. It was last minute but I had a hall pass and the Mountain Avid needed to fly somewhere cool. 

The Machinist was the first one to start blowing up my phone the next morning saying he was ready to go. I got to the Airport just in time to see Daryl Jones land in his Murphy Moose. Just about the time we got Daryl parked I heard my friend Mark from Deer Park call on the radio that he was 6 miles out.

I installed my Stratux receiver, Ipad, PPT cable, fueled the plane and installed the cowl after a good pre-flight. We got the Machinist on the phone and made a plan to meet at Cavanagh Bay (66S).

Cavanagh Bay is a Back Country grass strip on the South East end of Priest Lake. They have a nice resort right on the lake that serves food. We had checked the website and they said they were open at 8:00 am. When we were flying in a departing pilot told us there was a sign on the door saying they were closed for the season. We decided to land and make another plan. After we all arrived a local friend of Daryl's walked up to look at the planes. We told him we were looking for breakfast. He suggested we barrow his truck and drive into Coolin. Coolin was only a few miles and had two restaurants. We had a big breakfast and headed back for the Airport. 

We decided to fly over to Sullivan lake (09S) which was 23 Northwest. Mark took off first in his 701 followed by me then the Machinist. We were about one mile out when I heard Mark say that he had a loud noise coming from his engine. The Machinist and I turned left and gave way for Mark to return to the Airport. Once back safe on the ground we pulled the cowl and found that two bolts that hold the exhaust together has departed the aircraft. The Machinist had a good tool kit and Daryl and I was able to borrow some hose clamps and bolts from a local Gentleman. We got Mark all put back together and he opted to fly home. He only has 8 hours on his plane and wanted to take it home and give it a good look over. I think he made a smart choice.

We departed for Sullivan Lake and was about 8 miles out when I thought I was getting more vibration than normal from my propeller. We were just coming by a Forest Service Strip called Nordland so I landed to check it out. The Machinist saved the day again with his tool kit. All looked good and I decided the vibration was me shaking looking at those big mountains we were about to fly through. 

Wow....Mountain flying is amazing. I was nervous and amazed at the same time. I kept a steady eye in the gauges but they were in perfect harmony all day.  We had to climb to 7000 MSL to navigate over the Mountains. I was seeing 600 FPM climb rate at that altitude. Daryl and I made our approach over the lake landing to the North and The Machinist circled around and came in landing to the South. 

We all took a walk down to the Lake and took some pictures, used the facilities and signed the guest book. It was after 3:30 pm so we decided we better start for home. The Machinist headed East to Boundary County, I headed South to CDA (KCOE) and Daryl headed West to Spokane (KSFF). 

The Flight Home was Amazing!!! The WX was perfectly calm. I set the I Fly GPS direct to KCOE. Those new Ipad/GPS units hooked to a Stratux receiver are an amazing tool.  I flew a bit to the West so I could see the Pend Oreille River which goes by Ione WA, Newport WA and Priest River ID. Once you hit Priest River its pretty much a straight shot south Home. 

I enjoyed this trip more than anyone will know because it fills the dream I've had for many years to finally fly the Idaho Back Country. The bonus to that is I got to do it with good friends and fellow aviators. 

More picture to come.

:BC:

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Posted

Awesome trip! it looks less Hazy up there than down here in the Columbia Basin.

Priest Lake and Sullivan Lake are fun places to fly, regulars on our local list. We were going to camp up at Priest and bust over to Sullivan this weekend too, except we decided not to once we checked on the website and found the restaurant closed till December when it opens back up for snowmobile season. My girlfriend wasn't in to it unless the restaurant was going to be open. She will tolerate camping this time of year if there is a nice restaurant or somewhere warm to hang out, but that wasn't the case and I had planned the weekend with her.

We ended up flying to Cashmere instead as a day trip, borrowing the courtesy car and went to Leavenworth for October fest. That was a pretty fun plan B.

Then flew to Yakima yesterday to visit her son and his girlfriend. Not back country camping but a good time flying and sight seeing with the fall colors. 

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Posted

Nice flying.

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Posted

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Posted

Awesome!  I'm seriously jealous!  

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Posted

Awesome! You can live on an adenture like that for a long time (all winter!). Thanks for sharing and don't hesitate to poste more of those great pics!

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