Flying for Fun and for Money

I’m stuck in Missoula, Montana for a while.  I have quite the stories to tell from today.

But first, a few pics from yesterday, when I flew from Lincoln to Sheridan:

Nebraska has nothing in it:

There isn’t much in Thedford, either:

Nor is there anything in Wyoming:

But honestly, it is beautiful out there.  Beautiful in a very, very empty sort of way.

Now about my day today…

Here’s a pic of the trusty machine after I finished preflighting in Sheridan:

I took off out of Sheridan bright and early, in the air by 8:30 a.m.  I learned my lesson from all the other days on this trip–if you dawdle around and don’t get in the air early, you won’t cover many miles before the afternoon thunderstorms hit.

So I cruised over to Bozeman, Montana (KBZN) for my first refueling stop.  On my way over, I flew past Big Horn Lake:

Before I reached Bozeman, I had to fly through one mountain pass.  The pass was at about 5,500 feet and the peaks on either side reached to about 7,500 or 8,000.

Since I was already at 7,500 feet, I decided not to climb before reaching the pass.  Stupid me.  Experienced mountain flyers know not to cross a ridgeline at the same altitude as the ridge.  I even knew that, but I wasn’t thinking.  As I reached the opening, I began descending at about 700 feet per minute.  That’s way faster than I could ever climb.  I had gotten caught in the downdraft on the downwind side of the ridge and I was still a mile or two away.

After making a quick 180 to get away from the ridge, I poured on the coal and tried climbing.  Unfortunately, my little 85 horsepower engine was no match for the heat and altitude.  I wouldn’t nudge me an inch past 7,500 feet.

Then I thought to myself, “If Mother Nature can push me down, Mother Nature can lift me up.”  I flew back to a ridge I had passed about five miles earlier along my route and criss-crossed the upwind side.  Just like riding an elevator, I shot up at 500 feet per minute.  I rode the wave to 10,500 feet, headed towards Bozeman, and crossed the ridge no problem (although it still pulled me down to 9,000 before I reached the other side of the pass!).

Here I was, riding the elevator up:

So I made it to Bozeman, refueled, and got on my way to Missoula.  As I pressed toward Missoula the ceilings gradually kept dropping.

I refueled in Missoula but the ceilings had dropped to the tops of the mountains by the time I was ready to depart.

After much pondering, I decided to try crossing through Lolo Pass because Mullan Pass was completely socked in and, well, Lolo Pass is the only other option for VFR traffic westbound.

I took off, headed down the valley towards the pass, and kept a close eye on the clouds.  Everything looked good.  I had several thousand feet of clearance between the clouds and the valley floor.  Then I reached the actual pass at 5,200 feet and that was it–socked in.  I pulled the power back and circled for almost an hour, hoping for it to clear enough for me to squeeze through.  Alas, I had no luck.  I returned to Missoula, refueled, tied everything down for the night, and headed to the Holiday Inn Express.  That was all for my day today.

Hopefully I’ll have better luck tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 at 1:34 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.