Local Mountain Flight

Some days I feel very lucky for where I live and work and owning a plane. Wednesday was one of those days. The airport is only 5 minutes from work, so I can have a very memorable flight over lunch. Every once in a while I take advantage of that. I took up two friends from work on Wednesday for a flight over the continental divide.

Below is my approximate flight path recorded from my SPOT tracker as mentioned in my earlier post about SPOT tracking with planes.

I did not have a chance to take pictures, but my friends did and here are some of their pictures from the flight.

Shortly after takeoff, we leave the edge of the plains for the foothills.

Minutes later we are up on the eastern side of the divide looking at the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area and Rocky Mountain National Park.

Approaching Rollins/Corona Pass, we fly by the Eldora Ski Resort which is just on the east side of the divide.

Just after passing over the divide, there are more mountain ranges and the Winter Park Ski Resort. It is amazing how close these two resorts are by plane; only minutes apart by plane, but 2 hours by car.

There are lots of pretty alpine lakes on both sides of the divide. Below is one on the west side of the divide.

Here is a picture of Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. This is a beautiful area from the ground and the air.

Here is the pretty Long's Peak from the air.


And then it is time to descend into KLMO, put the plane away, grab a quick and tasty burger at the new Flight Deck Grill in Longmont, and head back to work.

Flying in the Rocky Mountains over the divide reminds me of some of the best parts of flying with only one hour of flying time.

/Brian

Dakota Thunder 2009

Dakota Thunder was a great airshow in Rapid City, South Dakota at the Ellsworth Airforce Base (KRCA)! I got a chance to go up there last weekend, and it was a great trip! Ellsworth Air Force Base is home of the B-1B bomber. There is also more information on Wikipedia about Ellsworth here. The Thunderbirds were there, 2 B-1Bs on the ground, 2 B-1Bs in the air, and A-10 demonstration, and lots of other stuff in the air show and on the ground to look at. And it was all free and not too crowded!

On the Ellsworth Air Force Base site, it indicates that approximately 40,000 people came to the Dakota Thunder. The area for the air show was quite large with many large planes on the ground, so it did not seem very crowded. There was also lots of food booths, so there were basically no lines for food which is fantastic for an air show. I found an article about Dakota Thunder in the Rapid City Journal here and another article about Dakota Thunder in the Rapid City Journal here.

Air Show

• Interstate Cadet Jelly Belly and Clipped-Wing Taylorcraft
• Extra-300 aerobatic show
• B-25
• AT-6
• A-10 performance demonstration
• 2 B1's doing aerial show
• Black Dagger parachute team
• Thunderbirds

Thunderbirds






2 B-1Bs Air Demonstration


A-10 Air Demonstration

Planes, etc on the Ground

You could go inside a number of these planes and into the cockpit including the B-1B!

• C-17 Globemaster III
• B-1B Lancer
• B-52 Stratofortress
• KC-135 Stratotanker
• C-130 Hercules
• F-22 Raptor
• F15E Strike Eagle
• F-16 Fighting Falcon
• T-38C talon
• T-39A Sabreliner
• T-6A Texan II
• UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter
• T-1A Jayhawk
• free jumpy castles (maybe 5 different ones)
• Other miscellaneous stuff. Practice bombs, museum, physical demonstrations, etc.

Getting There and Back

Flying ourselves in our C182 was simple. We could basically go direct KLMO-KRAP. We flew a little west at the end to do a pass near Mt Rushmore and then landed at KRAP. If we had filled out some paperwork, we could have landing at Ellsworth Air Force Base KRCA. But I was late in checking into it, so we landed at KRAP at the Westjet Air Center, and they had a very convenient shuttle to Ellsworth Air Force Base. The shuttle bus took us right up to the flight line and enabled us to bypass the long line of cars coming into the show as well as the distance from the parking to the flight line. It was very nice.





On the way back, it was pretty nice and smooth too. We had to dodge some thunderstorms, but the route was still fairly direct. Flying both ways and going to the air show made for a little bit of a long day, but it was reasonable and a great show. Well worth it.

Summary

Dakota Thunder is an airshow I will recommend to anybody in the area that can make it!

/Brian

Local Flying Trip: Cabela's

The Cabela's store in Sidney, NE located near KSNY is a well known trip around the Denver area for a nice $100 hamburger and fun store to go to. Last weekend, I had a chance to make a trip back there. It seems I make it there about once a year, and it is a nice trip from KLMO to KSNY.
It is nice in a number of ways:

• It takes about an hour one way.
• It counts as a cross country trip.
• There is a VOR on the field.
• There is Metar and TAF for the field.
• There is food and a fun store at the end with free, easy shuttle.
• People at the FBO and Cabela's are super nice.
• It is heading away from the mountains which can make for less turbulence.

The Store

The store is an outdoors store emphasizing fishing, hunting, camping, and boating. Lots of good stuff at good prices for the outdoor person. Their prices are much more reasonable than a lot of stores with lots of specials at times. They also have a good on-line and catalog to order from, but seeing things in person is always nice. This store is a newly renovated flagship store for them.

There is a nice display of stuffed animals put in a museum setting almost. You can see pictures on their store web site. Very impressive and fun for the kids. Polar bear, grizzly bear, moose, elephants, and others you don't normally see.

There is a large fish tank with many different kinds of fish that you might be able to catch, but larger than I ever would catch. Almost like the aquarium as far as my son is concerned. Not quite that big of course, but still nice.

There is a little spot for food that serves up hamburgers, buffalo burgers, and sandwiches. Definitely nice to have in the store so you don't have to waste time searching for food. If you want something different, there are places across the street including a steak house owned by Cabela's. I haven't tried them yet though.

When flying in, if you ask for "the Cabela's shuttle" on the unicom frequency, they will have it waiting for you by the time you land. Very nice and free!

Our Trip

The reason for our trip was a father/son trip: me, my son and my son's kindergarten friend and dad. The previous day, we were at the Rocky Mountain Metro Airport Open House, and we have been wanting to find a good flying trip to go together on. He mentioned he was thinking about driving to Cabela's the next day, and I quickly convinced him that flying was much more fun. It worked out nice. The other dad is thinking about getting a pilot's certificate and our kids certainly had fun. My son lately has been less than excited about flying, but having a friend along made a huge difference.

We tried a little dramamine for the kids which was good. It was a bit bumpy due to winds. The kids didn't have any problems and actually enjoyed the bumps. Giggling and laughing the entire way. Both directions they asked if we were there just there about the time that we were there. Perfect!

Recommended!

A nice first father/son trip. A success for everybody. Hopefully there will be another father/son trip soon, maybe West Yellowstone or Tetons soon?

/Brian

Denver Sunrise Flight

Well, we got up early this morning to check out the sunrise over Denver. It was not as pretty as we had hoped, but it was still fun. It was also interesting to see how the colors change during the sunrise. Below is pretty much the same view at different times during the sunrise.

Official sunrise was at 6:15am this morning.

Still very dark.
Time: 5:50am, 25 minutes before sunrise.

Starting to get brighter.
Time: 5:54am, 21 minutes before sunrise.


Getting brighter, but very blue in tint.
Time: 6:08am, 7 minutes before sunrise.


After sunrise, and colors are getting warm, purplish.
Time: 6:18am, 3 minutes after sunrise.


Colors still warm, but different, more golden.
The favorite for me.
Time: 6:26am, 11 minutes after sunrise.


Colors are not golden and getting harsher.
Time: 6:47am, 32 minutes after sunrise.

We ended up with some dust on the sensor that was not there before the flight. We will have to fix that for the next set of pictures.

A fun flight in relatively smooth air. Especially since it was windy yesterday and is expected to get windy again today. We will have to do it again.

/Brian