Saturday, May 16, 2015

My baby's first "outdoor" adventure

It's been awhile since I posted but I haven't actually been in a position to post; I've been in Montana visiting my dad.  Last Friday I flew out to KCOE in northern Idaho (Coeur d'Alene) enroute to my dad's place in western Montana.  I spent the night at my brother's house (after the obligatory airplane ride).  As I probably mentioned in the past Jim (my brother) is also a pilot and is also somewhat responsible for getting me back into aviation.

Saturday morning I loaded up and flew on in to Superior Montana where my dad met me.  Of course we had to go for a ride around the mountains and there are a few pictures below for your viewing pleasure.  Sunday I flew on in to Missoula to visit some family and the poor controller was probably getting tired of me landing, loading a new passenger and then heading out again.  All in all I gave three rides that day and so far everybody has enjoyed to trip.

Besides all the rides, the significance of this trip is that it was my baby's first night outdoors...no hangar to sleep in.  I guess she didn't mind because she flew great the whole time, including on my trip home.

As usual once I got her home I had to make some changes so the entire instrument panel has been removed for a couple of new additions;  an audio panel and an autopilot controller.  The Audio panel will allow me to use both radios in the airplane which is important when I start flying IFR.  The autopilot controller is just a physical controller that will allow me to control the autopilot without having to shift to a different screen on my PFD (Primary Flight Display).  Again this will be helpful while flying IFR.

This is the VOR at Lookout Pass on the Idaho Montana border where I-90 crosses.

This is my dad with his first turn at flying the airplane.  Dad has never flown an airplane before and I didn't give him much of a tutorial so it was kind of amusing when his snowmobile riding habits kicked in and he was trying to lean with the turns.  

Nice valley picture.  This is near Plains Montana.

Another picture of the river but this time you can see where two rivers merge and the color difference.

Look, there is an airport down there in the haze.  This is the Ellensburg airport...I think.

This should be Fairchild air force base in Spokane Washington.

This is Spokane International airport.  Interesting thing about this airport is that it seems to share class C airspace with Fairchild.  They are only about a mile apart.

Felts Field in the Spokane area.

Nice view of the mountains as I start my adventure into Idaho and Montana.

Its hard to see in this picture but there is an airport down there.  This is one of two options I have for landing near my dad's place and its still 40 minutes away by car.  This is Shoshone County airport in Idaho.

Getting close!  This is a picture of DeBorgia Montana. 

See that little valley just aft of my wing where the aileron and the flap split?  Thats the valley I grew up in.

Another picture of the mountains as I start my descent into Superior Montana.

St. Regis Montana, where I went to school.
And here she was as I started to pull stuff out of the panel for the upgrade. Stay tuned for more updates on this project!