Rock House Fly- In!

Each year a bunch of our friends gather for an unofficial Kolb airplane fly- in here at the house. It is a good time visiting and flying the spectacular terrain that Eastern Oregon is blessed with. This year we decided to have it in late June in the hopes that the weather would be a bit better. It was a nice thought, but as usual for this year the wind was a bit of a problem. Everyone managed to get in without any problem.

 
The group has expanded a bit, with  a visitor from Hawaii and even one from Australia. At peak we had 20 people here. The wind was howling and one sustained wind peaked at 41.7 MPH. One of the guy's parked his truck and trailer to block as much of the wind as he could. His plane was hovering with both wheel off the ground. Finally the wind subsided, but much too much to enjoy any flights, so a road trip was in order for the rest of the day.

 The scenery in Leslie Gulch is pretty spectacular, and wildlife is prolific so every one had a great time.

 After dinner we all gathered around the camp fire to shoot a few bulls and tell stories.

 Finally we got a break from the wind and there was a mad scramble to get our planes out to fly.

 Besides the light sport type, we also had 3 GA planes. The dirt ( Rocks ) runway did not suit them as well as the Kolbs, but we worked around it.

 I had a chance to borrow a drift video camera, and found that the quality was much better. I promptly ordered one.  https://vimeo.com/44828465

Cow Camp Candy drop and Flight to the Alvord!

It has been a while since I have posted, mostly because the weather has been terrible and I have done little that hasn't been necessary for survival. We normally have a "Fly-In" for our Kolb friends each year in May. The weather is usually nasty most of the time, so this year I thought that we would put it off until the 23rd of June in the hopes that the weather would moderate a bit. So far the decision has been one of my better ideas.

John Hauck arrived Thursday from Alabama with a four day flight, and two weather days. Not bad, it took him eleven days last year to get here in May. A little bit of rest composed of naps and hot tubs and he was soon feeling a lot better. Today promised to be a quiet day for the wind, so we decided that it was time to fly.

The Stoddarts from the ranch next door, have been up to Cow Camp for at least two weeks branding this years calves. All of them must be worn to the bone with all the work, and I am sure the kids are feeling it as well, so I decided that a Candy drop might be just the thing for the kids. I spent a bit of time last night tying 9 or 10 Hershey bars to one of my bandannas for a parachute. That way they could find it and they wouldn't be crumbled up when they got them. I used to make parachutes like that when I was a kid. Should work, I reasoned.

The morning wind slowed around 8 AM and John and I took off for Cow Camp. As we approached we could see that we had gotten lucky and had caught them before they had left for their gather. I buzzed the camp to decide where I wanted to toss the bars. I made another circle and tossed them out at about 100 feet. I was pleased to see the bandanna open up just off the wheel. I had timed it perfectly and the bars landed just by their tent.

We then headed on to the Alvord by straight line. As I topped the last hills I could see a herd of "Wild Horses" all in a single file heading down the hill.

The winds were surprisingly calm and smooth, and we soon approached the Desert.

This year has been a dry one and there was very little water on it at all. The only places where it held water was where the creeks flowed into the desert.

After a low level flight around the edge of the Desert and a check of the Hot Springs John wanted to land. We set down in our last campsite from 2005. The air was dead calm and really quiet since we were the only people on that side of the lake bed. John wanted to do some touch and goes to reacquaint himself with the altitude. After shooting 6 or so landings, we both took off for the house. As I flew across the Lake bed, John continued doing touch and goes all across the 6 miles of flat lake bed. He said that he did about 10 and with his bigger engine still kept up with me flying at 70 MPH level.  We flew out through the Sand Gap and over Coyote Lake ( about a mile across and just as flat). John did another five flying across that.

There was a bit of a tail wind coming across the desert, but the wind at the house was only 3 MPH. We flew 1.6 hours and had as good a flight as I can ever remember.

Here is a video of that flight.  https://vimeo.com/44174932