Flying saves time and money

[hydroguy2]

As mentioned in this thread, we are building a RV hangar and retirement home. http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...d.php?t=117303

I find this property build to parallel my RV build. The wheels of progress move slowly when when you are trying to save money. I search, investigate and do as much of the work as possible. Being your own General Contractor is a chore....especially if you live 230 miles away(5hrs+ toyota pulling a camper), but now Aurora cuts this time and effort significantly. I am able to zip up for a meeting or do a little work and get back to Townsend later that day and back to work. Here is a few cellphone pics of the last few weekends.

Loaded up a few weeks ago. BTW...9-10mpg took 5 hrs
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Cleared a path and trench dug for power. I like playing in the dirt
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Love waking up and walking the strip at first light. Good Morning Cabin Creek
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Last weekend, I still needed the truck...but got the conduit laid, inspected and back filled. Then slugged my way home dragging the trailer


Yesterday the weather looked good, so I hopped in the RV for a quick trip as the Flying Electrician. the winds aloft were howling headwinds of 30-40kts up high, so we took the pounding down low.
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Looked dark up the head of Seeley-Swan Drainage, so did the end around through the Jocko Vally. Already winter in the high country


Too bad I didn't have the GoPro running. The Tamaracks were in full yellow splendor. You can kind of see Bitteroot Lake peaking in the center of this sot over the ridge.
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Aurora parked next to our road. Hope to still get the simple hangar built this fall.
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[rockwoodrv9]

Holy smokes Brian, that runway in the 4th picture is pretty narrow! ha!

Looking good - have fun with your house build.

[hydroguy2]

As I fixed(forgot I had to run the ground wire in conduit) and finished wiring the service and ready for the power company to pull the primary wire into the transformer vault I had set and install meter, I felt a rain drop. I walked out to the plane and grabbed the Ipad...Yikes, Better pack up and get out of here.


I blasted off RY 20 and turned south, Off my right wing was a wall of black and water to the ground. Only had light rain for a few minutes, before long it was a broken but lowering ceiling...welcome to mountain flying.

Mission range being engulfed. I went to 11500 and could see ahead some of the tops were above 13K...back down I went to tuck it under.




Had a nice tailwind even at 9500'. this is about 28smpg.


Typical cruise numbers for Aurora. Not too bad 21nmpg or almost 25smpg. not to mention only 1.15hrs chock to chock coming home


I saved about >$1000 after expenses trenching in my own power from the low bid. $3000 from what the power company quoted. It did take up several days of my time. Yesterday The RV made it possible to leave the house at 9am, finish the meter base install and get home again in 5hrs... saved me an overnight trip.

look at all that time/money I saved Keep pounding those Rivets!

[Vlad]

Brian let us know when is the house warming party I am coming. I agree that RV saves money not sure about the time though. I flew to Pennsylvania for grocery shopping today. They have rice and stuff cheaper then in NJ. I saved $5 easily

[hydroguy2]

Still plugging along on the hangar project. Many trips I've had to drive due to weather on one end or another. Took almost 6 hrs to get home a few weeks


Yesterday was finally a day to fly!


The Mission Range was in Full Freshness



It was warmer at altitude than the ground. Heater works good, so does the solar


JTL Construction started earlier than I and it was 0*F when I landed at 0920


1st corner post going in on the 48' x 48' hangar...special day for this RV owner


Flathead Lake on the way home climbing thru 7500'


Note to self:....ice is slick and snow is not always soft. I taxied over to get some fuel before blasting home and things were a little tight. I was watching the tips but got too close and stabbed the brakes, but still managed to crack the left tip sliding over a snow mound. !#@&%$$$...I mean...darn it! Still had good strength so a little gorilla tape and off we went.



Sweet tailwinds above 9500, so the trip home was only 54minutes.


Slide show in Random order
http://s92.photobucket.com/user/Hydr...20trips%202015

[deek]

Looks like we're going to be neighbors! We're building a new home on the West shore of Flathead Lake just South of Lakeside.

Went flying on Tuesday since 8S1 had been iced over for almost a week, but heavy ice remaining on the taxi ways made steering via differential braking treacherous. One of the persistent meteorological oddities of the region in winter is persistent ice fog - watch out 'cuz rime ice builds at an unbelievable rate.

Welcome to Northwest MT!

Dick

[hydroguy2]

Howdy neighbor. The last couple times I flown over Polson it's foggy at least in the morning. The one day it was nice the runway looked it hadn't been plowed for a while.

Here's what I saw yesterday as I passed over. 8S1 would have been in the lower left corner...I think. This is looking north up Flathead Lake

[boom3]

Very nice Brian! It's awesome your retirement will include an airplane and a large hangar on an airport. It doesn't get much better than that!

Would love to fly over and check it out one of these summers.

[hydroguy2]

Come on over Jeff. After we get things settled a bit we hope to host a fly-in BBQ around labor day.

For now,once the shell of the hangar goes up, we will slow down for a couple months to let things thaw out before digging the log home foundation and pouring the hangar floor.

[rockwoodrv9]

What a milestone to get the first post in for the hangar. Have fun with your build. Maybe have a fly in with all of us bringing tools and be ready to work!
That would be fun. Keep us up to date.