Just playing around
I flew up to St. Maries, Idaho (S72) last weekend with a couple of friends. They took a 152, I flew my 140. I could almost keep up with them when we were straight and level. Not bad for having 25 hp less than them!
We camped along the St. Joe River for the night, then flew home on Saturday afternoon. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Sunny, calm, and about 85 degrees.
Since our route took us directly over Lower Granite (00W), I decided to drop in on our way home and add another airport to my logbook. It’s a cool little place along the Snake River. It was built by the Army Corp of Engineers for when they need fast access to the Lower Granite Dam.
As an interesting matter of trivia, one of my friends who flew up to St. Maries with me works for the Corp of Engineers in their financial department. He told me construction of the airstrip cost $62,000. So now you know!
The strip is just that, a strip. No parking area or tiedowns that I saw, although a person could probably pull off in to the dirt and stake down their plane if they needed to. The runway is gravel, but the center 30 feet or so is packed and oiled, so it’s a step above a lot of other gravel strips out there. It’s also 3400 feet long, so even on a hot day most planes can get in and out fairly easily.
The only mildly tricky part is flying the pattern. The canyon walls on each side of the river are fairly steep, so I had to fly a long, high downwind, intentionally overshoot final on the base leg, then follow the river in on final. Pretty fun actually, although I bet it could get a bit sporty on a windy day–there’s potential for severe turbulence through the canyon in that case.
It’s times like these, of just playing around with a plane, that keep my addiction to flying strong. There’s always a skill to improve upon, something new to try, or a new place to explore. Airnav reports this strip only has 25 aircraft/month use it. I guess I was one of the 25 this month!
Here are some pictures:
Following the river on final:
Lined up and ready to blast off:
Thanks for reading!