Cascade Airport (U70)

The trip to this point was a really good lesson in density altitude. After clearing the mountains just North of Horseshoe Bend, we went slightly to the east into Garden Valley. This valley was beautiful. It was lush and green with dense pine forest—a must-see place from the air. Continuing to head north, I really noticed how poorly the plane performed at altitude when I was flying at 7500 feet MSL and wanted to continue to climb to get extra clearance over the mountains in front of me. At 80 MPH and full power, I noticed we were lucky to be gaining 100 feet per minute. Sometimes, I would look down and see us loosing altitude due to downdrafts. I started to get a bit nervous for a while, thinking we might not be able to clear the ridge. I kept my nose up, did a series of S-turns to see the terrain below, and kept to one side of the valley where I could turn and descend if caught in a bad downdraft. It was a relief clearing that ridge and descending into the Cascade Valley. The cows, pastures and alpine lakes were a much welcomed and pleasant sight!

After landing in Cascade, we walked into the little shop and started shooting the breeze with the locals. To our amazement, we met the guys who have the mail contracts for all the backcountry strips, lodges, etc. Jon had talked to me about these guys earlier in the day and mentioned that we should take one of these bush planes into a back strip and camp for a few days or take a hike. Our discussion with Ray from Arnold Aviation was great! He informed us that we could fly to one strip, have fresh food dropped off at another location, and be picked up at a third location. So basically, we could do a super long one-way hike, eat fresh food, and be miles and miles deep into the Idaho wilderness area! They can fit four or five people into one of their Cessna 206s and charter it for $400 per hour. We pick the drop off and pickup days, and it costs less than $100 per person. Ray’s advice was to do this before the start of hunting season, which is September 15th.

Question: I have an issue seeing wind direction from 1500 feet above a runway. What are your tips for seeing that darn wind sock??

Tips: Coastal pilots beware: If you are accustomed to flying at sea level and you fly the same way in Idaho (low to the ground, heavy loads, middle of the day departure), you will probably hit a mountain. The bears and mountain lions will eat your flesh and the squirrels will eat your bones. No one will ever find you, so don’t fly this way.