Day 2 - Sunrise, ID to Ft. Collins, CO

We woke up and had a light breakfast before Jim took me back to the airplane. He hasn’t flown in about 4 years, but was going to get back into it next week. To help out, I took him for a quick recurrency hop before I headed out. He had a big smile on his face as we went flying, including some milder Aerobatics. I wish I had thought to take a picture of that look.

I took off and flew about 90 miles towards today’s destination, Ft Collin’s, CO. The reason for the stop was gas - it was $1/gal cheaper than at Caldwell. Flying is always expensive, but saving about 15% per flight hour adds up.

Gooding, ID is a small strip 3 miles outside of a farming community. They had a pilot’s lounge with a clean bathroom and vending machines - all a pilot needs. Ironically, their vending machine is the only one left in the world that doesn’t take credit cards or bills other than $1. Of course, I only had a $5.

Large industrial pit in Wyoming

Crystal clear lake - can easily see down 40’

The terrain today was an interesting combination of high desert, volcanic scree, oil fields, and the edges of the Front Range of the Rockies. As a result, I was subjected to almost two hours of moderate turbulence, strong enough that I couldn’t maintain consistent engine performance and resulting hit to fuel efficiency. I’m glad I didn’t have any passengers - hot and turbulent is a bad combo.

The view of the front office - yes, that is a cupholder

As I got to about an hour from my destination, I heard a strange noise from the nose of the plane (keep in mind that the engine is in the back). After a few minutes, I realized it was a piece of white vinyl tape that had come loose. Although there was a low risk that it would somehow damage the prop, I still decided that it would be a wise choice to land and take care of it. The tape is some that I put there to just seal the gaps around some access panels to ensure the rain doesn’t leak in. That’s in Seattle in the winter, but not very important in this hot summer weather.

As a result, I flew about another 30 miles to the nearest airport and landed at the town of Saratoga, Wyoming, which was really a surprising place. It had a long runway and numerous very large and expensive business jets, but I can’t understand why they would be there; I would have to guess they are probably there as a result of the oil industry.

It only cost me about three minutes on the ground, and I was back on my way, but it was about that time that I was hit by the worst of the turbulence.

As I came into Ft. Collins , I could see that there were a series of large storms moving up towards the Front Range, some close to the airport. Storms like this can be quite dangerous because they have is unpredictable downdrafts that can literally knock planes from the sky, or the direction of the winds can change very unpredictably right during landing and caused the airplane to lose control and go off the runway.

After I landed, I taxied to the FBO (Fixed Base Operator) where I had visited numerous times before. After a very brief conversation, they found some hangar space for me and put the airplane in the hangar. I won’t do this everywhere I go because it’s quite expensive (on par with a night and a hotel) but it can be necessary for places that are prone to hail damage that can destroy the airplane. 

My cousin Melissa came and picked me up and we headed back to her place. Melissa and I are quite close to spite being separated by about 14 years of age. She and her husband Eric have four kids ranging, three boys and a girl, ranging from a high school senior to a son in his 20’s.

Since my last visit here to see her and her family, Melissa and Eric have moved to a farmhouse out in the country near where they plan to build their own dream house. The construction is still a couple years away, but they’re spending a lot of time thinking about it and coming up with different ideas.

It was fun to spend the afternoon and evening catching up on various ideas and experiences with our families. Melissa lost her father and I am my mother within a couple of weeks of each other, so we both understand some of the stresses of the last few months.

A fun highlight for me was checking out Melissa‘s new specialty massage chair. It’s like the ones you sometimes see in airports where you pay by the minute. It has the ability to massage pretty much every place on your body, including some places I wish that it didn’t try to massage.

Tomorrow holds some old memories for me as I meet with two former Navy buddies, one here in Fort Collins and another in Oklahoma City.