RV7 Flying Adventures

So there we were, flying over a desolate area of Montana toward the Canadian border. We were without the ability to make radio contact with anyone, although we were on radar. When you get on radar, your transponder "squawks" a code that identifies which plane you are in the vast atmosphere.  Though on radar, we were very swiftly approaching the border, which hubby decided we should not cross unless we were in radio communication with Winnipeg Center.  This little blip (no radio contact) came as a big surprise to him, as well as that Salt Lake Center had no record of him filing an International Flight Plan. He had done so much research about flying into Canada. We both got passports, a requirement. He made a huge "N" number (airplane identifying number) on the side of the airplane with electrical tape, above.  In America, N numbers need be only 3" tall. For border crossings, they need to be 10". After landing in Great Falls, we checked to make sure the elec...

We left at 8:30 am. PST on July 4 and got home at 6:30 pm PST on July 9. To drive there, it would've taken 20 hours. To fly in our RV-7, had we not stopped for fuel, and if everything had gone as planned, it would've taken 4.5 hours. As it turned out, it took 11 hours to get there, after a considerable amount of trials and tribulations, of which I will write about!  This was our first long cross country, International flight, and so the learning curve for hubby was very steep indeed, however it was also very good for him.  The first picture, above, is our "luggage compartment." The RV-7 can hold 100 pounds of luggage in addition to hubby's and my weight. If I were 30 pounds lighter, as I should be, we could carry 30 pounds more. It's all about weight and balance.  We always park our car in the hangar whenever we leave. Second picture shows exactly that.  This third picture is of the instrument panel. Hubby has some pretty fancy electronic navigational   tools,...

Hubbie and I spent most of the day on Saturday doing outdoor house maintenance. He finished painting the trim around the two north-facing windows and then got the big wheel tractor and ripped a burning bush out of the back yard that was half dead. It was a shame, because the bush was so big and beautiful in the fall. Something got to it, and so it had to go. I cleaned out the garage and readied three whisky barrels for planting with freesia, carnations, marigolds and petunias. Around 6:30 pm, hubbie wondered if I'd like to fly with him over to Kamiah , Idaho. It's about 80 nautical miles from us, or 100 miles to drive. In the airplane, it's about a 30 minute flight. A little historic town, Kamiah (pronounced Kam--ee--ii), it's nestled in the mountains of Northern Idaho along one of the forks of the Clearwater River. Click the link, and you can read a couple paragraphs about it. It was the winter home of the Nez Perce Indian tribe. Lewis and Clark also camped there in 18...

Last Sunday, Mike and I decided to take a Sunday late-afternoon flight, as we often do. We decided to fly up around Oakesdale and Rosalia, about 30 minutes by car from where we live, or 10 minutes by air. They're putting up a wind turbine farm there, a $170 million project. The turbines will harness enough wind to generate power for about 25,000 homes in Whitman County. They are quite spectacular to look at. You can't tell from the pictures, but they are each about 300 feet tall. Their blades are about 150 feet long.

Several weekends ago, hubbie and I flew north to St. Maries, Idaho for an EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Pancake Breakfast Fly-in. This is the runway, straight ahead of the prop. It was a very good breakfast, and very well attended, including this  1928 Boeing 40c , which was Boeing's first passenger aircraft. Interesting, that the pilot sat in an open cockpit, whereas his passengers sat where you see the small rectangular windows in the center of the fuselage. The biplane looked to carry about six or so passengers. This particular plane has a very interesting history; read link if you're intrigued. That's our good friends standing in front of it. They flew their R-V 8 to the fly-in.   There were plenty of other interesting airplanes to look at. Many pilots have restored old airplanes in the same way that car enthusiasts restore antique cars. I particularly liked this green airplane painted with a silver Pegasus. Metallic paint jobs are very popular, however this p...

Hubbie and I finally had some time yesterday to break away for awhile. The builders are still putting new siding on our house. I'm not quite retired yet, but getting very, very close. (It's something I cannot yet wrap my head around.) Next weekend, hubbie will be busy preparing for harvest. I'll be babysitting three grandkids for three days, and so we decided it was now or never. Well, now or not again until September, when we hope to fly to Utah over Labor Day weekend. ; ) So yesterday, we hopped in the RV-7 and flew 200 miles to McCall, Idaho, which is one of four exciting resort towns that we've discovered within a 200-mile radius of the Palouse where we live. We're sure there are many similar towns in beautiful WA, OR, MT and ID, that other people have discovered, just not us, not yet. We left at 11:00 am and got there around noon. The flight was serene, entirely uneventful. It felt like we were driving along in a car, only at 10,300 feet, over mountains. We ha...

Hubby and I took our first flying adventure of 2012 on Saturday. We decided to fly to Joseph, Oregon, a tiny, touristy town in Wallowa County, in the Northeast corner of Oregon. Spring is beginning to make a show in our area, and so the ag planes were out in full force. We made our getaway in between three ag planes (the yellow one) that were buzzing the field. (They were coming in to refuel and reload their planes with dry fertilizer.)  In a 200 mph airplane, it took us 30-40 minutes to get to Joseph, which is nestled at the foothills of the towering Willowa mountain range. Still plenty of snow on the Willowas. This is Willowa Lake. About 10 years ago, we flew into Joseph with our mountain bikes in the back of our other plane (which we sold in 2004), a Maule M-7. We then pedaled from the airport to the tip of the lake where there is a lodge, campgrounds and deer that are so tame, you can pet them! It was an ambitious bicycle ride. Our current airplane is big enough to hold only co...