Bob Barrows took a flying trip in June that he had wanted to undertake for some time. Bob was accompanied by a friend from Raleigh, N.C., Bobby Cox. Bobby, 79 years young, flies a Smith Super Cub clone he built with a souped up O-360 with 10 to 1 compression pistons. Bob flew his Patrol.
They decided to have a destination for the fuel stops and to meet up there as opposed to flying in formation. Their first fuel stop at the Randolph County Airport in Indiana which features good fuel prices and a grass landing strip. Bob arrived ½ hour earlier than Bobby. Generally, Bob Barrows used 30% less fuel to get to the destination compared to Bobby in the Smith Super Cub. Bob flew at 18 inches of MP and 2500 rpm which is about 50% power truing at 130 MPH burning 7 GPH.
The first night was spent in Kanakee, IL, which is an old grass strip (no pavement at all) dating from 1926. Luckily, an employee of the airport showed typical aviator’s generosity to Bob by loaning Bob his personal car for the evening. Bob dropped him off at his house after work, and Bob left the man’s car at the airport early the next morning.
Bob and Bobby pushed on the next day into Iowa and ran into weather. Bob Barrows chickened out but Bobby C pressed on. They would meet up again several days later at Johnson’s Creek Idaho. The next day Bob got to Custer S.D
with poor weather. The next day Bob got to Buffalo Wyoming but weather prevented more flight. By chance, there was a Bearhawk QB kit under construction at a mechanics shop there in Buffalo. Buffalo lies up against the Big Horn Mountains with peaks over 13,000 ft and very rugged.
The next day Bob departed Buffalo climbing to 12,000 ft to clear the peaks through a pass. It was a long day flying to arrive at Johnson’s Creek Idaho. On the way Bob stopped at Yellowstone and then Salmon Idaho (for fuel) where the rugged stuff in Idaho begins. Bob went out of his way to seek out advice from a local who had flown the mountains there for a long time. Some of his tips were: “Fly up the right side of canyons in case someone is coming the other way and also aid in making a 180. You may have to wind up valleys/canyons when the tops are obscured as they were that day. Watch for rotor winds and mountain waves that you and your plane will not be able to handle. And a LOT of airports don’t allow normal type approaches. You might not see the airport until you are on SHORT final. Try to fly in the mornings.” Bob got a good education.
From his 12,000 ft cruise altitude Bob had to descend to 5,000 ft to land at Johnson’s Creek. With the mountain tops obscured, Bob had to fly up valleys/canyons that were kind of narrow to get there. According to Bob: “This kind of flying is very intimidating, very exciting, but dangerous. If your engine quit, they would never find you before you froze to death. Nothing but rocks and ice. The ice level was about 9,000 ft.” Arriving at Johnson Creek in the afternoon was a little dicey. It was very gusty and windy, but the Patrol was up to the challenge. After his 2:00 PM arrival, Bob was welcomed by Bearhawk owner Cal Brubaker from Salt Lake City. Bob set up camp and took it easy for the rest of the day.
The next morning Bob flew to Dixie town and had breakfast at the hunting lodge there. You can’t see the runway until you are right on it. You have to be at the right altitude and speed to land. It is a gravelly strip almost 3,000 ft long, but doesn’t look that long while on approach. It looks like a wiggly gravel road that goes uphill. Land to the north and take off to the South.
Some other strips Bob and Bobby visited:
Mackay Bar is a private hunting lodge with its own strip. You can’t see much of the strip when approaching. You follow the Salmon River and see it on the right bank 50 ft away from the river. 1900 ft long and low altitude.
Big Creek – a Forest Service strip with decent approaches. 3500 ft strip, 5700 ft msl.
Flying B Ranch – airstrip is one mile from lodge. They picked Bob & Bobby up and drove them to the lodge for breakfast. 2,000 ft runway, 3600 msl
Sulfur Creek – another hunting lodge with a 3300 ft gravel strip at 5800 msl. Bob ate there three times – good food and relaxing atmosphere
Base Camp, Smiley Creek – 4900 ft grass runway at 7100 msl. Beautiful strip manicured like a golf course with lodge and restaurant across the street.
Bob & Bobby spent a day flying the Snake River Canyon along with another Super Cub with an O-360, VG’s, and an 84” x 40” pitch climb prop. The Snake River Canyon is deeper than the Grand Canyon. They landed at the top (6,700 msl) and at the bottom (1120 msl). While climbing out of these strips, Bob had to throttle back to climb with the Cubs. If not, he was out climbing them more than 500 fpm. At cruise, Bob had to go to 13 inches of MP so the Cubs could keep up.
Bob returned to Virginia in two days of beautiful weather flying six hours a day.
To sum up: Bob was very impressed with his stay there in Idaho. It was fun, and very exciting. The entire trip cost him $1500. $1,000 was for fuel, and the rest was for food and the nights he spent in hotels while enroute. Four thousand miles going and coming, and about one thousand miles while in Idaho. Some words from Bob: “You want to be REAL comfortable in your airplane and what you AND your airplane can do. In the BH or the Patrol, you have the ability to climb out of a problem, but other planes may not have that ability. If going to Idaho, you should read and have with you the book by Galen Hanselman Flying Idaho.”