Weiser Airport (S87)
From Parma we followed the train tracks directly to the river and the river straight into Weiser. Now Weiser is cool, but feels like a ghost town. Walking into my first unattended airport lounge was a bit creepy, the furniture seems to be sitting in the exact location as it was originally placed some 30 years ago. The facilities are clean but is almost feels like a light layer of dust covers everything making you think you just discovered a unknown relic of the past.
Tips: Bring garlic, silver bullets and a wooden cross, because this airport might actually be haunted!
Questions: Is it a bad idea to fly straight into an unattended airport or should you always cross midfield before entering a pattern to land? How do you know if a airport has a lounge or a airport car?
Parma Airport (50S)
My first go-around! Crossing midfield from the south I decide to land on 12, the winds were light and the runway is short. What I believe happened was that I was too close to the runway on the downwind leg, then turned my base too early and ended up way high as I approached the numbers. With the second attempt I’m turning left base onto final when I look down on my clipboard and realize that 12 is right hand traffic (which I had circled but didn’t notice prior). I decided to proceed figuring the damage was already done and I was a bit embarrassed to broadcast my second mistake on the CTAF.
Questions: Why is this right traffic for 12 with that big tower in what seems to be the pattern? What should I have done in that last minute scenario when I did realize I made a mistake but was already on my base leg?
Homedale Airport (S66)
This is one of my favorite airports in the Boise Valley, it’s right next to the snake river and beautiful on a summer morning! The runway is a bit tricky and as a new pilot I feel accomplished landing next to the tree found just left of runway 31 and barely clearing the fence, bushes and other mess found at the end. Plus after you land there is a big “speed dip”, so remember pull back and hold on! I don’t know why but I just love this place and its a great place to eat lunch next to the river.
Airport Suggestions: Put in a path from the runway to the river so you don’t have to walk through those weeds, also lets get a couple new picnic tables out there next to the water.
Nampa Airport (MAN)
After crossing midfield from the North and initiating a right 360 to enter the downwind leg for runway 29 the “silent pilot’ speaks up and to my horror he’s announcing the same altitude on the radio, entering the same runway at roughly the same place and we can’t get a visual on him for the life of us. I decide to climb out in a direction of what I believe is away from him and reenter the downwind leg of the pattern and still couldn’t find this guy until he was turning final.
Tips: Unless you’re trying to get on “The Biggest Looser” split the breakfast with your friend 🙂
Question: How did that guy miss two of my calls? What could I have done better? Help me understand why some are so quite on the radio and how to better spot other in the sky.
Exploring The Boise Valley
Beautiful blue sky day, calm winds, a sleeping baby and a overly supportive wife that wanted to spend the afternoon cooking and cleaning without the husband’s interference. So I did as any wise husband would – grabbed a friend, in this case my father-in-law and headed to the airport!
Our trip was simple, depart from Boise (BOI), test the winds in Nampa (MAN), land in Homedale (S66) to attack our blimpy sandwiches, check out Parma (50S), follow the river to Weiser (S87), then try to hit a golf car in Payette (S75) before checking out the cliffs in Emmett (S78) and heading back home to Boise (BOI).
iflyidaho 