Trip to Johnson Creek, ID

by Dave Dollarhide & Pat Lee

"Dreamland Squadron"

Haller Air Park

Green Cove Springs, FL

July 8, 2006: Pat Lee and I just returned from a trip to Idaho in our RVs.  Pat flies an RV-7 and I have an RV-4.  Johnson Creek airport was our primary destination, but we landed at other scenic strips and made approaches to several that were less suitable for our small tires, but had interesting approaches.  At 5,000' MSL, Johnson Creek's very nice grass strip and campground is in a canyon with 9,000' peaks all around…challenging enough for us Florida “flat landers.”  We learned a lot about mountain flying and met many nice people on this eight day trip of a lifetime.

We left our hangar at Haller Air Park, in northern Florida and flew to Longmont, CO the first day.  At close to 10 hours of flight time, it was a long day, but put us in range to arrive at Johnson Creek the next day before the afternoon turbulence kicked up. 

Leaving Longmont, CO

The scenery vastly improved, along with the challenge of mountain flying on day two.  My Garmin 296 GPS has a terrain database and it really came in handy in planning our routes around the taller rocks.  We gassed up at Afton WY, elev. 7,000' or so, where the airport manager came out to give us a really nice reception (typical of our entire trip). 

Enroute

The arrival into Johnson Creek was exciting, and we played it safe, flying a long approach down the canyon from over the town of Yellow Pine and turned final to find a really nice grass strip.  On later flights, after getting the “gouge” from experienced mountain flyers, we began to fly a tight closed pattern inside the canyon. Using a modified overhead pattern, we would hug the trees on the right canyon wall to allow for a turn to a left downwind along the trees on the other opposite side. 

On our first approach, I learned about the need for leaning your engine at these high altitudes, as my engine began to misfire during the approach as I added power. After skipping one heartbeat, a leaner mixture smoothed out the O-360. Our engines needed leaning from takeoff to landing, but from habit, I’d pushed the mixture up during the approach.

Camping is free at these state owned airports and hot showers were available.  A forty minute hike up the mountain takes you to a hot spring fed bathtub with a magnificent view.  They say a tub has been kept at this spot for warm water soaking since the 1930s.

Before leaving Florida, we had seen a posting on the Vans Air Force site by Roger Ping (RV-9) and Doug Peterson (RV-10) suggesting other RVs drop into Johnson Creek for a holiday gathering. We were going anyway, but were now looking forward to seeing more RV types. The post was eighteen months old, but there they were, ready to talk RVs and have a good time.

Johnson Creek, with the campsites behind our aircraft.

Our campsite by the creek

The tub

Roger Ping (r) and his RV-9 taildragger

We spent three days at Johnson Creek, flying twice to the Big Creek airport and once to Smiley Creek for breakfast.  Big Creek is another fun place to land, where you fly a blind downwind, behind a "hog's back" and don't see the runway till turning final.  On our second trip there, we flew over with Johnson Creek campers, Steve Barnes and his girlfriend, Margi.  They fly a Super RV-6, with an O-540 engine, stretched fuselage, Rocket gear and RV-8 tail….the “Barnes Stormer”.

Big Creek for breakfast with new RV-6 friends

Here at Big Creek, the "Hog's Back" is to the left.

The Smiley strip is at 7,000' elevation, but in a large basin and has a really nice runway.  Dale and Denise Stanley, who we met at Johnson Creek, flew down to Smiley with us in their “Stanley Screamer,” a Harmon Rocket modified for mountain flying with oversized tires, rock guard on the horizontal stabilizer, longer wings, vortex generators and extra fuel tanks.  After we parked, a beautiful RV-6A arrived, flown by Gar Didericksen and his wife Julie from Moses Lake.  Since RV types are instant friends, we now had six for breakfast.

On departure, acceleration was slow at this high airport.  During the takeoff roll, I looked inside at my normal time for an airspeed check and noticed the EFIS airspeed was still on zero.  A few seconds or so later, it jumped up to 32mph and eased up to flying speed, but the takeoff run was fairly long.

Enroute to Smiley Creek with the “Stanley Screamer”

Smiley Creek with Dale and Denise

Gar and Julie Didericksen followed us to Johnson Creek

for their first landing at a canyon strip.

One day we took the Johnson Creek's courtesy van to Yellow Pine (last town in America to have phone service) with another fun couple.  Joel and Erin Falk were flying the mountains in their Cherokee....a real challenge, compared to our higher performing RVs. 

The whole town was turned out for a wedding....all 150 of them.  We settled into the "Corner Bar" and began to make friends with the owner and mayor....who was already feeling no pain.  We took a shine to each other and a good time was had by all.....can't remember laughing so much.  This is like a western town out of the past, with dirt streets and horses tied to the trailer hitches of pickups.  Everyone was really nice.  At 6:30, we went to the only restaurant across the street, thinking the wedding was over.  They said they weren't selling food that day and to just go through the wedding buffet line.  After all, everyone was invited.  We dined at a table outside, in the middle of the celebration.

Laughing it up with Joel, Erin and the Mayor, Craig Lamb

Yellow Pine resident and his horse.

On day five, we zipped over to McCall, ID for gas and then on to the West Yellowstone airport to camp again.  The RV-10 couple we had spent time with at Johnson Creek were also there, so we joined them in the same camp site.  Doug and Lisa Peterson fly the ninth RV-10 to be completed.  A really nice camping area was only a hundred feet or so from where our airplanes were parked.  Free bicycles were available at the campground, so we all rode the three miles into town and paid a visit to a bar to "improve our personalities" with a couple of brews.  We passed on eating freeze dried camping food that evening and went to a really nice Italian restaurant at the airport terminal.....yes.....the terminal....go figure.   It was great!

West Yellowstone with Doug and Lisa.

After a goodbye the next day to Doug and Lisa, a formation takeoff and turn to the east, put Pat and I over Yellowstone Park with some great views.  I took a photo of some geysers blowing steam as we crossed the park around 2,000AGL.  After the park, we flew this leg to Custer, SD at 11,500' to clear the mountains.

Yellowstone geysers

11,500 MSL

We did the tourist thing at Custer, driving up to the Chief Crazy Horse memorial and touring Jewel Cave.  We didn't have time to fight the crowds at Mt. Rushmore, so it was back to town for dinner.  We joined Custer families in their town park to watch the 4th of July fireworks display, then back to the airport to camp.

The next morning, we met two pilots ferrying a 1926 (think that's right) French Tiger Moth biplane.  They had departed Seattle two days before and at 80mph and 500', expected to spend another two or three days flying to Calhoun, GA.  They convinced us that Calhoun was a good place to overnight, so we plugged it into our flight plan for the day.  Tom, the airport manager came out to say goodbye to us former Navy types, with a hand salute as we started to taxi.  He then transmitted on his hand held radio....."You're cleared to the number one catapult."  We gave them our normal formation takeoff.

Prior to departure at Custer....

Tiger Moth to the rear and a balloon rising in the distance.

This was another long day, roughly 1,300 miles or so of boring holes in the sky, but as flying can go, ended with a "bang" trying to negotiate an arrival at Calhoun.  We lost some daylight enroute, after landing at Salem, MO.  This was a pea patch of an airport, with grass growing up between the runway cracks, with no facilities, except for a self serve pump.  I wasn't too sure I even trusted the quality of their fuel.  Forget having a bite to eat.  One old guy was working under a truck and was really nice, but had no advice on where to land for food. 

After takeoff and flying 90 miles or so, we called the FBO at Poplar Bluff and asked if there was food on the airport.  "We don't have food at the airport, but you can have a courtesy car to go to town."  Ten minutes later, we were in an old police car, with a spotlight and the name of the airport on the side.....cool! 

With a full belly, we were finally on the leg to Calhoun, planning to arrive with just enough daylight to land.  (I don't have a landing light.)  For an hour, it was great weather, but later, with Pat in the lead, we could see towering cumulous ahead and to the right.  The closer we got, the worse the weather became and the darker it got.  We were both working our GPS database to check AWOS weather at all the nearby airports.  I was now wishing I had bought the Garmin 396 for the weather features. Soon, we were forced lower, below a thousand feet or so by the growing cloud deck.  Abeam Chattanooga, fog was forming in the valleys....then it began to rain.  Darkness was falling rapidly. We kept our options open, knowing we could turn back to several airports, but there is no doubt we were no longer just "boring holes." 

Boring holes . . fat, dumb and happy

One brief scud run over a ridge, then the weather improved somewhat.  We had a good airport to use on our left in a valley and with only twenty five miles left to Calhoun, it would be our last turn back option.  However, Calhoun soon eased into view, and Pat turned us to final in the light rain, with barely enough light left to see the airport.  I took interval on the RV-7 and made an uneventful landing.

Of course, the FBO was closed, so we tried to call one of the Mexican run cab companies in town.  There was a language barrier, so we weren't sure we had a ride to the hotel or not.  A guy in a Jeep with no mufflers drove up to the fence and yelled to me over the noise as I was putting my canopy cover on the RV-4 in the rain.  "Need any help?  I can give a ride to two people if you need it."  I really wasn't sure who this might be, but Pat went over and they began to talk.  The conversation revealed that he had an airplane and T-hangar at the airport.  Pat asked why he had come out that time of night and he said he was expecting two friends, ferrying a Tiger Moth from Seattle.  Go figure?  He was good friends with the two guys we had met in SD that morning.  As we bailed out of the noisy Jeep, the Hampton Inn clerk thought he was about to be mugged by two unshaven hitchhikers when we walked in the lobby.

Except for zipping out of the Calhoun/Atlanta area under the overcast, the last day was an easy one leg back to Florida and our hangar.  We had clocked 30.2 flight hours and roughly 5,000 statute miles. The RVs had hummed along without a single gripe. The only problem now is that we're hooked!  This was such a great adventure, we're now locked into doing it again next year.  After all, there is an August harmonica celebration in Yellow Pine and the "mayor" wants us to come back for the event.

Home sweet home...the "Dreamland Squadron"

Haller Air Park (7FL4)