iflyidaho

Twin falls is awesome! One it’s beautiful flying over the Perrine Bridge, the bright blue springs located just North West of the bridge and Shoshone Falls to the East! Second they have three or four free courtesy cars – there is just something nice about driving on Uncle Sam’s dollar, I thought the three of us should take three separate cars :-). After we landed unfortunately it was too late to watch our friends jump the bridge, so we waited at the airport and watched them take off back to LA to in their Cessna 182, and I thought it was pretty cool they were in Twin Falls BASE jumping and had to be at work in six-hours in LA.

After driving all over the city the three of us finally listened to the smart one of the group, Niki and ate at the Mexican restaurant off of 2nd street! It was awesome, but you never can go wrong with bacon wrapped shrimp and carne asada!! Afterwards we drove over to the bridge and stood in awe looking over the huge snake river valley, this is really a neat area!

Heading home, it got hot and late so we climb as high as that little plane could go and Niki took the controls while I played with the radios.

Questions: We need a list of some good local restaurants in Twin Falls, locals please help (don’t recommend KFC or Olive Garden)!

Tips: If you are from out of the area, come here in the early summer to visit Shoshone Falls, hike down the valley and watch the BASE jumpers, and maybe rent a kayak for a cruise in the peaceful snake river.

We were in a hurry to meet my friends in Twin Falls so we were going to skip Jerome but ended up flying right next to the runway and thought we had to touch down, even if it were just briefly. There was other traffic (crop-dusters) in the area and they gave us a wind update and runway they were using so it felt safe flying straight in. Again, smooth landing! Missed the carb heat but caught it before Niki!

Taxed past the little office/shop on the runway and saw a really cool bright orange crop-duster. This looks like a really nice place to spend some time, they seem to have some shade behind the office and just has overall a good vibe.

Question: When I don’t fly my ‘pattern’ I miss things such as crab heat, not a big deal today with a Cessna 172 on a 90 degree day but if it were the landing gear on a Cessna 177 someone might be a bit upset! Any tips on how to keep with checklist when things get mixed up or busy?

From Mountain Home we followed the train tracks to the river and landed just after the badest 182 I’ve ever seen. On short final I saw we were a bit low and the barbwire fence which is just before the runway surprised me and our landing was a bit uglier than I like (I’m a perfectionist).

Taxing over the the 182 we were following in the pattern we met quite possibly the coolest 79 year old pilot cruising the skies over idaho, Jack G. What this guy did to his 182 was awesome, you had to see it for yourself because I simply don’t know the names of all the modifications. Adding the fact that he is 79 years old and doesn’t appear to be a year over 60 even made him that much more interesting!!

From Glenns Ferry we followed the river at about 500 feet over to bruno sand dunes where we had to cut across the hills to avoid controlled airspace. From the valley south of bruno we resumed our river navigation tour. I could write a book about the snake river, it is simply amazing from the air. The whole flight we were talking about the fact that if you look south from I-84 you see nothing but desert, never in your wildest dreams would you think there would be such pretty farm filled valleys with a river of equal beauty to that of the Colorado here in southern Idaho.

Question: I tried repeatedly to contact Mountain Home AFB tower for permission to fly thought their airspace, no response. I decided to avoid it, but what would you have done? Is it controlled airspace when the tower is not occupied? Getting shot down by a F-15 seemed like a bad idea at the time 🙂

After following interstate 84 to the east we slowly start to approach Mountain home. The air was calm and the only chatter on the radios was from a piper taxing for take off. The cockpit work load felt light, my pattern was excellent and my buddy even seem to be at ease on short final.  After landing we hurried off the runway so the piper could take off and taxied over to the airport shop.

The airport shop resembled that of an old west convenient store complete with the covered porch and old timers talking about “back in my day”. The facilities were nice, the people were friendly and even offered to take a photo for us.

Airport Suggestion: Donuts and Coffee, I would fly here every Saturday if I knew I could find some good donuts and a cup of coffee 🙂

Question: When the piper was taxing I assumed he was back taxing down the runway, unaware Mountain Home had a taxi way. How could I have know the airport did in fact have a taxi way? I go to AOPA and print the kneeboard chart – what do you do when flying the a new runway?

After regrouping from the ugly landing in Payette, we take off giving the guys on the golf carts one more good show and depart for Emmett. The nice thing about flying in the Boise Valley is that you can simply follow rivers when you don’t have the luxury of GPS. Flying down the valley leading into Emmett is beautiful, you have step hills on both sides, its green and a gentle winding river to follow leading you directly to the airport. I was determined to redeem myself from the nasty landing in Payette and after departing Emmett for Boise we cleared the hills to the south with just enough altitude to keep it interesting.

Questions: What are your tips for clearing terrain (hills, mountains, ridges, etc)? Also how do you know if an airport has something fun like a air museum on location?

From Weiser we followed the river at about 500 feet AGL, the air was calm and views were awesome – this was by far the best leg of the flight!  But now to be honest, I failed after arriving at Payette. Upon entering the pattern I was way too close to the runway on my downwind leg, base turn was pretty much 180 degrees and then I had to over correct to get back onto final. Lastly I was distracted with the two golf carts that pulled up and parked to watch me land right at the end of the runway! I knew I was a bit low and the distraction from the golf carts threw off my airspeed (looking down and seeing 60mph is not good). Slow airspeed, no power and 40 degrees of flaps caused me to land hard with a fast ground roll. After landing I’m swerving down the runway looking at the soft dirt off my left side thinking “so this is how you crash an airplane – I thought it would be more dramatic”.

Questions: I like to fly low over unpopulated areas, I understand some of the risk but what are your tips so that I can do it safely?  As with the landing in Payette, it was a good lesson and I’m open to feedback!