Summer 2012 Travels

[tommylewis]

Tom and Bonnie started our summer travels with a trip to NH at the end of May and a return to TX two weeks ago in our RV 7a. Last week we continued our travels with a flight out of TX to Cheyenne in our RV 10 to visit our son and family. After a great couple days visiting a grandaughter, we loaded up the RV10 and flew to Steamboat Springs to join the Sutters in their RV7a and McDonalds in their RV10 for the week.

Steamboat Springs Airport


The flight to Cheyenne last week went well with tail winds and therefore great speeds. We were VFR on top over Borger when the cloud cover ended and we made a quick descend into Borger. The RV10 performed well and ran LOP with fuel burn of 11 gph at 8500. The flight to Steamboat was more of a challenge because of the high air temperatures. It was 70 degrees at 10500 feet. At this temperature and altitude I had the RV 10 run hotter than it ever has. Hope the temps get cooler by this weekend.

Five of the crew of six.


We have been doing some hikes and exploring the area. Today we hiked to Fish Creek Falls, a 3 hour 2k ascent to the upper falls. Not bad for 6 old fogies. Both upper and lower falls were beautiful with lots of wild flowers along the way. Having a great time.

Tom and Bonnie at Upper Fish Creek Falls


We have a ten week trip planned in our RV10. See you at Oshkosh.

Check out our Spot tracking map link below.

[rockwoodrv9]

Sounds fun. I am just down the road in Glenwood Springs. It has been HOT lately. Have a good trip and let me know if you get down this way on your way back. Maybe lunch?

[Peterk]

Tom,
As usual you planned well. I took my thermometer down to your porch yesterday and it said 106. Enjoy your trip. We always have fun reading about it...please continue (our vicarious pleasure). Our best to the Sutters and Mac's as well. See you in September!

Pete

[Wayne Gillispie]

Keep the trip reports coming...as always we enjoy them.

Our first trip in the -10 to Florida went well for us. 16 Hrs FT. Went to Latrobe, PA Airshow last Sat. Averaging 15 mpg, as good as our ground bound SUV, but a little faster. OAT= 58F, Alt= 8500', DA= 10,500', Pwr= 66%, FF= 9.9 gph, 25F LOP, MAP= 22.2, RPM= 2300, CHT= 308-343, OT= 186F, OP= 72 psi, TAS= 154 kts.

We are flying up for our daughter to attend the EAA Air Academy soon then back up for Osh. Flying in Sat am and departing Tue am depending on wx and the funometer reading. We have everything ready to go...even our Marmot 4P tent weighing in at 9.0 lbs. Looking forward to meeting you guys.

[flyinmonque]

.....All the beatle kill tree's! That's why the west is burning up! It's not just a few spots here and there. Go to Grand Lake, close to 100% dead for miles. Runs thru California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana and into Canada. Not sure about the Dakoda's. Could get ugly before it's over!

[tommylewis]

We spent a week at Steamboat Springs and found a lot to do. The airport at Steamboat is a nice GA airport but there are frequent strong crosswinds by mid day. The guideline to do your mountain flying as early as possible certainly applies. We all arrived between 9am and 10am and found calm winds. There is a courtesy car which we used to return the rental car before office hours. Rental cars are available from Enterprise and rental condos are also available. We enjoyed hiking the Fish Creek Falls hike which is an easy 15 minutes to the lower falls and another 90 minutes and a 2000 vertical accent to the upper falls. It was a beautiful hike. A good workout for some old fogies. The Strawberry Hot Springs are hot pools in a natural setting with 5 different pools ranging from 107 deg to a cool pool.

View of Strawberry Hot Springs


We also attended two concerts in the Strings concert series. One was a free concert at the Botanical Gardens and the other was an evening concert at the concert hall. The downtown has good shopping, restaurants and art galleries which we all enjoyed. On Thursday evening, the gondola ride to the top of the ski hill has a special that includes your first drink. The area is very beautiful and pleasant to visit with lots to offer vacationing flyers.

View at top of gondola

[tommylewis]

Saturday morning we flew out of Steamboat Springs bound for Johnson Creek Idaho. We took off at 0 dark 30, made one fuel stop and landed at JC about 10am. The flight was smooth with a SW wind at 10500. We had one TFR in W WY to avoid. While there were a number of planes on the airport, we found good camp sites and were all setup by noon. Idaho is not quite as dry as Colorado is yet so there were no TFRs or smoke up here. The grass on the JC airstrip is probably as good as I have seen it as shown on the pictures below.

Turning final for JC


So after setting up camp we got the curtesy van and drove into Yellow Pine for lunch. We have our RV10 here, the Sutters have their RV7a here, the McDonalds have their RV10 here and the Moores have their new unpainted RV10 here. You can probably see some of these on the JC Webcam. We three RV10s, you can guess we have a few "extra" items along such as a 6 lb box of dominos and a 8 lb set of boccee balls.

Our RV10


Sunday morning we all flew over to McCall for breakfast at the Pancake House and to buy groceries at the supper market across the street from the airport. 350 dollars later we flew back to JC with our weeks provisions. The weather was cloudy for the trip to McCall and cooler. Monday it was 42 when we got up but warmed to the mid 80s by afternoon.

Our tent overlooking the river


Have a good July 4 holiday

[tommylewis]

After a wonderful week at Johnson Creek, we flew out last Sat. This was the view on the flight out.



We flew over to Driggs ID for the week. This is the view out the left side on base for rw 22. The Tetons are awesome.



And this is on final for rw 22.

[NovaBandit]

Beautiful! Steamboat is my all time favorite ski town, but I've never visited in the summer. Looks amazing. Another destination to add for the -10 when it's done.

I've also never seen Strawberry Springs in the daylight (there is a slightly different atmosphere there at night!)

[ppilotmike]

Man, I really want to see those pics, since I live in Colorado. They don't show on the thread anymore. Is there a link?