Flew to Colorado

I decided to head out and see the Yampa river from Dinosaur Monument to Craig, Colorado. So I went out to the hanger. In was the middle of the day, but yet the temp was still only 18°F. Having dipped to -3°F last night, I preheated the cold-soaked engine and pulled the plane out. I barely hit the starter and she sprung to life! Man that Rotax sure is a great engine.

I taxied out to the runway for takeoff. The snow was about 5 inches deep. Got lined up, checked the engine and away we went. Takeoff was quite quick due to the cold, dense air. That was so much fun, let's go do it again. So I came around and landed in the fluff. It was so much fun, I did it again. Then I decided to head out. I turned North and flew around the edge of the Monument eventually heading East.

After a few minutes, I was at the confluence of the Green River and the Yampa right in the heart of Dinosaur Monument. I follow the various turns that the river makes while I was heading upstream. This is a really cool area. Everyone should see it from the air. Way cool rock formations. Sandstone has been weathered and eroded into the most amazing shapes. The colors are great too. All shades of red and tan are everywhere. They are punctuated by cedar and pine trees all throughout the canyon.

I reach the end of the Mounument, so I can land and take a break. I find a road that looks like I can land on it. I drop in for a closer look and it looks good enough so...

After taking it in, I decide to head out. I take off downhill and am off pretty quick. What a cool plane the FOX is. I continue heading to Craig, Colorado while still following the Yampa river. About ten miles east of the Monument, I spot a cool canyon that the Yampa has cut. I check it out from a safe height. Looks like I'll be dropping in that on the way back. As I continue "chasing" the river (upstream), I notice something in a tree on the bank of the river. It is two bald eagles, just hanging out. I reach for the camera, but I'm past them before I can snap a pic. So I flip a 180 and snap a pic. Didn't think I'd get them as I didn't want to get to close to them. I zoomed with the camera and hoped for the best. It worked! Check them out, they are sitting in that tree in the bottom center. You might have to click on the photo to make it bigger to see them. One is 3/4 up the tree on the left side (fairly obvious). The other is about half way up the tree, on the right (hard to see, but close to the center).

That was cool, but I keep flying towards Craig. I don't really have a reason to go there. I guess it's just a destination. A goal. Once I get there, I land and find an old Cessna 170. I park next to it for a size-up. I was going to buy one of those. This one was a 170A. It had the split flaps and fabric wing. It was in poor shape. Needs lots of love, but it may never get it. I'm glad I didn't get one like that. I still think there might be one in my future (restored), but who knows. I'm quite happy with what I got now. It's new, flies great, and is inexpensive to operate. Plus you don't see many Cessna's landing on roads. Course I guess most people don't see ANY planes landing on roads. I guess I'm not normal...

Well, I've got to get back before dark, so I head out. On the way back, I just have to fly that canyon. So here I go:

http://vimeo.com/2597103?pg=transcoded_embed&sec=2597103


I love to chase rivers. Down low, hooking the corners almost like a race car driver on a race course. This one didn't look inhabited at all, so I don't think I was bothering anyone.

I made it back to Dave's strip with some daylight to spare. So what's a Kitfox driver to do? Keep flying! So I decide to shoot some touch and goes at Dave's. My airstrip lighting that I installed is working better than I though, so I enjoy that and the snow runway. Things are great so I shoot about 8 touch and goes until it is so dark that I can't really tell now when I'm going to land, I can just feel the tires making contact with the fluff. I decide to shut her down and call it a night. I've got to be to work early in the morning. Hopefully, I'll be able to get off work early on Wednesday and the weather will be good so I can be able to fly up to the parents for Christmas.

First Snow

It's been a very tiresome week. I've worked a lot of hours and most days started around 4 a.m. with a couple days earlier than that. In short: I'm exhausted. I had to work Saturday as well, so Sunday was sleep-in day. Just so you know, I fell asleep around 10:30 p.m. Saturday night. I woke up around 6 a.m., noticed that it wasn't light out yet, so turned over in bed and fell right back asleep. I woke up having had several dreams (that I can still remember) around 11 a.m. That's right 12+ hours. Told ya I was exhausted.

Anyway, I look around the room as I am debating getting out of bed (anybody feel like that during the winter time?) and I notice a very white light coming in the window of my room. I get up and look out: SNOW! It snowed about 2 inches. I know that's not a whole lot, but this is the first snow of the season, so...

Well, I got up and did some things around the house. Then I wanted to go out and play (I know I'm a kid at heart). So what's a grown kid going to take to play in the snow?... You guessed it: It is time for the FOX! So off we went to the hanger. Got out there and did a engine preheat for the first time ever. In case you don't know what that is, I'll explain: Unlike a car, aircraft engines are very important in that your very life can depend on it performing perfectly. With that in mind, we want to treat it the best we can. So in the winter time, that means warming it up BEFORE we start it! If I were rich, I would simply just heat my hanger all the time. However, I'm not rich so I must go out there and do what I can to get the engine warm and happy. There isn't any electricity out there, but Dave's got a portable generator so I could utilize my high tech heating device. Bet you'll never guess what my heating device is... so I'll tell you. It's very technical and very expensive device for heating hair... I mean air... I mean... crap! Okay it's a hair dryer. Laugh all you want, but it actually works. I take and old sleeping bag and (still laughing, right?) put it over the cowl of the engine. Then I take the hair dry... I mean heating device and stick it in an air intake. Then I start the generator and turn on the hair... heat device and let her warm up. Piece of cake.

So anyway, who cares right? That's my life. Pretty incredible, I know. Actually, now that we have the engine warmed up, let's hop in the plane and actually do something incredible. Here we go, starting to play in some snow. Fun, but let's go somewhere cool... How about landing by a lake, just north of town.

That was fun. But the flying was good, so I took off again. I decided to go to a fave (but secret) place not too far away. Very cool place (especially this time of year... burrrrrr!). I fly over to make sure nothing has changed. Satisfied, I then turn around and make my approach. Now, having landed here successfully before, does not mean I will be successful this time around (and also the fact that there's 3 inches of snow - AND I've never landed on snow before). So here I go. I lightly touch down... tickling the tires with the soft snow "runway". I allow the tires to lower until there are touching the actual ground. I then "feel it out" and drag the runway (it's really a sandbar along the Green River). Everything feels good, but I'm out of runway so I power up and go around for another attempt. This time, I'm almost certain I'm going to land. So I slow her up and decend down to about 30 feet above the river. As I come around the corner I'm about 10 feet AGL (abover ground level) and doing about 45 mph. The FOX stalls at 40, so I'm getting close. I start to level out and see my tracks from the previous attempt. They look a little deep... huh. So I cautiously touch down again. Once settled, I then look down at the tire plowing through the snow. It feels firm and there doesn't seem like much drag, so I commit to land by pulling the power off to idle. I then get on the brakes as this "airstrip" isn't much more than 700 feet in length. I slow down with actually plenty of runway left and turn around. I taxi back to where I touched down. I only used about 300 feet. Pretty cool to be taxiing on snow (I think I might need to get skis for the FOX). Having got to the end, I turn around and shut down the engine. When the propellers come to a stop, everything turns silent. Ever been up in the mountains in the winter time with snow on the ground? Well I guess it's the snow that absorbs all the sound and makes things real quiet. Whatever the reason, there is absolutely NO sound. Hope I can get back out of here, is my first thought. Anyway, it is simply an amazing place. I get out of the FOX and take it all in. Man I love the places I end up! Truly amazing.

I decide to go for a hike. I notice some tracks in the snow and decide to follow them. They led me up on the bench and follow the river upstream for a bit. Then, I notice a cool slot canyon opening up to my right. I decide to take it. So I start hiking up it. It is so neat as the canyon walls go straight up (or even over your head) a long ways up, probably 4-500 feet. Cool place! It is so neat with all the snow there as well. I hike for a ways then I am shut down (stopped) by a dry waterfall. I can tell that it isn't very "dry" in the spring, but now it's just a frozen pool with a big drop-off. I try, unsuccessfully, to find a way up it. Once I start something, it's hard to accept defeat, so I try a different way. Doesn't work. I finally do a 180 and start back down. As I start to exit the canyon, I remembered those tracks that I had followed. The tracks went by the canyon and that's were I left them. I decided to follow the tracks further. Glad I did! I found that they went up a hill and led me to a trail that went back into the slot canyon. This time however, I was up about 80 feet along the canyon wall. The trail kept going and took me right past the dry waterfall! Sweet, I thought, I found a way past it. So I continued on, but then I started to notice that the day was coming to an end (don't you just love the 5 hours of daylight in the winter time!). So I headed back out. I guess I'll have to come back to see the rest of the canyon some day. Pretty neat though to find such a cool spot to fly in to.

Well that was my day off from work. Now it's back to the grind at 1 a.m. tomorrow.

Bye for now.

Kitfox Thanksgiving flight with nephew

I flew up to the parents for Thanksgiving. I decided to land right by the house in a farmer's field. Worked out better than I thought. That was until I started walking away from the plane and the Sheriff pulled up. Then I rethought my idea of landing there. Too late, face the music, so I walked towards his vehicle as he drove up. He was a nice guy and just wanted to know if everything is okay (this is not an airfield, just a farmer brown's field). I told him I was okay if he was. No ticket, so we said a big "Happy Thanksgiving" to him and off he went. And so did we. I had landed about a half-a-block from the house so the walk did not last long.



After the big feast, I was wanting to reposition THE FOX at a more secure location. So off to the airplane for the necessary flight. The plane has two seats, one was available for the 3 minute flight, so I asked for a volunteer. My nephew Austin, being the oldest, was asked first. He declined (?) (What is wrong with the new generation - I would have KILLED to have a flight like that when I was his age.) Anyway, Evan ( only 6) blurted out a "I do, I do!!!" "I want to!" so he got the seat. This would be his first ever flight, so the pressure was on to provide a good one (i.e. absolutely no crashing! - just kidding). We fired up THE FOX and warmed up the engine. Once ready, my sis (his mom) busted out the video and shot the takeoff. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjZhFFkGdRw