Planning Johnson Creek, ID trip for 2012

The Falcon Field RV Squadron (ATL,GA) is planning a trip to the famed Johnson Creek. Would like to solicite suggestions and recommendations? Your thoughts please on:

Best time of year to visit JC.
Local access to fuel.
Day trips out of JC.
Neat places to visit on the way up/back.
Do's and dont's.

Thanks in advance.
Rick

The best time seems to be late Spring through mid-Summer. Weather is very important - a late Spring snow might not be as much fun as a sparkling clear weekend. After that it's hotter and dryer.

If you can find out when there's a fly0in there, try to avoid it. Especially the 180/185 fly-in, as it'll be very crowded and pretty noisy.

Most people generally get fuel at McCall. Coming from the east, Challis might do. For me, the important thing to do is make sure that you can definitely get out to more fuel. I come from Colorado, and try to tank up at McCall or Challis on the way in, and watch my fuel while I"m out playing. McCall is about 20 minutes from Johnson Creek for me in my Cessna 180, so it's not a big deal.

I've found that in the early morning, the humidity from the creek causes dew and a fogged windshield. These clear up after the sun's up from behind the mountain. It's way worse if you're tied down on the east side of the runway and better on the west side.

The effect was fun to figure out. There's a mountain on the east and west sides of the runway, and the runway side, the east side, of the west mountain warms up first from the sun. The air flow is down the east mountain, across the creek, past the planes, and up the west mountain.

For day trips, there are a number of fun places to fly to, and McCall is one of them. All the back country airports are fun and many are challenging, so do your homework and go in the morning. The nearby town, Yellow Pine, is worth a visit, and there are plenty of hiking opportunities right from the field.

An excellent reference is "Fly Idaho," by Hanselman, at www.flyidaho.com. It's a must-have. The state of Idaho also publishes an airport directory which is quite good but doesn't have the things-to-do and history that Fly Idaho has. The state has a good map showing a number of airfields that are not on the sectionals. You can get those here: http://itd.idaho.gov/aero/Facility Directory/index.htm.

Camping is good there. You can camp by the plane or in the campground 100 feet away. There are showers and toilets and might even be cut firewood. Don't expect to sleep late because people will be up very early running up and taking off.

Land to the south and take off to the north. Make straight-in and straight-out approaches and departures unless you're utterly familiar with the plane and have lots of back-country experience. And call your position, altitude and intentions often.

McCall's grass runway will be mowed and is usually decent. Some of the other airports might not be. On my C-180, I have the small 600-6 tires and no wheel pants and don't have a problem. The plane grosses at 2,550. I can't say what to expect from wheel pants, but some time ago at one of the other fields out there, I met two guys in RVs. One had an RV-4 and the other had an RV-6, and I think their wheel pants were on. They did well. I was impressed.

Dave

Oh, boy! Something I actually know about!

Rick,

1. Best time is late June, early July. Spring T'storms are over and the monsoon hasn't kicked in, it's not to hot, and the fire season hasn't arrived. Everything's green.

2. Nearest fuel is McCall or Cascade, almost an equilateral triangle with JC. Most fly to McCall (KMYL) because it's an easy short walk to a market and restaurants. Coming in, well, from whence are you arriving? Boise, Nampa, Caldwell are 35 RV minutes south, that's next closest fuel. You can get 87 mogas in Yellowpine if you're in a pinch, but you need to sweet talk the caretaker into borrowing a container, then rent the van.

3. How far do you want to go? Popular RV targets in the back country are Smiley Creek and Garden Valley, both with very nice shower/camping facilities and mowed grass strips (as is Cavanaugh Bay in the pan handle), Big Creek, Moose Creek. All are grassy, fairly easy strips. RVs can handle many more, being good short field performers, but it becomes a matter of how much damage from rocks/gravel/rodent holes are you willing to risk, and you'd better be spot on your game as a pilot. We have too many flatlanders coming up here every year and killing themselves. The Pacific coast is only two hours west. How far do you want to go?

4. The Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, WY, is not to be missed.

5. Fly light and early. Land up hill, take off down hill, period, no matter the wind. If you think it's too windy for a downwind take off, it's too windy to fly. Get Galen Hanselman's "Fly Idaho" book. Book some mountain flying training in Salmon or McCall if you're apprehensive, or your friends tend to finish sentences for you. Them thar hills you pop over leaving GA are just that. The mountains are out here.

Avoid fly-in dates, especially the 180/5 crowd. Check idahoaviation.com calendar or Idaho Aeronautics department. Join the Idaho Aviation Association.

Land. Park. No practice approaches, multiple landings, touch/goes. That's real discourteous in the back country. Once you're there, camping area south of the maintenance facilities is open and party-ish. North side is strung out along the creek and more private.

Here's the JC web cam: http://www.ruralnetwork.net/~yellowpinecm/

John Siebold
Boise, ID

Rick. John is right on with the advices I like to go to that area in May,but were local so can watch the weather better.We own a place at Big creek and good friends with the owner of the lodge (which burned a few back) there are a couple cabins which are real nice.Our place is a 10 minute walk from the runway if someone wants to be on private ground. If I can help in any way let me know I'm out of kono. David

I was thinking of making the same trip but later in the year. The plan was to go to JC and then stop by Oshkosh on the way home.

Is this too late in the year for a good JC trip?

Fly fishing

I also would like to plan a trip for next summer, July or August.

What are the best backcountry strips that get you into the proximity of good fly fishing??

I am willing to hike once in country to get beyond the range of the less serious.

Please PM me if you are willing to share your secret spot discretely. I know all about the need to limit pressure.

Thanks

Weather & mogas

Payette, S75 now has self-serve mogas, 78nm on the 231 radial from JC.

We can have great weather anytime of the year, but you are much more likely to get rained on early summer. Bottom line is it's either come early and risk getting lots of rain days, or come late and risk getting smoked out from local fires. Many years, the fire activity isn't real close, so you deal with the haze and a few TFRs. However, I think it was 2 years ago, the road into Yellowpine was closed, and the Harmonica festival was cancelled.

Here's a favorite of mine, WeatherSpark.com, showing this last summer. The link should keep the format, so you can look at May-Oct.
http://weatherspark.com/#!graphs;a=...rPosition:0,subZero2:0,sdpitg:0,temperature:1

Sid Lambert said:

I was thinking of making the same trip but later in the year. The plan was to go to JC and then stop by Oshkosh on the way home.

Is this too late in the year for a good JC trip?

Click to expand...

Sid, mid-July is a fine time for Idaho. Things aren't quite as green, BUT weather is more predictable. Fly in the mornings(tie it down by 11) or evenings.

Fly Fishing Question

I've been going to the Wy, ID area to fly fish for many years. Near JC I highly recomend the Upper Mesa. You may have never heard of it. I can get you the name of the best guide for that trip if you like.

Let me know.
Rick

+1 on the need to schedule your JC visit on a "light use" weekend. The caretakers will let you use the van to drive to Yellow Pine on those light weekends, else they use it as a scheduled shuttle. Known heavy use periods - first weekend in Aug for the harmonica festival, the C180/C185 fly-in, the www.backcountrypilot.org fly-in (ref Incredible Journey videos posted on this site). Contact those orgs for dates.
You can purchase your Idaho visitor fishing license at JC via airport landline telephone using your credit card.
There are local outfitters in the towns of West Yellowstone MT and Jackson WY with the latest info on fishing conditions and civilization (for the wife, natch). As mentioned, nearby McCall also provides similar services.