Black Hills, SD and Devil's Tower, WY

Jim02U

Jim02U

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Jim02U
Here's a fun and interesting area that I flew to recently. New airport manager Shannon at KCUT is really nice, facilities are first rate, including shower, WIFI, computer w/internet and more. I brought my own transportation and rode into Custer, but there are other less strenuous options available there.... rental, taxi, etc. 2 guys from Boston were camping the night I stayed there. They had rented a car for a couple days to see the local sites.

https://picasaweb.google.com/HefnerJim/BlackHillsSDAndDevilSTowerWY#slideshow/5626798726972018738

Definitely worth seeing. My iPad with ForeFlight / GPS worked well to keep me outside the charted boundaries around Mt Rushmore and Devil's Tower, where I could fly lower for photos using a good zoom lens.

Cheers,
Jim Hefner
Grumman AA5A
Tucson, AZ
 
Nice pics, Jim! The lake photo is Stockade Lake, 3 miles west of Custer at the entrance to Custer State Park. My parents' house is 3 miles downstream (French Creek) from the dam in your pic.

At the NW edge of the lake is the monument and a replica stockade (hence the name of the lake) where troops wintered over, and gold was reportedly first discovered in the Black Hills, as well as a monument to Annie Tallent, first woman in the Black Hills.
 
Great pictures! Iv'e flown into KCUT with my AA5B Tiger, and spent some time in the Black Hills driving the then airport manager's Jeep CJ-7 loaner. Had a BLAST!

Hmmm, a Cheetah, huh? Some people think Grummans can't handle the high elevations. Glad to see another one proving them wrong here. :wink2:
 
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gkainz said:
Nice pics, Jim! The lake photo is Stockade Lake, 3 miles west of Custer at the entrance to Custer State Park. My parents' house is 3 miles downstream (French Creek) from the dam in your pic.

At the NW edge of the lake is the monument and a replica stockade (hence the name of the lake) where troops wintered over, and gold was reportedly first discovered in the Black Hills, as well as a monument to Annie Tallent, first woman in the Black Hills.
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Thanks for that interesting info Greg. Your parents are lucky... it sure is a pretty area. I had driven through the Black Hills years ago, but it was much prettier to fly around there and see the big picture from the air.
 
Anthony said:
Great pictures! Iv'e flown into KCUT with my AA5B Tiger, and spent some time inthe Black Hill driving the then airport manager's Jeep CJ-7 loaner. Had a BLAST!

Hmmm, a Cheetah, huh? Some people think Grummans can't handle the high elevations. Glad to see another one proving them wrong here. :wink2:
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Thanks Anthony. Yes, my stock 150hp Cheetah handled these elevations just fine. KCUT is only 5600'. I took off downhill on 8 just to be safe, since I was loaded with lots of gear and 45g fuel.... the Cheetah climbed out just fine. I've flown at 12,500' with my wife along and loaded near gross for extended periods over high terrain between ABQ and Tucson, so if it can climb up there heavy, it can get off some pretty high elevation airports. I probably won't try my luck at Leadville though... :)
 
I really enjoyed it. Now I want to go...
Thanks!
 
Thanks Jack n Gil. I hope you get the opportunity go up and visit the Black Hills area. The Badlands National Park is also up in that area and I flew over that enroute to Custer. Here are a few photos of that...

https://picasaweb.google.com/HefnerJim/DesMoinesIAToBadlandsSD#slideshow/5626732694353720898

Wall, SD is an interesting little town with an airport within walking distance from restaurants and shops. I was planning to land there and have lunch on the way up there from Des Moines, IA, but decided to go on into Custer for lunch instead. Spearfish has a nice airport and had a fly-in going on when I was up there. There are plenty of things to see and do in that area so it's worth a trip up there.

Cheers,
Jim
 
I'll have to resurrect my "What to do in the Black Hills?" post from a few years ago. I grew up there, still have relatives all over there (including a ranch north of Wall ... well, sort of - my cousin finally grew weary of SD winters and leased it to a neighbor).

One could easily spend a week in the Hills and barely scratch the surface of things to do and see.
 
Jim- the Badlands were nicely captured too. Any flying schools in western S. Dakota or Eastern WY?
 
Great shots!
I lived in Rapid City SD a few years, hiked Crazy Horse a few times. They always ran a VolksMarch from the viewing area up onto his arm every Father's Day. Did that every year with my daughter.
 
Jim02U said:
Thanks Anthony. Yes, my stock 150hp Cheetah handled these elevations just fine. KCUT is only 5600'. I took off downhill on 8 just to be safe, since I was loaded with lots of gear and 45g fuel.... the Cheetah climbed out just fine. I've flown at 12,500' with my wife along and loaded near gross for extended periods over high terrain between ABQ and Tucson, so if it can climb up there heavy, it can get off some pretty high elevation airports. I probably won't try my luck at Leadville though... :)
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Yes, 5,600 ft is not bad especially if its not that hot. My airport, KFTG was 5,500 ft, but in the summer heat DA's could get up to 8 - 10K. A Cheetah can do Leadville. My friends did it all the time, but he did have the 160HP STC. Just go light!

The Badlands are definitely worth the trip. I want to get back and hit Deadwood, and get some revenge for Wild Bill! :D
 
I went to KCUT for the first time a few weeks ago. The folks at the FBO were very nice. I called the day before to make sure that the runway, taxiway and ramp were adequate since it's a smallish airport for us and we were going to stay a number of hours. They took pictures of the airplane on the ramp and even drove out to the other end of the runway to get more pictures as we were taking off.
 
yep - good folks at KCUT. The "new folks" took over the FBO a couple of years ago and really go out of there way to make your experience with them a great one.
 
This is an excerpt From one of my stories I have on here:

We took off and headed east, we were thinking about flying over the Devils Tower, but the wife just wanted to get to our first days destination. So we flew across Wy. and landed at Custer, SD. I have always been the kind of guy that has gone out of my way to help others. My friend Gail Halvorsen wrote in his book, Do good things for others and expect nothing in return, and good things will happen. Well that was about to come true. We needed a ride from the airport to the motel in Custer. I called a number I found on a card at the airport. This lady answered and I explained what I needed, I also explained that we would need an early ride back to the airport for and early departure. She said that they didn’t go to work until 8:00. I said that wouldn’t work then, and out of the blue she told me that her and her husband had just divorced, she had this big house and Essie and I could use the downstairs, bedroom, bath, shower, the whole works. I then could use her car in the morning to go to the airport and just leave the keys under the seat. Then it got better. She worked for a tour outfit for Mount Rushmore, and Crazy Horse Monuments. She picked us up and took us to her place, we showered and she went to a fast food place and picked us up some sandwiches. My wife and I took a little nap and Liz, the gal that was being so kind, asked if we would like to ride out to Mount Rushmore. I had seen it as a young boy, but my wife had never, so off we went to see the monuments. When we got to Mount Rushmore we said we didn’t feel like spending any time there, so Liz drove up and rolled down the window and said to the guard at the gate. “ Hey Charlie, we are just going in and turn around.” He said. “ O.K, Liz.” How lucky can you get! We got a good night sleep and gave Liz what we would have spent at the Motel. It worked out perfectly. The next morning the weather didn’t look great it had a threat of rain and there were a lot of clouds. When we took off and headed east, I remember talking with Essie, how there seemed to be a path of better weather right on our course. It stayed that way, all the way to our next fuel and eating stop, Denison, IW
 
Jim02U said:
Thanks on the photos. I googled Rapid City SD flight schools and 3 popped up.
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One was an art studio and the other two have minimal information besides a phone #. If I'm up there, I'll see if either of them are able to rent me a plane.
 
Bob, I love your post, and it is so true.
On my across the country adventure last year, we were late getting in to Sulfur Springs TX, home of the Ledgend Cub. The FBO had closed and there was no taxi service. Talking with a person on the ramp that recognized our T-41B for what it was offered to take us to the hotel and pick us up in the morning. He had also checked that the FBO pilot car was already gone.

We accepted only on the condition that we buy breakfast in the morning, he would not accept cash. Turns out he had worked for Legend Cub fitting the Jubaru engine to it. Now worked for Lockheed in Ft Worth, but still kept a small maint hanger on the airport as an IA.

I learned a lot about the Cub and he introduced us to the owners after breakfast at the local pilots eatery and we had a great tour of their facility before we headed west.

People at airports are Great! When they see someone on an adventure. Take the time to talk to people and listen to them, and they will help you inlays you least expect.
 
Bob Bement said:
This is an excerpt From one of my stories I have on here:
IW
Click to expand...

Great story Bob! Amazing the nice people you run into at the most unexpected times.

Shannon Sikes is the new airport manager at KCUT. When I called there a few weeks before my planned visit, they were without an airport manager, so she is new and really nice! Her husband manages another airport if I remember right. Camping was free if you purchase fuel... hard to beat that! If the weather isn't good, KCUT is not the place to go.... they can have wind shear and nasty cross winds when it's windy in the area. Better option is KSPF then... it's another very friendly airport in the Black Hills area.

You really lucked out though! Hard to top that.
 
Anthony said:
Yes, 5,600 ft is not bad especially if its not that hot. My airport, KFTG was 5,500 ft, but in the summer heat DA's could get up to 8 - 10K. A Cheetah can do Leadville. My friends did it all the time, but he did have the 160HP STC. Just go light!

The Badlands are definitely worth the trip. I want to get back and hit Deadwood, and get some revenge for Wild Bill! :D
Click to expand...

Anthony, I think I'll stick to visiting Leadville by motorcycle like I've done before... :) No problem with DA on that. Pretty ride up through there! Awesome views across the Leadville runway of the 14K mountains! I heard a story recently of someone in a Tiger with passengers and lots of fuel that almost didn't make it.... fortunately the terrain drops off beyond the runway so they were able to put the nose down and gain some speed and get out of there. Seems I never travel real light when I'm going on a long trip so I'll pass on Leadville.
 
Jim02U said:
Anthony, I think I'll stick to visiting Leadville by motorcycle like I've done before... :) No problem with DA on that. Pretty ride up through there! Awesome views across the Leadville runway of the 14K mountains! I heard a story recently of someone in a Tiger with passengers and lots of fuel that almost didn't make it.... fortunately the terrain drops off beyond the runway so they were able to put the nose down and gain some speed and get out of there. Seems I never travel real light when I'm going on a long trip so I'll pass on Leadville.
Click to expand...

If you need to carry a lot of stuff due to travelling, that's probably a good ideas. In my Tiger I went with fuel to the tabs (38 gallons), just one passenger (about 210 lbs, plus me at 175), and NO baggage. I even removed my little box of goodies, canopy cover, and rear seat backs. I did take my mountain survival kit as always, flying in the mountains.

Bottom line, with the 180HP and being under gross, I had a good margin of safety, getting out of Leadville, and Granby. But, you're right, the path out of Leadville is unobstructed and gives you the ability to actually lose a bit of altitude before having to climb.
 
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