South Dakota trip report

I was born in Aberdeen South Dakota and lived in Groton, 20 miles to the East until I was 3. Because of health reasons my parents moved to Arizona in 1958. Virtually all of my relatives on both sides remained in South Dakota. Two uncles on my fathers side farmed all of their lives, with one continuing to farm.

One of my fondest memories as I grew up was traveling back home. We would usually stay for 2 weeks and split the time between the farms and relatives in Groton. I loved the farm and spent time with my uncles driving tractors and combines and helping where I could. My dad used to love to get out in the fields and drive from sun up til sundown.

After getting married and having kids I've only had the opportunity to return 4 or 5 times. My dad died in 1980. He always told me to stay in touch with relatives. Easier said than done when life happens. Seems the only trips back were to attend the funerals of my Grand parents. One of my uncles has been pushing me to come out for pheasant season for 30 years This year I finally had the opportunity, the means and new found desire. This was a trip that was supposed to be done with my dad.

Another uncle, Erdon, who is retired joined us on one of the hunts. He is 88 and has some memory loss. He is a spitting image of my dad and I had not seen him in about 16 years. When I saw him, I pretty much lost it as the fond memories of years past flooded me. Old times were reflected and I came away with a peace I haven't felt in years.

In the past 8 months I've attended several funerals of relatives or friends. During those times I've renewed friendships with those who I had lost contact. After about the 3rd funeral I decided that I was going to stay in contact with long lost friends and make a point to stay in touch with those relatives who were so important when growing up.

Traveling to South Dakota by commercial airlines is a pain and expensive. It is also an inconvenience to relatives that would have to drive over an hour to pick me up. Driving would be a hard 2 day drive, especially solo.
The RV opens many doors to travel that were previously closed. I can go on my time, and to an airport much closer to the family. As you can see from the first photo, my uncle is not located in a booming metropolis. Keeping with my promise to stay in touch with relatives, I promised my uncle that I would make the journey this year to take in the pheasant season.



I flew to Clark, SD, (8D7) approximately 30 miles from the farm. I called ahead to see if there was any hangar space available. Unfortunately, the hunting season took up most of what little hangar space is available. This will come into play at the end of this trip.

My usual route of flight when going east from my home is, P19, to Dalhart, TX (KDHT). Dalhart is in the middle of cattle country and has a nice airport with two big runways. This allows pretty much "into the wind" landings any time of the year. Bailey's Flying Service on the North end of the airport is the place to go for fuel. $3.85 a gallon. Bailey's is an AG operation and fly the giant Air Tractors. I met AG pilot and fellow RV builder, Brent Colvin there. He met me on this trip and we had a nice visit. They are down for the season now and Brent was going to working on the 7.

The P19 to DHT leg was blessed with great tailwinds. I was cruising at 13,500 on O2 and never had less than a 177 kt ground speed. Much of the time was spent at 190+. Forgot to mention the 7.4 gph average for the leg. Off on the second leg. As I cruised Northbound at 9500, I was still doing 165-170+kts. The weather was relatively clear with a few high thins scattered about. The temperature was rapidly dropping. The Metars report for my destination was showing 28 degrees. Did I mention how great the 496 with weather is?? Although hazy most of the way, I was able to get a great shot of cloud formation in Nebraska. Almost looks like the angel on top of a Christmas tree.



The last hour of the flight was quite cold, cold for me anyway The OAT was showing 22 degrees. The heater wasn't keeping up. I wasn't miserable but much more than an hour at that temp and I would have been. Yeah, I'm a cold weather wussy.

Ah, my destination in sight. A check of the wind sock showed a light breeze out of the NW. I turned to downwind and noticed 2 deer on the runway and 4 more on the edge. On final I decided to shoot for point past the deer in case they didn't care to move. As I crossed the numbers, the deer scattered into the corn field to the East. My uncle Rolland, was waiting on ramp as I taxied up to the empty ramp. After 22 frequency changes for flight following and 6:25 hours, I was there. The temperature was 22 degrees. My hands became numb during the tie down process

Rolland was surprised at how much stuff I could pack in the RV7. We got everything loaded up and headed toward the farm. We stopped at a small roadside motel that caters to hunters so I could get my "out of state" hunting license. While processing my license the woman noted my address and said she had just bought the hotel and moved there from Chandler AZ. Turns out she lived just a couple of miles from me. She bought the hotel so she could live the small town life.

Continued...

Continued....

Lets talk about the small town life. Many of you will know exactly what I'm talking about. Others won't but should definitely try to experience it. South Dakota, like most of the Plains States is the heartland of America. Salt of the earth folks who have worked hard all of their lives. They know no other way to work. A place where everyone knows everyone. Where people wave with all five fingers. Where many houses don't even have locks that work. Where you never lose your car keys because they never leave the car. Where you can drive for miles and not see another car. Where every old abandon house and barn has a notable history and most everyone can tell you about it. A place where visitors are treated like family. Where the sunrise and sunset is not obstructed by buildings and pollution. Where the farmers take everything in stride and don't seem stressed about every little thing. A place were breakfast is breakfast, lunch is called dinner and dinner is called supper. They eat 3 meals, at home with home cooking. Ah, a relaxing time with family. It doesn't get any better than that.



This old one room school house dates back to 1920's with the last students in the early 40's. My dad and one of my uncles went to school there. There are lots of buildings like this one dotting the country. All with a rich history.

The next day we arose to light snow falling. Great, my first time pheasant hunting and I'm going to do it in the snow. It was beautiful. My uncle is a guide for out of State hunters. Joining us on for the next few days were 3 guys from Kansas, Michigan and Ohio. All had hunted there in the past. My uncle's land is rich with pheasant. He said this was one of the best years they have seen in a long time. It didn't take long to get some pheasant. I got one on my very first shot. By early afternoon all of us had our daily limit. Back to the farm for Miller time.

The out of State guys were renting a house in Turton. We all went there for "supper." They had a designated cook who cooked up a great meal of several types of fish, potatoes and vegetables. My aunt Charlene had baked a pecan pie for the occasion. Wow!!

The next few days found improving weather, cold in the mornings and beautiful in the afternoon. I was shocked at how many pheasants there were. Every field was full of birds. It did not take long to get our daily limits. Although there are plenty of birds, hunting them is an art form with the shots even tougher. We didn't lose any birds that were shot because of well trained hunting dogs.



This was our limit out of a couple of the fields. My uncle Rolland is on the right side of the photo sitting down. I'm standing.

My aunt Charlene has a business making jams, jelly's and syrups, called Char's Kitchen. Everything is hand made from fresh picked seasonal fruits. Incredible stuff. Many weekends are spent at Arts and Crafts Festivals selling the product. They had an event this past weekend. See the attached link for some great gift ideas.

http://www.madeinsouthdakota.com/Catalog/Vendor.cfm?ID=19

While they were gone I spent the weekend at another aunt and uncles place in Groton. While there I attended the annual Turkey Raffle at the American Legion Hall. The Turkey Raffle is the annual fund raiser for a variety of worthy causes. The Turkey Raffle is the name but many things are raffled off including turkeys, hams, bacon and rifles and shotguns. I won a 10 pound slab of smoked bacon. I also had a sloppy joe, cole slaw, brownie and Coke for $3. A typical event in "farming town" USA.

On Monday I returned to the airport to meet the local crop duster owner to purchase some fuel. There is no fuel vendor. As I approached the plane, I could tell the canopy cover askew. I unstrapped the rear strap and discovered to my horror that the rear glass (tip up) had a 4" crack about the 4 screw hole from bottom. Also the bottom left corner of the Targa strip was bent under. I then discovered the latch was undone. Nothing was taken or otherwise disturbed. I surmise that someone wanted to look inside and for some unexplicable reason thought it would be acceptable to open the canopy. It appears that the while attempting to close the canopy they didn't let it down easily and it slammed shut while not being lined up. The AG guy, Doug Hansen, was really upset that it happened. He was going to try to ask around to see if anyone had any knowledge. I was able to stop drill the crack and wick some thin plastic safe CA glue in the crack. It traveled fine. I'll be contacting those guys in the other thread who broke their canopies to see if I can buy the carcas.

The next day I awoke to 20 mph winds. Weathermeister showed I would be fighting headwinds all the way home. We drove to the airport and loaded up. I had a cooler with 15 pheasants, a slab of bacon, a case of a variety of jams and jelly's and 20 lbs of apples and rhurbarb to pack. Everything fit nicely and I was off.



This was taken just before departing. My aunt and uncle are on the right. This is a nice country airport. No services but very quaint.

As predicted, I fought winds all the way south. The best I could do was 139kts of ground speed. I checked Metars for DHT and discovered 30 kt gusting to 37. I elected to go to Goodland, KS for fuel. No wind there but $4.59 fuel, ouch While there I heard a familiar tail number checking in for touch and goes. Sure enough, Tom Prokops old ride was in the pattern with new owner and instructor. I forgot his name, but he was all smiles after making his first landing.

The last 600 miles were in tough headwinds. At times I had only a 110kt ground speed. This messed up my fuel consumption and forced me to make a third fuel stop in Springerville, AZ for a few gallons of go juice. The last 140 miles gave me a more normal 170kt speed.

Finally home after, 20 frequency changes and 7:30 flight time. An hour and a half later I was sitting in my favorite Mexican food place with a cold Dos Equis and a food fix.

What a great trip, sans the canopy deal. The RV is an incredible airplane that has opened doors and added a new dimension to my life. I now have another "annual" event to attend. I can't wait until next year.

You know the drill. Keep pounding the rivets so you can begin flying one of the best planes in the World.

What a fabulous story. Uncle Rolland seems like a cool dude.

Sorry about your canopy, though.

Good reading. Good motivation. Good times.

Great read Darwin. I agree with your Fathers advice about family. Sorry to hear about canopy.

South Dakota Trip

Thanks for sharing your experiences on your trip. I also had our RV7a in SD for pheasant hunting opener on the third weekend of Oct. It was not quite that cold at the opener weekend. I flew into Miller, SD where my Mom lives and hunted pheasants with my brother and friends. It was certainly a good year for pheasants in SD as our party of 9 hunters limited out on first day in 45 minutes. That was 3 birds per hunter.

I was raised in Wessington Springs, SD and was fortunate to make it back to hunt with my Dad several times before he died in 1999. The key reason I keep going back to hunt is to stay connected with my brother and small town usa.

Now that I have the RV7a flying, I can make the trip much faster and cheaper. Hope to make many more trips.

Tom Lewis

Great write up

I being the proud owner of an RV-7A with 57 hours on it after today and a former resident of North Dakota enjoyed your write up. It sounds like you and I have several similar interests. I have numerous family memebers up there and enjoy getting out in the country. Most of my vacation time is spent running a combine during the busy harvest season up their, but now that I am out of my 40 hour restriction I plan to stretch the legs on the RV and hopefully get up there for some hunting also. A great airplane and I can not think of a better use then to visit long lost relatives and loved ones.

Kenny Haberstroh

Small world

Wow what a story. Thanks for the memories. I grew up in the front seat of my dad's J-3 Cub. Grew up in Aberdeen and my grandmother lived in Groton and my dad and I would fly to visit her. We would land behind the elevator and walk to her house. My mother lived for several years in Chandler, AZ.

One of my instructors at my A&P school in-laws live in Turton so he knows your aunt. We enjoyed your article.

It is indeed a small world. Ain't aviation great.

Diane-----first post!!!

Welcome aboard.

Thanks for the Great story! I grew up on a family owned/operated farm and ranch in Eastern Montana. I have very fond memories of pheasant hunting with family and friends. I often day dream about flying my RV (guess I have to build one first!) back home to visit family. Sorry to hear about the canopy. Bob

Flatlander Bob, welcome aboard.

This is the second person to make their first post in this thread---------looks like that super wordsmith, Darwin, really knows how to drag the lurkers in.

No Lurker

Not a lurker. Just got here. Nice place though. Got my eye set on a 9. Will order the tail as a graduation gift for myself in the spring. I'll graduate with an *** degree in Aviation Maintenance in May 2008. I'll be a fully certificated A&P. That should help with my build.

Diane

Diane, sorry bout that, I should have looked at your profile before I made the assumption.

Anyway, as I said before, welcome aboard.

You sure came to the right place for RV stuff.

Darwin:

Great post. Sounds like a fabulous trip. I have to remember not to call cell phones during hunting season though! Oh well, maybe I flushed a few birds out for you.