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Summer 2011 Trip North

tommylewis

tommylewis

Well Known Member
Bonnie and I started our summer trip by loading up our RV10 last Thursday and flying to Cheyenne, WY to spend the weekend visiting our son and family.

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We have the RV10 loaded to 100 lbs under gross (Vans standard gross) and it is a pleasure to fly. We took off about 7am last Thursday to get out of the TX heat. I only climbed to 6.5 because we had a tail wind. After going LOP, it was a 2 hour flight to a stop at Dumas, TX for fuel to get the $4.70 avgas. We were running 162 kts true with 11 gal/hr. After fueling, we climbed to 8.5 for another 2 hr ride up to Cheyenne. Our new panel in the 10 is great. The iPad 2 with the new glare shield worked very well with Foreflight for this first flight of our summer trip. Although the iPad picture I took of the panel did not come out so good, will use the camera next time.

Tomorrow, Monday, we are loading up again for a flight over to West Yellowstone for the week. Check out our SPOT tracking link below to check our progress.
 
Awesome

Yes Steve, you built a real nice RV10. We had an awesome flight into West Yellowstone today. The weather was great, smooth and vis was great. Here are some pictures.

This picture is from Togwotee Pass which is east of Jackson Lake and the Teetons. We climbed to 11.5k to fly the pass.
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The GRT screen while desending after the pass.
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As we approached Jackson Lake.
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Northbond out of Jackson Lake toward West Yellowstone
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The Sutters and McDonalds arrived from Pecan Plantation about an hour after we landed. They left at 6am this morning.

The sights were just awesome flying in today. Keep pounding those rivets!!
 
More flight info

Our flight yesterday was made at 10.5k at 65% power rich of peak which gave us about a 172 knot true. With the wind off our right wing we were making good time. As we approached Togwotee Pass we climbed to 11.5k because the pass was at 9.5k, and then descended back to 10.5k for our flight into WYS. It was a smooth flight, just like we wish all mountain flying would be. There is still slot of snow in the high country.

We are camped in the pilot campground at WYS for the week.
 
Tom,
How long are you planning to stay? Me and my wife are hoping to make it to WYS for the weekend Friday evening in our -7. maybe we could meet up, always nice to meet another fellow RVer.
 
more of flight in

There is alot of snow in the high country of Yellowstone. This picture is taken north of Lake Jackson and south of Old Faithful.

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This a picture of the 4 RVs parked on the ramp at wys.
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Pirep on WYS

We will be camped at WYS through the weekend. For anyone coming this way, bring LOTS of mosquito repellant. I have not seen Mosquitos this numerous since I lived in Minnesota in the 80s. It is especially bad at dusk. We did have an RV8 join us last night around one of the fire rings, but the other 3 rings are open. The shower is out of service, but they opened the fire station showers for our use. The wifi at the FBO works well. The restaurant in the terminal is open accept for Tuesday.
 
Tom, if you are looking for a breakfast spot on Monday, Townsend hosts a fly-in on the 4th of July. Townsend(8u8) is only an hour north of KWYS.

Mosquito season has barely started here, haven't even broke out the repellent. It is predicted to be a bad one due to the wet spring and tall grass everywhere. Might need shotguns in September. :D
 
GRT Screen Shots

The following two pictures are from the GRT demo file from recording the flight into West Yellowstone on the GRT HX screens. This feature is real nice for recording a flight and looking back at it later. This flight was my first in the mountains since upgrading the panel earlier to the GRT HX screens.

This picture is a snapshot of how the synthetic vision looks on the GRT HX as we approached the Teetons. Pretty nice picture. The only difference with the real picture was the amount of snow this year makes the real picture alot whiter.
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This picture is the map view over Jackson Lake as we turned NW toward West Yellowstone.
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Keep pounding those rivets.
 
Johnson Creek, Idaho

Today the crowd at West Yellowstone broke up. We had 12 experimentals at West Yellowstone for the weekend. There were 4 RV10s, 3 RV7a, 2 RV6, RV8, RV4, and Murphy Rebel. We had a great weekend. Five from TX, two from Iowa, one from NM.

Today three rvs from TX flew into Johnson Creek and joined up two rvs from Atlanta. Check out the Johnson Creek webcam as we are parked in front of it. Our Spot track shows the route flown this morning. I will load some pictures to post this evening as the weather and mountains are beautiful.
 
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Johnson Creek

Here is a picture taken on the flight from West Yellowstone to Johnson Creek.

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This is the view approaching JC from the south from Landmark.
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As you turn the corner from Yellow Pine, this is the first view of JC.
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Group of six couple after lunch at Yellow Pine diner. The next picture is of the bread the Shemo's baked for the group. Next was the peach cobbler. We are eating very well during our wilderness camping.
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Johnson Creek Hike

Today the seven couples camped together at Johnson Creek took a hike to the Warm Springs Tub. It was a cool cloudy day which was great for hiking.

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Tom and Bonnie enjoyed the warm water in the bath tube that is positioned on the mountain side. It is at pattern altitude for the airposrt.
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More

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We have had a great week at Johnson Creek with 7 couples camping together. We had 2 RV10s, 2 RV7a, 1 RV8a, and 1 RV 6. Yes one taildragger.

On Friday morning some of our group depart and and on Sat the rest move on. Keep pounding those rivets and once flying find some other crazy souls and plan some flying trips. It is alot of fun to travel with other RVers.
 
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Bye Johnson Creek

After a great 6 days, our group camping at Johnson Creek packed up our camping gear, loaded the planes and headed out on Sat morning. Naturally that morning was the first frost of our visit so those intending an early morning departure had to wait for the sun to melt the frost. We pushed the 3 planes that wanted to make an early get away over to the west side to bask in the sun.

This picture is one of those first departures from our group. An RV8a flown by Bill from Atlanta area.
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Then we packed our RV10 and flew out with Martin and Claudia for Driggs, ID. This a picture of the mountains enroute.
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We are "camped" in a wonderful rent house for the week intending to spend some time hiking the Tetons. My camera bit the dust on our Sat monring flight so we bought a new camera and are ready for touring again.
 
VAF hat and shirt sighting

Today we hiked with the Sutter's up Cascade Canyon. First we took the boat shuttle across Jenny Lake, and then climbed the wall to Inspiration Point where this picture was taken. Next we hiked about 2 miles up the Cascade Canyon where we saw moose and some beautiful views.

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Yesterday we took the Grand Targhee Resort ski lift up to the top and hiked along the top ridge. The view was awesome.
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We have sure enjoyed the Tetons and the cool temperatures. Saturday we move on to spend some time with family before Oshkosh.
 
travels continue

Let the summer travels continue. On Friday evening we went out to the Driggs Airport to take our canopy covers off in the unlikely event that there was a dew Sat morning. We found the ramp empty and this nice view of our RVs and the Tetons in the distance.

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On Sat morning we took off and climbed to 11.5k to clear Teton Pass to the SE of Driggs toward Jackson Hole and saw this sight as we flew into the valley.

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We contined our flight to the east and landed at Thermopolis, WY to soak in the hot mineral pools for the afternoon. This is a picture over the town of the airport.
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We had a nice visit in Thermopolis. The FBO is run by a young couple. They have courtesy cars, self service fuel, and nice accomodations in town. Check it out if you travel across Wyoming.
 
Custer, SD

On Sunday morning we flew over to Custer, SD to meet our son and his family for a week of camping. You will notice we are making all of our flights in the mornings which makes a more pleasant ride. We climbed to 9.5k, had a tailwind of 15-20 so we had a short hour flight at 180 or so knots leaned to LOP.

Since Bonnie and I got married in the Black Hills 43 years ago, and we were both born and raised in South Dakota, this area sure feels like home to us. We love to return to visit. So we had to make a flight over the hills to check out our favorite spots. Naturally a flight close to Mount Rushmore was in order.

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One of our favorite hiking spots years ago was Sylvan Lake were we always take the hike behind the dam called Sunday Gulch. This is a picture of that lake. On Monday we made our favorite hike.

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Custer airport as we prepare to land.
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Custer airport has a new couple managing it and we found hangar space available, self service fuel, and if we needed rental cars available through the FBO. If you are flying through here, check them out.
 
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Tommy, great timing on the last post------Laura and I are thinking of taking a little detour on the way home from Osh, and Mt Rushmore is on the list.

Custer airport looks nice ------ real nice:)
 
Pirep on Cus ter

Mike, I called the contact phone number listed on Airnav and talked to Shanon. She told me they do have hangar space for $25 per night. They also have self service fuel. Since we were flying in on Sunday morning, she gve me her cell number to call when we arrived. It is 605-517-9101.

When we arrived we were meet by Mark (Shannon's husband). Mark is the part time airport manager and Shannon is the full time FBO manager. They have a deal with Enterprise and have one car on site this week. Mark loaned us his jeep to drive into town for lunch while we waited for our son to pick us up.
 
Oshkosh 2011

We flew into OSH on Sunday afternoon, actually Bonnie flew in while I watched for traffic. We. Had planned to leave Custer Sat morning and fly to OSH, BUT after checking the weather forecasts we decided to spend a night with Mom in SD and fly in on Sunday.

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Having a great time camped in row 302 in HBC.
 
Oshkosh 2011

We flew into OSH on Sunday afternoon, actually Bonnie flew in while I watched for traffic. We had planned to leave Custer Sat morning and fly to OSH, BUT after checking the weather forecasts we decided to spend a night with Mom in SD and fly in on Sunday.

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Having a great time camped in row 302 in HBC.
 
Still flying

After Oshkosh, Bonnie and I spent a week at Mom's in South Dakota and then left last Friday to fly over to Thermopolis, WY to meet the Sutter's. On Sat we then flew up to Kalispell, Montana to spend a week. We had a great flight with some wonderful views of mountains on the way. This picture is one of them.

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We have been touring Glacier Park and doing alot of hiking. This is a picture of the four of us approaching Virginia Falls on one of our hikes. There is a VAF hat and shirt in this picture.

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Another hike

We have escaped the Texas heat and are enjoying the cool Glacier weather. This is us on the Garden Wall hike, a sheer cliff above the Going to the Sun hiway near Logan Pass.

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Martin meets a mountain goat on the Garden Wall.
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Keep pounding those rivets!! And once you get the RV flying, find some friends to fly around this beautiful country. It is amazing to travel the US in an RV.

:)
 
Last two weeks

After a wonderful visit to Glacier, we loaded up and flew out of Glacier heading west for Orcas Island last Saturday. We had a great day for flying with clear skies and mild headwinds. The mountains west of Glacier are quite rugged as shown on this picture.

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Our house rental did not start until Sunday so our original plan was to stop on the east side of the Cascades for one night and then fly over on Sunday. However, after looking at the weather, we decided we wanted to be on the west side of the Cascades on Sunday morning. So after a fuel stop and weather check at Pangborn, we flew over the Cascades for Bellingham. As shown on this picture, the mountains were looking great with Mt. Rainier in the distance.

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The winds over the mountains were lite and variable making for a smooth flight. I suspect you NW folks get used to these views, but not us flat landers. This picture shows the valley clouds over Seattle area, but our destination was clear.

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Orcas Island

After a night's sleep on Bellingham, we flew over to Orcas Island Sunday morning. This was the view up East Sound on Orcas Island. The town and airport are at the north end of this sound. The forecasted rain and gloom never showed up on Sunday, but we were happy with our decisions

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This the view on final for 16 at East Sound airport (KORS) on Orcas Island. In the background is Turtleback Mountain.

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Since the parking ramp at East Sound is under construction, we parked in the grassy tie down area where we have camped when we were younger. Our RV10 has given us great service this summer.

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So this is the view from the deck of our rent house on Orcas Island.

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We came looking for cool weather and we found it here as it has not gotten to 70 degrees yet at the rent house on the SE shore of Orcas Island.
 
Hurry Back!

it has not gotten to 70 degrees yet

Tom,
It hasn't reached 70 at home either! Hurry back before you miss it.

Pete
 
got me

Pete, there is a BIG difference between not getting up to 70 deg up here and not getting down to 70 deg yet in TX. I will probably be home in time to experience that during the first week of Sept.
 
Our plans

Mike, if the weather is perfect on Sat we may fly down just for the day. Otherwise we will stay here where it is cool. We are planning on heading home on that Sunday so that will be our last days in the islands.
 
Summer must be over

Because we are flying out tomorrow, Sunday, and heading home. Tom and Bonnie are heading to South Dakota to pickup our camping stuff, then home to TX. Martin and Claudia are headings home to TX. Y'all turn the temperature down!

This a picture from our ocean front deck of the four of us this afternoon.
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This a picture of one of the sunsets this week taken from that same deck.

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We have had an absolutely beautiful two weeks in the San Juan Islands. We did fly over to Friday Harbor for a day trip. So our summer trip is coming to an end and it is time to fire up the RVs and head for hot TX. Check out our SPOT tracking link below to track our progress.
 
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Out of Orcas Island

We did get out this morning about 9am, only because the fog layer stopped over the East Sound Airport. This picture is of Mt. Constitution which lays to the east of the airport.

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We climbed to 11.5 and had up to a 15 kt tailwind heading east. The Cascades were awesome which this picture of Mt Baker shows.

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We stopped at Cor-de-lane for potty stop, then Lorale just sw of Billings, and then to Mom's house at Miller, SD. That was 1030 nm which is alot longer than we usually do in a day. These RVs sure are great cross country machines. Tomorrow we hope to load the camping stuff and make our way south to the TX heat.
 
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