Author: Kevin

Its pretty darn good…except the remote only works if you have WFI available.

The pictures are really good. Hard to tell here as I had to scrunch to size in order to download. These are very low res. I texted the photo to a few of you here and the high res version is unreal!

Here are two of the 100 or so I took today playing around. This is a 5 minute flight from where our fly-in is tomorrow

AKT

Looks like we have at least 10-15 planes still coming. I will be there around 10am or so on Saturday to stay. If not there I will be flying the area on the Freq…124.20

The desert is all time now. Seriously…

Here are some pics from today and some Hats and T-shirts…I was a biased by the plane of course and asked Zane if I could put
these T’s on here as there is no BCP on it. Just my blog site. I have a bunch of these if someone would like one. After all, we are all Big Tire Pilots…and the Ohio guys couldnt have there own logo wear without the west coast representation… 

You can see the one I have been wearing…(desert dust on the brim)

Approach to the lake bed straight ahead

Gold mine is on the right, 2 miles from lake bed straight ahead…one of my favorite place to land

Approach over the trees (bottom left of lake bed) and land

Looking at your approach. You can almost see a road coming into the lake bed itself. Camp is by the trees with planes parking on the far left of lake bed

looking west (I put a bunch of rocks out for the new folks inbound)

Looking east – Notice the little dirt hill I put rocks on…they are also on the lake bed. If you land elsewhere on the bed DO A FLY BY AND KNOW YOUR SPOT!!! These little guys will ruin your day

Makings of a white mans fire for Saturday

Hard as a rock

“High Boy Ridge” is at the cloud base in the distance

Looking forward to it.

If you want a T shirt or Hat, send me a PM. $24 includes shipping. All sizes…XXXl – Sm

AKT

Flew the North Circuit today with a friend (need to get him to post here) that has several airplanes and knows several ranches that could be added to the “West Circuit” (That I have yet to fly). A 185, a Wilga along several others.

Anyhow, we left KTRK around 10am and went north and then into the desert. Dropped into Stampede for quick touch and go at #1 followed by a 1/2 mile of water skiing, around the island and then off to Totem #2 for our first stop.

From there we flew a few approached into the 2 “Bumpy Barns” with a landing at the “Ranch”. Grass was deep!

From there we headed NE over the “Chillkoot Ranch” and out to “Dead Cow” lake bed for some slow flight work and high AOA landings. Aaron was landing tail wheel first. Mine is landing at and easy 36-38mph with 30 gallons of fuel, no wind and just me. She is a dream. I continue to be amazed with this wing combo.
Desert is in great shape. This lake bed is a great place to play and hone your skills..

Here is Aaron landing and doing a fly bye. Notice the tail wheel dust..

My 180 and his 185. We both have the Sportsman with the WingX. We both also have the 520. He however has VG’s on his. Mine is lighter by 100 lbs or so…  He can carry more…  I have BW’s…He has Air Hawks. Both very good aircraft.

And then we left and headed back toward KTRK as we both had wives to get back to. Along the way (Yes that was us Chance… ) we had to fly past our buddies ranch here on the BCP forum “Chance”. Man he has a great spot!

And then over what I call “1.5 Mile High” (this photo is from last summer)…it was much to windy (gusty) for it today given it was now 230pm. Its a fun spot, uphill, short and bushy…  . One way in and one way out. Dont mess it up.

It was a good day!

AKT

Well, sometimes its not all about finding the rowdy spots to land or looking up at the top of something wondering if theres a landing. Today was one of those days. I had very precious cargo! My wife is not the biggest fan of flying and my little one loves airplanes so, today was the day I figured we should give it a try. She has gone in the past (6 months old) but she was much to little to enjoy it. She is now 2 1/2 and I think she is starting to get it.

We went to “Da da’s airpane” and flew to see the “Fishy”…  At least thats how she says it.

Still lots of fish

The two things that are more important than my “airpane”

She is a broken record…”Eat”…”Eat”…”Eat”…so, she is eating

Still eating…

Flying home…”by fishy” By by fishy”

She hates the kid head set I have for her and she will not were the ear plugs…Any ideas? Its not that loud but I’m not a fan of the noise on her ears either. Also, now that she is 2 we cannot hold her in moms lap. What do others do for seat belts? I added a couple seat cushions and the lap belt worked alright but wondered if I was doing it correctly? Her car seat doesn’t work that great either and I dont think that they are legal.

It was a great morning all in all.

AKT

All of the lake beds are in great shape now! Did a big flight today and I can say honestly, I did not see any wet lake beds to speak of. Even Lake Lahonton is dry…Crazy!Had a really great morning flying today. It did get windy but that only helps to get in and out. You just have to make certain your paying attention to the wind direction so you don’t get a down draft and get beat down on landing or during your slow fly byes. Use the wind in your favor and you can become a helicopter so to speak. Gusty winds on the other hand, I want nothing to do with. Thats when I fly home and put the bird to bed.

Here is my morning…
This is a hard one to fly by…but when your loaded up with fuel, a homemade strip at 9000′ elevation and a meadow thats less than 300′ before you hit the water bars is nothing to play with. This is however one of my favorite spots.

So I headed to the “East” circuit today. All of this is very close to where we have the fly in. This is a nice little lake bed, maybe a 1000′ long and very hard. Its fun to come over the little rise here in the foreground, slip down 50′, pull 40 degrees of flaps, flare and stick it. Its such a good feeling.

Then over to the reservoir that is now dry with very DEEP sand. This one is pretty fun to come around making a low left base to final, touch down next to the bush (you can barely see in the photo but its by the corner) and roll out 200′ up to the trees. There are more landings around this lake than one could count.

Sand was deep. This photo does not do it justice

Parking by the trees…departure is what you see here just left of the bush I was talking about. From here to the bush is about 250′

And another great spot. Landed here, turned around and took off. Did not get out and snap a photo, so we can count it or not…it was fun. Again…very deep sand!

And then things got a bit more serious…everywhere I go for some strange reason I am always looking up wondering if there is a landing… well, I left the reservoir and started to climb….This is what I found at around 9200′. I used less than 200′ of ground here. The performance that this wing has is just outstanding!

Then up a bit higher to another…Rocks are always bigger than they look at 50mph and 50′. Made several passes here and look forward to going back to this one. It was fun!

Coming back to KTRK the runways are 01-19 or 29 -11…wind was 240 @ 16 gusting 26. It made for a fun ride home and a fun landing back at base.

Thats all for today

AKT

Starting to feel like the plane is a glove again. Man she feels good with the new wing and engine. I know, I sound like a broken record. Today was a good day. Hit a lot of my North Circuit and ventured east into the desert for some slow flight landing work. The desert is a great place for that as you can take off and touch down again over and over for miles on end. Really got to feel the plane out today big time. Anyhow, to spare you on my writing skills I will just post some photos. Figure I will update this daily as I fly…

Here is one of my favorite spots, “Stampede South West”:

“Frenchmans Ranch” that many of you have been to

The desert…I call this one “Dead Cow”

South of Susanville lake bed…Many of you have been here…

Then things started to get a little bit serious but having only 12 hours on the new plane I thought it best to come back another day here….  
“High Top” …a new one…  …doesnt count though…I only did a touch a go / slow drag

High Top 2…just next to the one above…same goes here…just a drag and then pushed it over the edge for almost 170 mph down the other side… 

And then back toward home to land at “Stampede North West” and found a lot of fish!

Being chased by big browns and rainbows…wish I had my fly rod!

And great parking…I need to camp here…CAUTION: dont land here unless you have big tires and can land short!

All in all, a great day!

Wind is supposed to blow in the AM…seasons are changing

AKT

Did some slow flight and stall work today and hit a few of the strips on the North circuit today. Went looking for Gump at Sierraville (Deerwater) and found his plane….

Left and went on my way and ran into “GregA” (one of our members here) on the radio. He was in his Rans with a couple other buddies. I was actually flying into Totem Pole when I heard them talking. He asked if I was on the BCP site and the rest is self explanatory. Asked them what there plan was and we ended up back at Sierraville looking for Gump. This was about an hour or so after I was there the first time. We waited and talked BS thinking Gump would return soon but, healing approved after an hour of BS no Gump and we departed. Landed a two of the reservoirs on the way home.

Was a good day…

AKT

If it looks smooth, pharmacy it might be. If it looks rough, it is…www.bigtirepilot.com …www.alaskaheliski.com