Celebrating their 50th year this year, the Cessna and my Dad set off on a journey to Oshkosh, Wisconsin with me. With blue skies and calm wind we set off on a 3,000 mile sight-seeing tour, average speed 125 mph.
The weather started building over the rockies between Missoula and Helena. We needed a fuel stop anyway, so we put down for some lunch to wait out the storms and plan alternative routes.We also ran into a twin of ours... she was out working fire patrol.
After a little consideration and flight planning we set out on a northern route that took us over Great Falls, MT. This put us behind the weather front and over lower terrain. Our next fuel stop would be in Lewistown, MT.
Beautiful, isn't it?
After taking fuel in Lewistown, MT, we set a course for Bismarck, ND. This flight was a short 3:20, it-felt-like-forever.
A wonderful maze of knobs and push/pull wizardry. (Cirrus owners, eat your heart out.)
The sun even got bored and decided to go to bed.
The next morning we rose bright and early.
She had us in the air by 08:00.
Under those clouds somewhere is rural MN, somewhere North and East of MinneapolisMe letting my Dad do all the hard work. Notice my seat is in leg-stretch mode.
We're only about 1 hour from Oshkosh when we stopped for one last pit-stop in Eau Clare, MN. I got one last chance to review the arrival procedure and off we went.
Behold.
Every one of those little dots is an airplane. Our closest estimate is around 20 thousand.
We have arrived! This was our genius tent/tarp/airplane arrangement.
A formation of...
these...
Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the T-28 Trojan.
P-51 Mustang "Gentleman Jim" (note: 7 kills)
Smoke RINGS are where it's at...
Not every helicopter...
can do THIS. No camera tricks here.
Texas tail dragger C150 in USAF clothes. I loved this thing.
A typical line of airplanes... note our airplane's Canadian sister.
RAWRRRRRR!
When you're camping with Dad...
The Airbus A380 (boooo hisssss!) it's big, that's about it. (Where's Waldo?)
No kidding.
Our camp neighbor, a freshly restored Piper Super Cruiser. This airplane was perfectly restored.
The rain you see signified the end of our trip. We packed up and headed out that afternoon, bound for Bismarck. You see, there was the promise of a beautiful evening in Chelan, Washington only 2 days away and we had some ground to cover.
Westward bound.
We came across some of these...
Under those, we encountered this 2,000 foot tall tower. If you're wondering if it's sticking into the clouds and if the top is in-fact above where we were flying; the answer to both of those perfectly good questions, yes.
The ceiling lifted slightly but the Cumulonimbus started sprouting up in the afternoon sun.
This is what a thunderstorm looks like from the side, the top of this one was above 30,000 ft.
In Little Falls, MN (i think that was MN...) we gassed up quick because of an approaching thunderstorm. As soon as we took off, the weather just got better. By the time we reached Bismarck, ND the coast was clear. We went to Famous Daves BBQ for some ribs. Nothing has ever tasted so good. Neither of us had eaten a decent meal in 4 days.
The next morning we picked up into deteriorating weather. There was a "weak" cold front in Montana that was low in moisture but ended up dropping ceilings down to about 500 feet. Some weak front. Baker, MT was the closest airport when I made the decision to wait out the weather on the ground. It was about lunch time.
In Baker we had lunch at Janes Home Cookin'. I had the Lasagna platter with bread and salad and Dad had the full stack of Pancakes with bacon and coffee. We both needed some food after all this weather.
Dad flew the rest of the day across Montana, through Great Falls for fuel and to Missoula. The next picture was taken around Lincoln, Roberts Pass, and Red Mountain, Montana.
I'll have to thank Josh for the hospitality in Missoula. He took us to every bar in town and showed us to a proper dinner. Even though I felt like my head had a fight with a bat and lost the next morning, we had fun.
Lucky for us it was clear and calm for us the next morning on the way to Chelan, temperature 100+. I couldn't wait.
Dad practicing instruments again.
Banks Lake
"The way I see it, you can either work for a living or you can fly airplanes. Me, I'd rather fly." Len Morgan
Me too.
