3 friends set out on a cross-country flying excursion on a beautiful Saturday morning in the fall of the year.They fly 5,974 miles in 8 days and land in 30 states throughout the nation.This book is a detailed account of this epic flight and allows you to experience the thrill of each take-off, flight and landing along with the humorous beautiful and sometimes "white-knuckle" experiences along the way.
If you are not an aviator, you will enjoy experiencing the remarkable events of this journey and gain insight into why some people love to fly.
If you are an aviator, you will identify with the challenges and accomplishments of this once in a lifetime experience.
Leonardo de Vinci wrote:
"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return."
If you are not an aviator, you will enjoy experiencing the remarkable events of this journey and gain insight into why some people love to fly.
If you are an aviator, you will identify with the challenges and accomplishments of this once in a lifetime experience.
Leonardo de Vinci wrote:
"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return."
Chapter 4
West Yellowstone, Montana (WYS) to Sheridan, Wyoming (SHR)
We are on the runway again, this time with a quartering headwind from 240° at 10 knots. Flight Service informs Galen this time, that VFR (Visual Flight Rules) flight is not recommended due to mountaintops obscured. We decide to check it out since we can always turn back. We are headed for one of the nail biting portions of the trip; over the Continental Divide. Climb out is okay but pretty bumpy we are looking for a road by a lake. We need to use pilotage (flying by visual landmarks) now since there are no VOR’s available as yet. We can see the Grand Tetons rising off to the right majestically standing above the surrounding mountain range like sentinels watching over the valley. The constant roar of the engine is comforting with mountains on both sides covered by hovering puffy clouds and the highway as the only suitable landing site. These mountains are fantastic! All we need now is classical music. Possibly Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,"
Flight service was right! We are in the middle of the Continental Divide and it looks pretty bad now with mountaintops obscured and IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) conditions in surrounding areas. Thankfully, our course through the pass still looks good. We will have to choose to go above or below some clouds ahead. Due to obscured mountaintops we decide to dive below the clouds to allow us to continue to see the road in we need a spot for an emergency landing. We are flying at 11,500 feet MSL (Mean Sea Level) and it looks like the cloud bases are about 7,500, so we start dropping 1000 feet per minute. We are holding our noses and blowing hard periodically to equalize the pressure as we descend. I ask Jim in the back seat how he is doing, “I’m Ok” is the reply. I say “Awesome mountains", a short pause then. …..”Yep….” He sometimes is a man of few words. An unusual trait for a “Man of the Cloth."
West Yellowstone, Montana (WYS) to Sheridan, Wyoming (SHR)
We are on the runway again, this time with a quartering headwind from 240° at 10 knots. Flight Service informs Galen this time, that VFR (Visual Flight Rules) flight is not recommended due to mountaintops obscured. We decide to check it out since we can always turn back. We are headed for one of the nail biting portions of the trip; over the Continental Divide. Climb out is okay but pretty bumpy we are looking for a road by a lake. We need to use pilotage (flying by visual landmarks) now since there are no VOR’s available as yet. We can see the Grand Tetons rising off to the right majestically standing above the surrounding mountain range like sentinels watching over the valley. The constant roar of the engine is comforting with mountains on both sides covered by hovering puffy clouds and the highway as the only suitable landing site. These mountains are fantastic! All we need now is classical music. Possibly Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,"
Flight service was right! We are in the middle of the Continental Divide and it looks pretty bad now with mountaintops obscured and IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) conditions in surrounding areas. Thankfully, our course through the pass still looks good. We will have to choose to go above or below some clouds ahead. Due to obscured mountaintops we decide to dive below the clouds to allow us to continue to see the road in we need a spot for an emergency landing. We are flying at 11,500 feet MSL (Mean Sea Level) and it looks like the cloud bases are about 7,500, so we start dropping 1000 feet per minute. We are holding our noses and blowing hard periodically to equalize the pressure as we descend. I ask Jim in the back seat how he is doing, “I’m Ok” is the reply. I say “Awesome mountains", a short pause then. …..”Yep….” He sometimes is a man of few words. An unusual trait for a “Man of the Cloth."