(Note: I wrote some of this en route on the evening of June 27, but I was too tired to finish it. Sorry about the delay…I hope nobody thought I was splattered against the side of a mountain for two thirds of July).
In a nutshell…day 2 was tough.
I began the morning with a low-level headache and lousy coffee. Instead of an early start, I showed up at the Hettinger airport (HEI), North Dakota at 9:15 CDT and preped the plane. The weather was looking good to my final destination at St. Maries, ID. I departed at 9:45 for Frank Wiley Airport (MLS) in Miles City, Montana. The first thing I noticed was the lousy ground speed–78 mph at 4,500 feet. At 6,500 feet I sometimes hit 85 mph. Fortunately, I had planned short legs, expecting something of a head wind.
The ride to MLS was long and bumpy, with gusty winds greeting me at the landing. I landed at 11:47. For such a large airport (two 5,600′ runways), MLS seemed rather lonely and desolate. I was off again at 12:20 on the way to Big Timber (6S0)
This trip was uneventful over relatively tame terrain. I arrived at around 2:20 pm, and after something of a carrier landing (the fiberglass main landing gears of the Yankee are remarkable!), taxied to the FBO for fuel. The FBO person was very friendly and sent me off with a bottle of cold water. It was getting very hot out.
Leg 3 was from Big Timber to Deer Lodge Airport (38S) in Deer Lodge, Montana. I had called earlier in the day to verify fuel was available and learned that the airport was unattended, but that there was a self-service fuel vending machine.
This leg proved to be the most challenging. It was hot out and I was flying through the Rocky Mountains, following I-90. Also, the wind had picked up to 20 knots with gusts, raising the possibility of hitting down drafts while crossing passes. Finally, there were density altitude warnings being offered on the navaids because it was hot outside. (I was pretty comfortable in the plane, however.)
I departed at 3:07, immediately noticing the decreased performance of the plane departing from an airport at 4,500′ with a density altitude of more like 7,500′. In a few minutes I passed Mission (LVM) and the mountain fun began.
The plane was struggling to climb. I wanted as much altitude as possible crossing Bozeman pass, which is at 5700′, but I was having trouble getting over 7,500′. The thermals helped. I stuck to the north side of the valley which was bathed in sunlight and creating some pockets of updrafts. I pulled the nose up to gain altitude and fly more slowly through thermals, and pointed the nose level to fly more quickly through the down drafts. That was enough to get me up to nearly 8,000′ as I approached the pass. And good thing, too. I lost nearly 1,000 feet traversing the pass under full power. I popped over the pass at 6,700′ with the Bozeman Class D airspace in my face. The ceiling of that airspace is 7,000′ feet (the airport [BZN] is at 4,500 feet).
I planned to overflying the Class D airspace at 8,000′ or so, now I found myself scrambling to get the ATIS and call the tower for permission to fly through the airspace. In fact, I was at 7,300 feet as I hit the edge of the controlled airspace, so it wasn’t strictly necessary, but it never hurts to talk to folks.
Bozeman is the start of a big, relatively flat, 50 mile valley. I began early gaining altitude for the upcoming mountians, but found that the Yankee would only climb to about 8,300′ using a little less than full throttle and aggressive leaning. Just past Whitehall, things got topographically more interesting and I was able to use thermals to climb to 9,000′, which was plenty of altitude over the pass just East of Butte.
Thirty minutes later I was in the pattern at Deer Lodge. The wind had died down somewhat but it was still gusty, and the approach end of runway 30 is on something of drop-off, so I used a fast and steep approach to avoid problems with gusts and down drafts. I landed at 4:50 pm, weary of being knocked around. One more leg to go.
While refueling, the airport manager, who I had spoken to earlier, drove to the airport to greet me. He was hinting that Deer Lodge would be a good place to stop for the day—and he almost convinced me!
At 5:36, I was running up the engine for departure on leg 4 to St. Maries, Idaho (S72). It was hot and gusty at 4,700′ feet of elevation, but I had a 5,800′ runway in front of me. And I needed every foot of it. The Yankee climbed very slowly—so slowly that I immediately rejected a straight-out departure and flew a complete pattern. I think I had 800′ of elevation when I flew over my departure spot. That was enough, though, and I again worked hard to gain altitude, although the ground elevation along I-90 was decreasing after Deer Lodge (actually, everything after Butte).
I flew over Missoula at 6:30, without any difficulties staying above the 5,700 foot ceiling of the Missoula Class D airspace. My ground speed was 94 MPH, meaning the headwinds were not so strong, and I wasn’t being bounced around too much. The last real pass is called Mullen Pass at 5,200′. It was a piece of cake! In fact, this part of the trip, which I anticipated would be the most difficult, was pretty easy. My ground speed picked up a little more as I headed west.
I landed with a smile on my face at St. Maries at about 7:50. I filled up with $4.65/gallon aviation fuel. The only hitch in St. Maries is that there were no rooms at the two motels. But I found a room in a wonderful old Victorian-style B&B.
