Flight 19 Rocky Ramble

[cputters]

That scenery is gorgeous!

[Willy]

We took off from Billings and headed on to Dawson by way of a fly over at Miles City. Great flight following the Yellowstone River for most of the way.

One difference between the landplane and amphib versions of the Twin Beech.. The brakes on the amphib aren't that good and it's hard to steer on the ground.

[MaddogK]

Put the Baron into the Beechcraft shop. Asked for a single-engined aircraft to keep PRB company. Happily, the fellows had a Bonanza V35B available as a loaner. A true classic.

Pictured below is the Carenado Beech Bonanza V35B. (It is the default Carenado paint. "Title=Beechcraft Bonanza V35B USA")

If you don't have the payware aircraft, you can download an "AI" using Mike Stone's (early) V-tail with a custom repaint here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?k425kijp8bd93y4

Nice, I was wondering what you're first plane was (baron) but this Bonanza is a great choice. I thought there was a 'twin' theme going on here which is why I chose the cessna 340, but as it's not the case and 150 is about the norm speed, I feel the need for a biplane. I'll have to look at me Waco's but I hear the Stearman model 4 calling me.

...unless I can find the drive space to install that gorgeous Simtech Beech Staggerwing pack.

[Willy]

We almost made a full circle over the Bakken formation, KGDV - KSDY - KPWD - KOLF. Had a few "unfortunate" incidents along the way (I blew out a tire on landing at KSDY). But otherwise it was a great flight as usual.

[MaddogK]

Seems the Beech 17 does have a steerable tailwheel, but as the tailgear collapses on engine start most of the time I'm gonna have to park it until I have time to rework the contact points. Spent 2+ hours after the flight messing with them with little success, so the Stearman Speedmail gets the call. Should be no problem keeping up with SrG's Vega.

[Moses03]

More film from the last flight.

[srgalahad]

Ah yes... the Vega! WEll, I decided this was a good time to refresh the skills needed for the 'big race' so I dragged out Amelia's Vega.
A lot better than I remembered it and once you get the hang of slowing waaayyy down.. not bad around an airport either

Attachment 52686 Attachment 52687

[PRB]

A couple of Kodaks from our latest flight across Wild West Montana.

[Willy]

We drifted farther west along the high plains to Harve, MT. Nice flight although the foo fighters were a bit aggravating tonight.

[srgalahad]

We drifted farther west along the high plains to Harve, MT. Nice flight although the foo fighters were a bit aggravating tonight.

Interesting how your Malta and mine differ..

Attachment 52768

[MaddogK]

Having the Beech Staggerwing's rear gear collapse and the aircraft disintegrate around me as I changed from outside view to interior view was the last straw, immediate de-resolution for the land version. I switched to the Maule M7 with tundra tires which turned out to be a blessing. I'd forgotten how much of a joy it is to fly, and managed to keep up nicely with the rest of the pack, even over the mountains.

[Willy]

During our stopover at Great Falls, I landed just short of a fence and blew out a tire going through it. Time to buy stock in Fix-A-Flat.

After that it was on to Helena.

[MM]

Enjoyable trip to Helena. During the first half, we were presented with a constant image of the Earth, Moon and Sun in juxtaposition. Led Moses & PRB to wax poetic!

[PRB]

Forgot to put film in the camera before the last leg of our adventure, so instead I'll include a couple pics from my last drive across this interesting region. There's a reason they call it "Big Sky Country" ...

[Willy]

There I was just flying along, minding my own business skimming the treetops when all of a sudden there's a loud bang. Went to land and the floats were just gone. Guess some trapper will find a pair of fancy canoes...

[Korzik]

Good to see the crew is still at it. Much fun to read of your adventures.

[PRB]

A most enjoyable flight we had on the last leg. We took off from Helena Regional (KHLN) and headed into the mountains to Benchmark, in the Flathead National Forrest. From there we headed north, jogged east past “Squiggly Lake” (as Rob called it) and followed the mountains north along the foothills. Well, all except Moses03. He went in and among the mountains instead. We all ended up at Cut Bank (KCTB).

[Willy]

We headed on to Bozeman, MT. Nice flight with good friends as always.

[Willy]

We put Bozeman behind us and flew on down to Jackson Hole via a touch n go at Gardiner. One more leg on this part of our "expedition" and then it'll be time to prepare for Part II.

[Taco]

Howdy all ,

Back again, after waiting a week or so for our new engine to arrive. The darn thing finally got here a few days ago, and then the Merc maintenance crew did a great job installing it and getting the Volpar back into the air. We missed a lot of the flight plan, but did catch up with Flight 19 at Bozeman for the flight to Jackson Hole. Note the one picture of the low pass at Gardiner and the wind sock the darn thing was standing straight out. The wind darn near pushed the Volpar into the hill side. Ah....the thrill of flying in the Rocky Mountains!

[Willy]

Forgot to take any pics (too much fun going on), but we left Jackson Hole and flew over to Big Southern Butte airport at Atomic City, Idaho. We decided to stop there, spend the night and shop for isotopes. Hope we don't run into any giant ants or spiders....

[Taco]

Hey another nice and fun flight! Some how I screwed up the camera towards the end of the flight, so no picture of the airport at U46, just as well, kind of spooky here according to the conversations during the flight! Isotopes! heck that a baseball team in Albuquerque, NM. hehe.

[Willy]

We flew on to Sun Valley in Idaho. From here we've got a job involving some bush flying so we're switching planes to something more appropriate. But we're going to take a few days off first.

[Taco]

Well, we finished the Montana flights, and now we start with this thing called bush flying. Did a swap to the PC6 from the Volpar, thought, what the heck lets try a test flight in the PC6. Took off OK and headed to some of these nice looking canyons around KSUN to practice some low level flying, twisting around some of these outcrops of big rocks and hard places, and now, I know why they call this bush flying, hehe, ran into some bushes! Oh well, have a few days to polish up on my "Bush" flying!

[Taco]

Hey There! Since Flight 19 is planning a little R&R for a few days. I thought I would try to get some practice in flying the Pilatus Porter. I took out old Spud I for a little spin up thru some of the canyons around KSUN didn't do to bad, but still need lots of work in some areas flying this bugger.