Let'sgoflying!
Touchdown! Greaser!
The whirlwind tour winds down, after the Arches and Canyonlands, then I posted about zipping into Canada - visited dad on Vancouver Island for a few days, saw the Murals in Chemainus, the Cathedral grove with 800 year old trees(huge), a waterfall, ferry trip to an island restaurant, and had a short tour of the local islands by Viking too - then watched rainclouds scrape the local (snowdotted) peaks before leaving Sat am. Quick low level vfr flight to Bellingham dodging rw and survived customs unscathed. Greek food there.
Filed out of there to better weather east of the Cascades, ended up in Missoula Mt. A cool college town with very nice folks, lots to do, hiked the "M" mountain, very cool views, ran into a local guy who gave an excellent history and description of the area. Left Mon am under mtos skies, followed the highway down the valley and out to better wx east again. Wrung hands several times about departing ifr vs valley-running - either would have worked and this is a sightseeing trip. Good ceiling and vis, plus easy turn-arounds in the valley (and nice to have the hp to blast up and out of it in a worst case scenario).
Stayed overnight outside Jellystone (used West Yellowstone airport) following arduous 6hr tour of the N circle - fantastic sites...5 bear, absolute flocks of buffalo and elk, bald eagles, scenery out the wazoo. Mmmm
Must work photos over for yall soon. Going back early in am to see Old Faithful etc, then on to Custer to see Mt Rushmore etc.
Filed out of there to better weather east of the Cascades, ended up in Missoula Mt. A cool college town with very nice folks, lots to do, hiked the "M" mountain, very cool views, ran into a local guy who gave an excellent history and description of the area. Left Mon am under mtos skies, followed the highway down the valley and out to better wx east again. Wrung hands several times about departing ifr vs valley-running - either would have worked and this is a sightseeing trip. Good ceiling and vis, plus easy turn-arounds in the valley (and nice to have the hp to blast up and out of it in a worst case scenario).
Stayed overnight outside Jellystone (used West Yellowstone airport) following arduous 6hr tour of the N circle - fantastic sites...5 bear, absolute flocks of buffalo and elk, bald eagles, scenery out the wazoo. Mmmm
Must work photos over for yall soon. Going back early in am to see Old Faithful etc, then on to Custer to see Mt Rushmore etc.
Better weather, better scenery, etc.