Bob's Ramblings from the PB.

His last flight --------
I had Les Bertalotto in class and on a couple of the High School teams that I coached at Harper, OR. Les married a gal named Kathy Johnson. I gave her dad a plane ride on his Eighty first birthday. Since he was a pilot for many years I asked him which side he wanted. He said he always flew from the left seat, and so I gave him the left seat. I have been wanting to tell about her dad and my flight and I have been after her to send me some info about her dad. A few days ago I got this email:

Hi Bob,



Here is my Dad's story



My father was Ivan Johnson. He passed away in December 2000 at the age of 81.



My father was small in stature but he had the spirit of a giant. He never showed fear. He was raised by his parents on Oregon Slope on a farm. He was drafted into the army during World War II. I am not up to date on the names of the battles but something about the bulge and France and Germany. He served as a infantry Sargent in charge of the machine gunners. He received a purple heart after being shot, in Germany.



He always wanted to be a pilot but did not get the opportunity in the Army so upon his discharge, he became a private pilot. One of the things he overcame was color blindness. He memorized which lights meant what and what shade of gray they were. He mostly flew Cessna's to the best of my memory. The one I remember in particular was a Cessna 182. He was a bit of a thrill seeker and would see how much he could get them to do. One time he came home with the biggest grin on his face and my mother said "You did it didn't you?" Well that meant he was in trouble because he barrel rolled his plane. Trouble trouble ... but he thought it was worth it.



Back in civilian life he and my mother owned and operated Johnson Brothers Garage on Oregon Slope as Volkswagen specialist mechanics. He retired from this after my mothers passing. He quit flying at 75. That was a very sad time for him. Shortly before his passing and for his birthday Les arranged with you to take my father flying one more time. Thank you again and again for letting him take the helm. That moment boosted his spirits so much. He only regretted that he had lost his skills to fly.

At my father's funeral at the moment the Veteran's were firing their weapons a Cessna circled the grave site and waved his wing. I think my father was in that plane that day saying goodbye.



Thanks again Bob :)



Kathy


Ivan didn't want to try to land and so I took the controls and landed from the right seat.
I only wish it had been me in that airplane that circled overhead at his funeral
 
One wintery morning I got a call from my friend Kurt Hysell, the grandson of Glenn Hysell, my WWII friend. It seemed like he needed to go to the Clark place to see if he could fix a pump for Steve Russell. Steve had a large ranch operation in the Crowley area. Crowley is about 55 miles SW of S49, Vale, OR. Now it was cold ( read real cold here). I went out and turned on the Pan heater and went back to town to get a hot cup of coffee. Now I had never flown to the Clark Place, as it was just one of Steve Russell's cow camps. There was a landing strip there and an old trailer house for a bunk house. I knew the general area but that was all. Kurt and I got back out to the airport and fired up the old 182, threw in an extra coat or two and headed South. We flew over dry creek, the old Page Place, East of the Mud Flat ranch, and continued on SW toward Saddle Butte. ( Did I tell you it was damn cold) Finally we spotted the lone building and circled over to see Steve's Pick up truck parked below. I could also see some smoke coming out of the stove pipe sticking out of the cabin or trailer house in this case. They had been running a Caterpillar tractor over the runway about a short distance from the east end. It had left some deep tracks. I saw them just at the last second and was able to carry on over them and landed farther down the runway. While Kurt went to work on the pump, I put the engine cover on the plane and pulled it up tight. Steve thanked us for coming, even though it was -10 degrees F. I headed to the trailer house and tried to keep the fire going. Kurt finally returned and after warming up a bit we went to see if the Cessna would start. With my heavy engine cover I had been able to keep the oil warm and the 182 fired right up. We took off and headed back to S49. I pulled the knob all the way out on the heater and tried to warm things up. We arrived back in Vale and put the plane away. Kurt was thankful as it would have taken him over 2 1/2 hours each way to drive to the Clark. I hadn't got to fly much so it gave me a chance to fly and help out as well. Did I ever tell you that I love to fly? ~~~
 
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Bob:

You keep writin' 'em, we'll keep reading 'em.

I don't care what all those other guys say - You are a certifiable gem.
 
My father Jackson Lincoln Bement was my hero and my role model. He never got to upset and he was always helping people out. I guess that is where I got that trait, although my mother was a giver also. My folks were proud of me that I had made it through college even though I was married and had one child and another started when Essie and I entered The College of Idaho, in Caldwell, ID. It was a proud day for me when they were there for my graduation on that May day. They wanted to help me through College but they had my brother Ronnie in a special school in Portland. My folks also seemed proud of me 21 years later when I earned my private Pilots License.

My dad and mother and brother Ron were out to Bully Creek Res. fishing. They came down and stayed about a month each spring since my father had retired as an electrician.

It was about 1983 and Dad had a friend that was out to Bully Creek fishing and they wondered if I could give them an airplane ride. I jumped at the chance to take dad and his friend. At this time I still had my Cessna 170 B 1953 tail wheel airplane. I remember we took a tour of the reservoirs in the area. We flew down over the Owyhee Dam and res. and then over Crowley and the Granite Creek Ranch on our way to Riverside and the Warm Springs Res. Riverside, OR. was on the railroad that goes to Burns, OR. This rail line has since been removed from service. From Warm springs we flew NW to a reservoir called Beulah, it was built back in the 30's by the CCC boys. My father was talking all this time to his friend that lives in the little Oregon town of Sisters. My father wired a lot of the Ranches we were now flying over. I remember as a boy in about 1947 when we lived in the little town of Juntura and we helped my father wire these ranch houses, when the REA put the lines in to these back country places. I was only 13 at the time. Beulah dam and Reservoir store water used by the farmers in the area around Vale. It is a very precious commodity for our farmers. From Beulah we turned East and flew over my folks camp trailer at Bully Creek. We could see the Tire'd teepee as they called it and dad's boat, "We three", pulled up to the bank. Eight miles left and we landed back in Vale. A great early morning flight with my father. I always wanted to take a longer flight with him, maybe to see my son in AR. But it never happened until it was to late. This is one flight with him that I will always remember though... ~~~
 
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I had made a trip out to the Riverside, OR. area looking for a lost pickup truck and a man that was out touring the country and hadn't returned when he was supposed to. On this search and rescue flight I noticed that the water was spilling over the top to the Warm Springs Dam. That was the way it was designed and I had only seen that happen twice in 30 years. We didn't have any luck finding the man or his pickup, but Bob Speelman that was the deputy along with me, got a call that he had arrived back at Chuckar Park where he was camped.

When I got back to town I talked to the local paper and told them about the water spilling over the top of the dam at Warm Springs. They said they would like a picture of it so we set it up to fly the next day. I can't recall the guys name that rode along to take the pictures, but he was excited to fly with me and take some pictures. We made the 25 minute flight out passed Juntura to the site the next morning and took some pictures, then we flew over a dam on Bully Creek that had washed out in about 1929 and he took some more pictures. The pictures came out in the Malheur Enterprise the next Wednesday, and I got a lot of comments from people on the street about both sets of pictures. I also got to do some more flying.~~~
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To tell you about my trip to Gaston’s this past summer. I am going to use some of the posts that appeared on the Pilots of America forum and the Purple board for Pilots, to tell you about that trip.
I had explained to all that I planned on making at least one more trip to Gaston’s in Lakeview Ark. Lynn, from the POA forum asked me for my flight plan this is the reply I sent her:
Lynn, S49 to RKS, Rock Springs, WY. Then to stay out of the high Medicine Bow Mountains I head for a user way point I have put in, and then a heading correction to take me to AKO Akron, CO. for fuel. Next stop is overnight and fuel, and is PNC Ponca city, OK. The next morning I am making a fuel stop at H35 Clarksville, Ar. Then on to M 78 Malvern, AR. (I have to drop off a couple that are riding with me there) Then on to KORK, North Little Rock, to pick up Brook and take her to 3M0. Gaston's. I will fly on to Diana and Tom's to spend the night with them and return to Gaston's the next morning.
When asked when I would be starting our trip I replied:
We are looking at weather and are thinking to start on Wed the 9th and going as far as Ponca City, OK. That will hopefully put me into the farm on Thurs. afternoon late. That is the plan anyways. I have an idea about the welcoming committee. I am getting ready, and finally got my Kansas City Chart today.
Well the plane is loaded and the windows are cleaned, the oil is full, the fuel is full. I will blast off at 8:00, in the morning 6/9/10. First stop either Kemmerer, or Rock Springs, WY. Depending on if we need a potty stop before RKS. Gaston's here I come!!!
My good friends Steve and Paula Paulsen are riding along with me.
On the POA Forum: I made it to Ponca City today, on to Diana's tomorrow. Not a good day to fly from Oregon today.
I had some marginal VFR with rain in SE Idaho, Used a lot of runway in Rock Springs DA 8000 ft. full fuel and two lard a$$es in the two front seats. I made a slight change in my flight plan as when we left Rock Springs I could see a rain storm ahead about 50 miles or so and so I headed SW on a direct course to AKO. Three landings were crosswind with winds gusting to 28Kts. Low clouds in Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma. I need a good night’s sleep. Hope to get to Tom and Diana's place by tomorrow night.
When I took off from Ponca City I felt a bump as I was lifting off but everything seemed to be working ok. I climbed out over a fog bank just off of the south end of the runway. I climbed up to 5500 ft and followed the GPS toward Clarksville, AR. After about an hour of this solid fog layer beneath me I called 122.0 Flight Watch and asked them for an open place I could get down through this fog. The answer came back either Fayetteville or Mountain Home AR. I chose Fayetteville and made the GPS and course correction. I landed at Fayetteville and my riders rented a car. There were too many storms South of Little Rock to go there. This is the same storm that made the flash flood that killed a group of campers in the Malvern, Ar. area. I had a little trouble in Fayetteville as my US Bank Card, that I called and told of my trip, as you guessed, had been blocked. Lucky I had another that was ok. So after refueling, I took off and flew up to Diana and Tom's place getting there early. Diana posted this reply on the POA:
Well, he had problems with weather today. So, he's here! He's been trying to get in touch with Brook to tell her he can't make it to Little Rock.
I was able to get in touch with her and she said she had a backup plan so all was good. I talked with Diana for a while and then I took a nap. I needed a nap.
Later that afternoon Kim landed in her bird dog L-19. She had been having a fuel smell, in the L-19 and Flip had insisted she wear a flight suit. When she landed she was very hot in this heavy long legged and long sleeved suit. So the first thing she did was sit down on the ground and try to remove it. Well it got caught up on her shoes and she was having problems getting out of the suit. Diana asked me to help her and so I got hold of the flight suit and started to pull it off over her shoes. I looked up and Diana was taking pictures. Now without this explanation the pictures could be incriminating.
Kim posted this on the PB:
I'd post the picture of Bob helping me out of my flight suit, but he made us swear we wouldn't put it on the internet...
I was glad to meet Kim, and Barb and we had a nice time that night and a great breakfast the next morning. The weather didn't get good enough for me to fly on to Gaston’s until about noon the next day. When doing my preflight the next morning I found a nick in my prop that Tom and I had to take a file to. I flew to Gaston’s at about 2200 ft to stay under the cloud cover. I was overwhelmed with the greeting I received from everyone.
I rested up a little bit on Friday and then on Sat. I gave a few rides. Like about 4 hours. I took them out to a place called Thunder ridge. I had a blast. I have already reported on that part of my trip.
The trip home was also a battle with strong head winds. I had to follow old Route 66 to New Mexico and then north spending the night in Farmington, NM. When we were refueling the plane I went to pull the plane over to the gas pump and couldn’t find my tow bar. It was then that the mystery of the thump in Ponca City on takeoff and the nick in the prop at the farm came to me. My friend Steve had left the tow bar on the plane and I had missed it on my walk around somehow. On Monday the 14th we arrived back in S49. It was a great trip in my Cessna and I had a great time with old and new friends. However I was glad to be home and needed a few days to rest up. I only hope I can do it again another time. ~~~
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Back in the early 50s when we were going to Vale H.S. Essie lived in a little town called Brogan. Brogan is about 25 miles North of Vale, and she rode the Brogan Bus, that was driven by her father Denny Burke. Polly Boston also rode the bus, and lived just down the road at Jamieson. They rode the bus together for all four years of H.S. It is no wonder that they became life long friends.
Now Polly, and her husband Gordy, live in Las Vagas, but Polly's sister Barbara, Lives in Ontario. When they fly up to visit her Sister, Polly and Gordy call to see if VALE AIR, as he calls it, can fly to Boise and retrieve them to Ontario. So on several occasions Essie and I have flown into Boise and picked them up and we always stop in Caldwell, ID. for breakfast. The little cafe right on the airport there has a ham steak meal that I would put up against any in the country. The ham steak comes on one plate and the eggs, hash browns, toast comes on another plate, and all of the hot coffee you can drink. That is what we do each time they call, as Polly's sister and her husband can't drive to Boise anymore because of their age and health.
One time when they came up, we scheduled a flight into Big Creek, ID. for one of the days they were to be visiting her sister. This flight was on August 6, 2006, and this was before the Big Creek Lodge burned down. Big creek was my favorite place in the world to fly into. The mountain peaks around the landing strip are around 9500 FT. MSL and the runway is tucked in a little fold in the mountain at 5743 ft. There is a hog back ridge that makes the runway impossible to see until you are going from base to final. I find that it is better to go down the canyon a few miles, make a canyon turn and make a long straight in final, when I land there. The day we choose was a great day except there was a little smoke, as they had been having a few summer timber fires. Essie and I left Vale and stopped in Ontario to pick up Polly and Gordy. The girls sat in back and Gordy acted as co-pilot. Our route of flight took us out between Payette and Weiser, ID. and then over Cascade Reservoir and the little town of Donnelly, just a little NW of the little town of Yellow Pine, over the top of Profile Mountain and down the canyon to Big Creek (U60). The runway is 3550 X 110 but you have to watch for water sprinklers on the runway, as they sprinkle half at a time and land on the rest. We had a good flight in and a lot of conversation about the beauty, and the ruggedness of the granite mountain tops. There are very few places that a pilot could put a plane down, in an emergency situation. You had better have your plane in excellent condition or not head toward the back country. We flew over the landing strip and gave a call to traffic on 122.9 and continued on down the canyon a ways. I slowed it down to about 100 and got two notches of flaps. I slowed to 80 and made a bank to the left to turn around in the canyon. I had been trying to teach my wife Essie how to land the plane in case something happened to me. She made a comment that she didn't think she could make that canyon turn. I told her she needed more practice. Polly and Gordy said in unison, " NOT HERE NOT NOW". My altitude now was about 6000 ft. We flew back up the canyon and landed on 19 but since there is only grass the number is not on the runway. I just know it is 19. This runway is flat for a ways and then goes up hill to some degree. We parked and took some pictures and walked to the lodge and got some breakfast. This lodge was built in about 1932 and was just a treasure of an old building with a large old homemade wood stove in one room and the tables, where we ate in another room. At one time the lodge was the post office and the large desk with the pigeon holes for mail were still there. They had an assortment of caps and sweat shirts and the girls had to get a sweat shirt. We had a nice breakfast and some good conversation with some other pilots and guests. The breakfast if just what they are making that morning. No ordering of the menu. You tell them how many and that is all. I think as I remember that they had sausage and eggs, hash browns, pancakes, OJ. and coffee. You can expect to pay $10- 12 for breakfast in the back country as they have to fly in supplies. We had a great time and Essie and Polly picked right up where they had left off last time they had been together. We had a great flight back to ONO to drop them off and return to Vale. Did I tell you that I love to FLY?~~~


http://youtu.be/f9K-UJwwXnM
 
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The Senior Citizens in the town of Vale are trying to get enough money raised to build a new building for a community center and a senior Citizens new home. I told them I would be willing to try to help them raise some monies by having a fly in at the local airport. I had two of these on two different years. I had one on May the 7th 2005. I was afraid that I was going to have to cancel the event as it rained hard all night long. You have to remember that at this time we had a gravel runway and ramp area. I had a lake out behind the hangar where we usually loaded the airplane rides passengers on the golf carts to move them out to my airplane to go for their plane ride. I called DeWayne McPheeters and asked him if he could help me get rid of the water. He came out with the City grader and made a little ditch to drain my lake. The sun came out and the light breeze started to dry things out. The Lions Club members started to show up to cook the breakfast and people started to fly in and drive in. We had some old cars show up to display, some antique tractors, and some old one cylinder engines that a friend had on display. I had talked a group from Nampa into coming over. They have a group called The Top Fun Flyers, and they fly ultra lights. With them comes a car club and they have a poker run. The cars drive from airport to airport and the planes meet them there. They are are good group and they had Vale as one of the poker run spots on their days plan. They got there in time for pancakes, ham and eggs. We had the Masons trailer house setup to cook out of. Howard Ego was the chief cook. When one of the Top Fun Flyers won the poker run, she donated most of her winnings to our project. I wasn't long after I got my breakfast that a load was ready to go for an airplane ride with me. I had my friend Tim McPheeters help me load and unload my passengers and help get seat belts fastened. I moved my plane about 50 yards from the main group for safety sake. I shut down each time to unload and load back up. I kept busy and most flights I had 3 passengers. At the end of the day I had recorded 53 riders in all, and about 4.5 hours. I flew each group out over Bully Creek Dam and back, a flight of about 15 minutes. We charged $20. each. One flight was to nearby Ontario for fuel as we don't have any on the field. At noon we switched to hamburgers, soda and I don't know what all. We had a quilt raffle and all in all we raised about $3,000. for our building fund. I had to put things away and move the cook shack, haul the golf carts back to the golf course. Needless to say I was tired out but I felt great with the outcome of this event. Plus it is a good way to let the community see that the airport is a part of the community. We got a good writeup in the local paper to boot. We stopped this event because of a law suit that they had in Arlington, WA. when an airplane crashed leaving a fly-in. .~~~
 
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I don't remember the date it must have been 1985, I know I am jumping all over as I try to remember flights. I was working on a fly a reporter flight that the AOPA was pushing. I had it arranged to fly a reporter from the local TV station into Red's Horse Ranch for breakfast. We had a bunch from Ontario, OR. that were members of there EAA chapter that was going to fly in with us. When I looked at the weather that morning I decided that it might not be a good idea. I didn't want General Aviation look like a group of risk takers and the cloud layers would be very low in those Eagle Cap Mountains this morning. I flew over to Ontario and met up with the rest of the pilots and we talked it over. I guess it was me that sort of put the end to the fly the reporter project. After he left someone said well we could try it and if we couldn't get into the horse ranch we could go to LaGrande, OR. and eat breakfast. So we decided that since we were all there we probably should fly someplace. I was still flying 4558C at this time my 1953 170 Cessna. I remember that because of the low clouds we couldn't go over the ridge at Moss Springs, but had to fly farther North and enter the Minam River Canyon were the river empties into the Grande Rhone River. This was about 14 miles north of the horse ranch. I was leading about 8 other aircraft up the river under a cloud layer about 1000 ft over the river. The two ridges on each side were hidden in the clouds. It formed a nice V shape to fly up. I heard someone in back ask who was up front leading this parade, and someone answered Bement. The next question was has he ever been in here. Answer yes. I landed and got off of the runway at the parking area. One by one the rest of our group landed and taxied to the parking area. We surprised the cooks as they thought that they wouldn't have anyone for breakfast and now they had about 27 hungry pilots and riders to feed. They dove in to fix the breakfast and it was not a problem to wait as there were pictures on the walls to look at, and conversation to take care of. There is a lot of history in this place Douglas, the US Supreme court Justice wrote about it in his book.. Burt Lancaster helped pour a foundation for one of the cabins according to tales told. I don't know if I believe this one or not, but John Wayne was supposed to have had his pilot fly him into Red's in a DC-3. I didn't see any pictures and I was skeptical of that one. Soon our breakfast showed up and I don't recall what we had, but I do know it included PANCAKES. ( you should have been there Jerry)
In about 1998 the US Forest service traded 1.2 million dollars worth of property to the owners of Red's, and took it over. It is not open to the public for anything but tours now.
We flew back to Ontario and Vale without any problems or incidents. I used a video of mine and did a segment on the local TV about pilots, flying and a trip to Red's horse ranch, later that year. It was a fun filled day of flying.~~~
 

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In about 1989 I was the Oregon Rep. for the Cessna 170 Club. I had posted an article in the 170 news of a fly-in and steak feed I had planned for Independence Airpark 7S5 Independence, OR. A member from Nampa ID called and wanted to fly his plane along with me. My wife Essie, my daughter Diane would be flying along with me. I had to fly to Boise and land at BOI airport to get my daughter. Now I am the kind of a guy that thinks a person should buy at home, so I bought the steaks and all of the baker potatoes from Bill Cummings at the local G&B market. We waited around a while on the morning we were to depart as the 170 pilot from Nampa had some trouble with his airplane door that morning. We finally got underway. Now he had a cruise prop on his 170 and it was just a little faster than 58 Charley. We landed at Redmond, OR. for fuel and to check on the weather, as they had an on field FSS station there then. We also went into town and had breakfast. The FSS station told us we couldn't get over the Cascade mountains, due to mountain obscurement. We decided to give it a look and we took off headed for what they call Santiam Pass. This pass is just a little under 5000 ft in elevation and the cloud bases were roughly about 6000ft so we were able to get over the pass and then we decided it looked better to go down the McKenzie River all the way to Eugene, OR. It was a little out of our way but seemed to be the best route. I remember following him down the river canyon and when I saw him turn right I would cut the corner to the right, and when he went left I did the same. I was able to stay up with him this way. He went to Salem to stay with relatives and we went to Independence and stayed with our friends Don and Pat Stee. They became friends with us when they took care of our grand daughter Erin when she was a baby and our daughter Beckie was going to Western Oregon College in Monmouth, OR. right next to Independence. We spend the evening getting salad fixing ready, as well as buttering and wrapping the bakers in Al foil. My wife, Essie made the strawberry shortcake biscuits. Don and his good friend Tom where going to furnish the BBQ grills and cook the steaks for me. Someone else offered me the use of their hangar with tables and chairs and I don't recall what all else.
My daughter Diane helped with all of the getting ready and then the day of the
fly-in Fathers day Sunday, my daughter Beckie, and my granddaughter Erin showed up. I remember Erin had made me a neck tie, she had hand painted it. Erin was 6 or 7 at this time. I wore the tie all day long. We had a great turn out and I have a lot of pictures of this event (somewhere). We had some 1948 and all the way to 1956 170s. We had some folks from town come out and look at all of the old planes. They gave me a hard time because all of my relatives and friends were working and I was walking around doing PR. with all of the other pilots and families. Independence is a large air park with taxiways down the back of the houses instead of alleys. They park their planes right in with their cars. It is as I said a large airpark. After we ate said our goodbyes and got a weather report we took off for home. I remember I had to fly down the Columbia River gorge because of weather. I also remember that I shouldn't have had that last cup of coffee. By the time I got back to Vale I was suffering something terrible. I let my wife off at Vale, and took my daughter Diane back to Boise. By this time it was getting dark. When I was on the way back to Vale a distance of about 60 miles. all of my interior lights went out. I checked the fuse and it was blown out. I knew it wouldn't do any good to replace the fuse as it would blow out too. So I got the flash light out of the jockey box and I had to make a landing back in Vale with the mag light in my teeth to check my airspeed. It was a great outing in my 170 B and with my family, God I love to fly! ~~~
 
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The temperture in Vale, Or. was about 6 degrees when I went to the airport and warmed up the oil and added a quart for the trip south. My son gave me a ticket to the BCS championship game. I had been waiting for 5 days for a break in the weather and this looked like a good chance to make the trip. I had my GPS route all plugged in and the fuel tank full. I had some folks from my coffee shop come out and help me get the doors open on my hangar and see me off. I had to shovel snow one day so I could get the doors open. I started the plane up let it warm up a little and then went back and helped close up my hangar. The flight from Vale to Ely, Nv. was good the air was solid and I had to climb up to 11,500 to get over some clouds in the Elko, NV. area. When I landed at Ely for fuel the engine almost died as I was taxiing in and I had to keep the carb heat on and the mixture set for the 6200 ft field elevation. The guy at the FBO was trying to get the fuel truck going as I had called in about 8 miles out and informed him I would need some fuel. The gal at the office informed me that it was - 20 degrees below 0 and so the man working on the fuel truck came in for a short while to warm up before refueling the plane. I flew to the Wilson Creek VOR and then had to make a turn east to stay our of a MOA I was happy to find out that the temp in St. George UT. was much warmer than ELY. I got a little more fuel there and continued on toward Buckeye, AZ. my destination. I had to make a couple more deviations around MOAs but arrived in Buckey under clear skies at 3:05 Just 6 hours after I had lifted off from Vale, OR. The old 182 ran great and I had a little tail wind that showed me ground speeds of 172 miles and hours at times. A great flight.~~~
 
Our trip to see the Berlin Candy Bomber.

We got to the buckeye airport on time, but I decided to top the tanks off so I wouldn't have to worry about fuel. When taxiing over to the fuel station I tried the right rudder and brake and to my surprise I had no right brake. I had cleaned some mud and light rust from the brakes a few days earlier and for somehow it had caused the one brake to not work. I knew I had no way to fix it and still meet the Berlin candy bomber by 10:00 at the Flying Diamond airpark south west of Tucson. I figured I could land without brakes there and figure out the problem when I had time. So off we went I checked the mags on my taxi as I couldn't hold the plane to run up. Our flight down was about an hour and we got there at 10:03. Hal and Loraine had just gotten there as one of the roads I had told them to use was blocked off and they had to stop and get some help from a local. He was standing on the runway waving as we flew downwind for runway 25. After I tied the plane down and we had our hugs and howdy does. we got in Hal's pick up truck and drove back toward Green Valley. I got a chance to see how they had trouble finding the airpark. little dirt roads going everywhere. We rode with them up to a place called Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita mountains. It is a great place for hiking, camping, and hiking. The top of the mountain is about 9500 ft. and still had snow on the top. I was surprised to see the big trees up there in the desert. We then went to a nice Mexican place for lunch before Essie got to feeling poorly and we had to have them take us back to the airplane to return back. I was surprised to find that all the pumping I had done on my brake pedal had straightened out my brake problem and I checked the mags did my runup and took off. There was Hal and Loraine on the side at mid field waving goodby. I tipped a wing and off we went. We were back at about three o'clock. A great flight and got to spend a little time with a couple of nice people.
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.Rumor travels faster, but it don't stay
 
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Sounds cool.

So what was the brake problem?
 
SCCutler said:
Sounds cool.

So what was the brake problem?
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I had taken the brakes apart to clean the mud and rust off of the pins an the holes that they fit into. I had gotten water and mud in them while leaving Vale. For some reason when I put it back together the puck didn't push out far enough to make the brake work on the right side. I pumped and pumped and I guess it finally decided to work. If I had been home I would have taxied back to the hangar. I had no where to go in Buckeye. I just planned on landing and not use my brakes on landing until I was slowed way down and One brake would work. I know not very good but I had the Candy Bomber and his wife waiting at The Flying Diamond Airpark for us. ( I won't do it again!) I have my reputation to worry about.
 
One of my earlier stories was about my good friend Dale Wilkins, who was a fellow teacher at Vale,OR. High School. He too taught about 25 years there before he retired. Dale is another one of my WWII heroes and served in the Pacific in the Navy as a ship pharmacists mate, on a Mine sweeper.

Dale is 91 and I just got word that he is in the hospital in Ontario, OR. and in real bad shape. Pneumonia is the diagnosis and they have called the family. I have had some good flights with Dale down through the years.

One such flight was to help one of our former students celebrate his 50th birthday. Jim Kopp was one of Wilks favorites in his English class in the school year of 1966-67. Dale talked about this fine group of students a lot. That was also a good year for me as I had written a poem and read it at a pep assembly for out football team. That group went on to win the Oregon A2 State football Championship.

Jim went on to be an othopedic surgeon and had moved to LaGrande, OR. Dale asked me if I would be interested in flying up to LaGrande to help with Jim's 50th. I said sure and so we planned on spending the night after the party and flying home the next day. I was to read my poem and give him a T-shirt with a copy of the Vale Pride poem on the back. We flew to LaGrande and used the courtesy car and found the place where the party was to be held. It was a surprise party and he didn't know we would be there. They brought him in with a blindflold on. I don't know the story behind that. Wilkins got up and said a few things and introduce me. I got up and explained that I had written this poem in 1966, 32 years ago. It had made a strong impression on Jim and at their graduation his speech was about Pride. I recited my poem and Wilks gave Jim the T-shirt, and Jim had a hard time with his emotions it was plain to see. We spent the night as I didn't want to fly back on that moonless night with some 6,500 ft. mountains on that route. We flew home the next morning.

Wilks and I did a project to get a little story written up about all of the men and women,in the Vale area, that had been in the service in WWII. He was an English teacher so I let him write the stories that I collected. It appeared in the local paper. In fact it has been reprinted the second time on Veterans Day.

I have flown him into Red's Horse Ranch a couple of times also.

We still go over to the High School on the day we play Ontario and talk at the Pep assembly. He always calls and wants me to come and recite my poem. This is the poem that I wrote in 1966:

Vale Pride
Did you ever see a small school, where their team always seemed outmanned.
But they fought and played like they were, the best team in the land.
They never seemed to give up, no they never seemed to quit,
The other teams were oft times bigger, but they didn't mind a bit.
And when the game was over and the big team checked their score,
They found this little band of Vikings had tallied several more.
Well they couldn't understand it had they something special on their side?
Yes, they have something special, it's a little thing called PRIDE!
Now it doesn't matter if you're big, or as little as an elf,
Take pride in all you do, your town, your school, your team, but especially in yourself.
Now people come from miles around, and they come by ones and twos,
And they love to watch their Vikings play, cause they are just to proud to lose.
And when the game is over the big team just wants to run and hide,
Cause they just can't seem to conquer that unbeatable VALE PRIDE!
 
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Bob -

You're alright.
 
My good friend, Dale Wilkins, passed away this morning at 5:45 ( 2/27/2011) These WWII veterans are leaving us in rapid fashion now. Dale I will miss you and I hope You know that you were a hell of a great guy!
 
I bow my head in remembrance of your friend, Bob.
 
I have a very strong feeling for these WWII veterans, I wish I could have served in that war, but I was only 6 years old at the time it started in 1941. I remember being in the house in Sherman, N.Y. and hearing F.D. Roosevelt making his declaration of war speech. We were all sitting around the big radio listening.

And now there are only a few of this great group of WWII veterans left alive. Makes me very sad.....
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:sad:
 
In 2003, the year that I flew back to Bloomington-Normal, IL. and on to Oshkosh, WI. I also flew down to Branson, MO. My wife drove down earlier in the week, with my daughter in law and her dad, Bob White. I waited until Friday when my son got off work and the two of us flew from BMI to Branson. We landed at the M. Graham Clark-Taney County Airport just south of Branson. We had a great flight just a dad and his son, that he is mighty proud of. We had a good several days in Branson, before we flew back to BMI.

While we were in Branson the three Bobs flew over to Gaston's White River Resort for breakfast, one day. Son Bob, Bob White and myself. I have a picture somewhere of the three of us seated for breakfast in the restaurant at Gastons with the River in the background. It is a good flight from Gastons to Branson, a distance of 42nm all along the White River and Bull Shoals Dam and back water. And yes we used the dam approach into Gastons.
 
Bob Bement said:
In 2003, the year that I flew back to Bloomington-Normal, IL. and on to Oshkosh, WI. I also flew down to Branson, MO. My wife drove down earlier in the week, with my daughter in law and her dad, Bob White. I waited until Friday when my son got off work and the two of us flew from BMI to Branson. We landed at the M. Graham Clark-Taney County Airport just south of Branson. We had a great flight just a dad and his son, that he is mighty proud of. We had a good several days in Branson, before we flew back to BMI.

While we were in Branson the three Bobs flew over to Gaston's White River Resort for breakfast, one day. Son Bob, Bob White and myself. I have a picture somewhere of the three of us seated for breakfast in the restaurant at Gastons with the River in the background. It is a good flight from Gastons to Branson, a distance of 42nm all along the White River and Bull Shoals Dam and back water. And yes we used the dam approach into Gastons.
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I believe you have a video of that one posted...
 
SCCutler said:
I believe you have a video of that one posted...
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No Spike I didn't take a video of that flight. I have one posted when my son worked in Russellville,AR. and I was down there for a grand child's HS graduation, and my son Bob and my daughter Beckie flew up to Gastons and my son was holding the video camera and doing the commentary. But I did have a nice snap shot of us eating breakfast on this particular flight.
 
I would like to tell you about a flight I did not make. Mrs Paul Flemming called and asked me if I could fly her to Portland. It seemed that her husband Paul was in the hospital there and she wanted to go see him. Now this was when I first started to fly, in fact I had never made a flight to Portland at that time. I didn't know where to land there and needed some more hours before I made a flight like that.
I was in the Sheriff posse with Paul and he was a swell guy but I told her I couldn't do it.
I found out later that Paul Flemming was in WWII, and was one of the soldiers that was in the thing they called the "Batan Death March". I read a book: Ghost Soldiers, and it tells some of the things that those men went through. When I found that out I was very sorry I had turned Willma Flemming down. I wish I had my 182 and a few more hours and I would of gladly flown her to see Paul. That is one of my biggest regrets that I couldn't make that flight to help them out. ~~~
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Flying in the snow.

I took three friends for a sight seeing flights on Friday last. March 25. I had to fly from Vale,Or S49 to Nampa, ID. S67, to pick up a rider. Then we flew to Rome, OR. for Breakfast. The wind was blowing a little but other than that it was a good flight to Rome. The route of the flight took us over Jordan Craters and just North of Jordan Valley, OR.
After breakfast we took back to the air for our return flight to Nampa, by way of
The pillars of Rome, the Owyhee Canyon and Leslie Gulch. However I noticed a snow storm had move into our path back to Nampa. I headed North to see if I could make an end run around it. I left the river and flew over Crowley, Star Mountain, and the storm clouds kept pushing me west. I finally decided to go to Burns, OR. BNO and get on the ground and wait out the bad weather. I plugged the BNO into the GPS and it said only 31 SM to Burns. We were pushing a head wind and it looked like it was going to be real close if we could reach Burns before the snow storm, beat us. When we were about 4 miles out from the runway we ran into the snow. But the GPS took us right to the Airport and I circled and landed on runway 30. and taxied in and tied down. We had to wait about 4 hours Before the storm cleared and we could fly on back to Vale. My friend from Nampa rode from Vale to Nampa in a car. I had had all of the fun I could stand for one day.
 

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An early morning flight for the Sheriff!

I got a call at Midnight last night wanting to know if I could make a flight at first light this morning. Looking for an older gentleman that has been missing for a while. An outdoors man on a four wheeler thinks he may have spotted the missing vehicle. They think that this person may have taken his own life as he has been depressed and has tried in the past.
I was out to the airport at 6:00 to plug in the engine heater, and get every thing ready check oil and I Had to fly to nearby, Ontario, OR. to fuel the plane. I went and got a cup of coffee and some breadfast and then went for the fuel. I got back at 7:05 and the deputy showed up and off we went. Over to Adrain, OR. and down Succor Creek to the Leslie Gulch road. We followed a dirt road off to the right of this road and about a mile down the road we spotted a parked Pickup, white with a camper shell on the back. We flew over it and took a User waypoint Lat. & Long. on it. We called in and gave them the information. Then we came back to Vale by flying up the Owyhee Res. Got back a little after 8:00. A chance to fly on Easter Sunday. I also got to use my GPS some more.
 
I won a new 696 Garmin GPS on the Purple board for Pilots. I am trying to get used to it. The other day I had to make a trip from S49, Vale, OR. to KHRI Hermiston, OR. From there to Lexington, OR. S9S and then back to S49. I love that new GPS as it has the terrain, weather and a lot more. I had one that I got back in 1998 and have used all this time. I took some pictures on the way home. I will try to post them. On the picture you can see BKE Baker City, OR. and IRL Burns VOR. The red mountains are the Eagle caps east of Baker City, the Elkhorns, between my position and BKE, and the Strawberry Mt. off to my right. It was a good flight except it got a little bumpy on the way home.
 

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5/2/11 I got a call from one of the Malheur County Deputies that they needed to make a flight to find some bad guys. He asked me if I could make a flight and I said, yes. I told him if it was going to be a couple of hours flight I would have to fly over to Ontario, OR. and fuel up. So I met him at the local (S49-Vale, OR.) airport and we loaded up and flew over to Ontario. He said the area we needed to fly to was a little place called Crane, OR. So I headed in that direction. I programed Burns, OR. into the GPS as it was easier than Crane, and it was just a few degrees off of that heading. I noticed on the 696 weather page that there was a lot of green just North of our flight path. I could tell which way to head as I could see the Malheur River on the map page of the GPS. I flew over Cottonwood Creek, and hit the river at about Riverside. There is nothing there now, but when the railroad used to go to Burns, from Vale Riverside was a work station on the Railroad. I followed the South fork of the Malheur River on past the little place called Venator. We were fighting a strong head wind all the way and I was looking at 129 miles/ hour for a ground speed. It was really getting turbulent and we were getting some of those, bump your head, down drafts. I turned south when we got to Highway 78. The winds were picking up and they said later on the news that the winds were 35 gusting to 50mph. It knocked my tail around to the left side one time.We followed Highway 78 down to where the Folly Farm road takes off and then we followed it for a ways. It was on this part of our trip that I got a 2,000 ft.min. up draft. We were looking for a large cattle truck that had been driving around in an erratic manner for a few hours. They have had some cattle stolen from some ranches in the area and this was a suspect in that operation. They had been following in ground vehicles and had lost contact. We were turned back when they established contact with the truck again. I was not disappointed. We headed for home. I was almost to the Alvord Desert which is just under the Steens Mountains. I could see the snow blowing off of that 9773 foot mountain. We went by Saddle Butte and Crowley on our way back to Vale. I saw ground speeds going this direction of 185. I was hoping we could beat this storm back to the home airport so I didn't have to fight those strong winds on landing. I landed without any trouble and was glad to push 9054 November back into the hangar. I love to fly but this wasn't all that much fun. But, I had some tin in the air. ~~~
 
I had a friend ask if I could pick him up at Johnson Creek 3U2 on Friday morning at about 9:30. If you want to take a look at it go to Johnson Creek Airport Webcam. It was a good day for flying, just some high clouds and some scattered fog in the South fork of the Salmon River as I flew over. I landed and Jack was there soon after as I was about 10 min. early. I asked him if he had ever turned around in that canyon after taking off to the North at Johnson Creek. He said he had. I didn't want to run into that fog in the South fork, so I took off went down the canyon to a wide spot and had enough altitude to turn around in the canyon. I still had two notches of flaps and full climb power in. No trouble but it is a tight turn, as the canyon walls are close down that low in the canyon. I had no trouble coming back to ONO Ontario, OR. where we got fuel.

I thought my flying fix had been satisfied for the day until I got home. Essie wanted to go to West Linn, OR. to see her doctor on Monday if she could. I checked the weather and it was good all across OR. So we packed up and loaded the airplane and got started for the Portland, OR area at 12:00. We arrived at Lenhardts 7S9 at 1:54 It was a bumby ride but we had some tail winds and saw GS in the 166 M/H range. I parked 54November in a hangar Glen Lenhart had for me. Four hours of flying for a good day of flying
 
Bob:

Still have not met Miss Essie, but I bet I'd be happy to know her. Thinking of her now.

Keep 'em coming!
 
I made a trip back to Vale from the Portland area and it was a good flight. I am getting a little more used to my new 696 Garmin GPS. I can do about everything except put in a new User waypoint and I haven't got that figured out as yet. I am going to post a picture I took of the 696 just as I was coming over the Cascade Mountain range. You can see the ridge line on the GPS. You can see that I was picking up a little tail wind. and that I was off course a touch. I took some other pictures of Mount Hood, Mount Washington, and a little farther on over John Day, OR. I took a picture of Strawberry Mountain. The last one is a reservoir called Bully Creek Res.
 

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This is the picture of Bully Creek Reservoir. The water is high this spring and all of our reservoirs are full.
 

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I hadn't flown for a few days so I decided to fly down to the Owyhee Res. State airport. U28 to see if some of the Hood River and Madras, OR. pilots were down there. When I got down there I found there were a couple of spots with standing water on the runway. So I went back to Ontario, OR. ONO for some fuel. I took a few pictures on my way down and back. I didn't get a picture of the runway, I forgot to shoot a picture of that.
 

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8/19/2011, Essie had a infusion of a fluid that helps her bones from breaking. She had that on the 18th so we planned to fly home from West Linn, OR. on Friday. I flew the plane from Aero Acres over to Lenhardts to get some fuel. It took 46 gal. so I still had 9 gal useable. Essie doesn't like to fly out of Areo acres as it is short and trees on one end and a towered power line on the other. So we met at Lenhardts and loaded the stuff out of the car into the plane. I already had the plane fueled when they got there. I was lucky that Tom Hinkley was there and loaded Essies Oxygen machine she uses at night. It just barely fits in the baggage compartment. We said our good byes and took off on 02 to fly to S49 Vale, OR. I had a layer of clouds that the tops were at about 3000 ft. Once we were over that we had clear sailing all the way over the cascade mountains. I tried to stay at 5500 ft. but had to move up slightly to get over the mountains where we were crossing. It was clear now and not a cloud in the sky. Visibility was CAVU I looked left and could see Mount Hood with Mount Rainer behind it in the distance. When I looked right I could see all the way to the three Sisters mountains. My wife has been having trouble breathing and I had to send my regulator in for repairs on my O2 tank, so I stayed low and stayed in the canyons as much as possible. My 696 was doing a lot of "Terrain Pull UP" as I threaded my way home. I diverted when I went passed John Day, OR. and followed the highway around by Unity, OR. and followed the low country the rest of the way back to Vale. We still made it in about 2 hours, and it was a great flight. I got the Pickup out of the hangar and pushed 9054N back in. shut the doors and took the bride to lunch. Another great flight across Oregon. ~~~
 
Mackay Bar and Warren, ID.

I made a trip into Mackay Bar with three others, we went in for breakfast on Sat. Sept 17th. We had to stop in KMAN Nampa,ID and pick up Max a friend of the other three. It was a little over one hour from Nampa into Mackay bar. We left Vale at 8:30 Nampa at 9:00 and Mackay Bar at 10:00. We went up river 4-5 miles made a slow turn in the canyon and came back to land at the strip on the river bank. I have a video of it if you haven't seen it on youtube. I took a video of my take off as I didn't get that at any time. One time I thought I turned on my camera and instead I turned it off. I will try to get that put on youtube soon. It is about a 135 degree turn right after lift off, when you have low airspeed and a tight bank and turn to the right. The confluence of the South fork of the Salmon enters in that turn. Steep narrow rock banks on both sides of the river in that spot. It is exciting.

We also stopped at a little place called Warren, ID. ( you can check it out on Air Nav.com. under Warren, ID.) I almost made a mistake stopping there as it was to late in the day and the DA was to high. the Strip is 2700 ft long but the elevation is 5902. The air molecules were on siesta. I think the were hiding in the trees somewhere. I got off of the ground and out of ground effect I started to settle so I got the nose down and let it try to get going. I am glad it was down hill out of there for a ways. I got a picture of the landing and take off, and I will try to post it soon too. No problems back to Nampa to let my friend Max off and get some fuel. A great flight into the back country.
 

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Pictures: 1. over flying the Mackay Bar strip. The 135 degree bend in the river where the South fork of the Salmon comes in. 2. landing on short final the end of the strip is just left of the camera on the dash. 3. In the corner on departure just shortly after lift off. 4. The one way strip at Warren 5902 FT. MSL.
 
And I thought California was beautiful.

Those are some pretty amazing pictures. I'm jealous.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
And I thought California was beautiful.

Those are some pretty amazing pictures. I'm jealous.
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If you drive through Idaho on I-84 you don't see the great part of Idaho. The Frank Church Wilderness and the Northern part of Idaho are great areas to see the rest of Idaho.
 
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