Utah-Jay
MEMBER
Heber City, UT
Tuesday I departed Heber City, UT (KHCR) for a 3 hour flight to Salmon, ID to be ready for the early morning training session with a man I am comfortable calling a legend of the Idaho backcountry. When I landed in Salmon I had a total of 78.1 total hours as a pilot. From the very beginning my whole mission as been to become competent to be able to fly the Idaho backcountry in order to be able to fly fish the amazing rivers up there. Every single flight I have made, every single approach and landing I have made had the sole purpose of learning to not only fly safely, but be able to land and takeoff in the confined spaces of the Utah and Idaho backcountry. I have posted videos of my progress, some fun and successful, others frustrating. Many here have given me helpful advice along the way and for that I appreciate the help and encouragement.
So… Training with Dick Williams
We met at the plane at 6am and had a chat while he supervised my pre-flight and then we were off.
Stops:
Smiley Creek ( U87) - We went there first to test out my and the Rans S-21’s capabilities at high DA. All went well, easy landing after a pilot made us wait while they did the run up on the runway. The pilot then made incorrect directional calls on departure (note to self: pay attention don’t just take as gospel what people are saying) and I made a nice landing and taxied to the end for a take off. Little did I know I had an audience for my landing and takeoff as there were several planes and folks out drinking coffee at the departure end.
We would not see or hear another radio call from another plane for nearly two hours as the backcountry was dead.
Atlanta (55H) - We flew over the top (short route) to Atlanta and made a steep decent for the field overfly inspection. In fact Dick asked about shock cooling on the 915iS in the steep decent. He had never flow behind a 915 (more on that later). Atlanta is a one way in and one way out strip, so you need to be solid on your abort point. We flew down river for a 180 and approach. All went well and touched down right on the aim point, but was a bit surprised by the upslope as it was certainly more than it appeared or I expected. We taxied to the top, chatted about the upslope for a minute or two and took off to the right downstream towards Weatherby.
Note: Dick asks on every approach what my aim point is, obviously making sure it is in the right area, but likely more so to judge competence is my thinking.
Weatherby ( 52U) - Unlike Atlanta, this one was not in the middle of a town and was totally devoid of people. It was pretty uneventful and it was once again an in and out.
The one way in and one way out strips were more comfortable than I had imagined as I was nailing my stabilized approaches and landing spots. I was feeling pretty comfortable at this point.
Graham ( U45) - Flight to Graham was beautiful, I had read some trip reports about soft and wet ground on the 1st third of 36, we did a fly over and it did in fact look soft and wet (there had been overnight thunder-boomers (more on that in a bit) so I picked a point about half way down the long (3000’) strip and it was a nice solid landing. I was now used to the uphill landings so it was no longer a factor…. Deadwood is to come next
Takeoff was uneventful and off to Deadwood
Before bed the previous night was watching the storms and they had a lot of lightening and it caused concerned (remember I am a Utahn as we have lots of fire problems) and sure enough I spotted a small fire that Dick reported on the way to Deadwood.
Deadwood (ID86) - This is the one…. The uphill strip. This is the one that I have been apprehensive about. Dick and I discussed Deadwood prior to leaving Graham. My guesses were correct, I just needed reassurance that you fly level and add power to soften the landing. It was also interesting that he had me pick a landing point much further down the runway/ski slope than I would have chosen. We overflew the upper end of the runway and then circled out over the reservoir for an approach. It did not look good as I was a bit high and was not getting the sink I needed so I made a left 360 and set up again. This time it was perfect, nice stabilized approach with the aiming point never leaving the spot in my windscreen. I got down to “flare” AGL and added power to fly up the hill and set it down a bit hard but right on the intended spot. The uphill nature of the strip requires both maintaining GS and adding throttle to get to the top of the 117’ elevation gain. We got out and stretched our legs, took a few photos and came in two more times. I had one more that did not look good so I did another left 360 to set up again. The 2nd of the three landings at Deadwood was the best of the bunch.
We looked at Sulphur Creek but wanted to avoid the late breakfast group and keep flying as much as possible maximizing our time as it was beginning to warm up a bit. 8500 AGL was still in the upper 50’s OAT but it was now over 70* on the ground.
Indian Creek ( S81) - Approach to Indian Creek is not a straight in final, Dick wanted me to start dealing with more non-standard approaches (this is relative in the backcountry I found). It is a left-right-left to touchdown on what would be classified as mid-short final in normal conditions. Dick really gave me a good picture of what was needed in the pre-landing flyover and it was easy. He did not do much coaching on actual landing approaches as he really made me comfortable before we ever committed to set up an approach. Once again it is an uphill strip, but only 45’ bottom to top, but it is something to keep in mind.
At this point in the day I am getting very comfortable and things are going better than my pre-flight expectations. Dick’s knowledge is off the charts and he makes every challenge seem like it is easy.
Marble Creek (ID8 ) - This is a new strip that is not in Galen Hanselman’s book. Dick mentioned it was only about 800’ useable and asked if I was comfortable, and I was. Note about Dick, he never asks a question about flying he does not already know the answer to. Marble is in fact short, and narrow and right at river level. Did I mention narrow canyon??? We overflew the strip down 04 and then had to do a 180 to come back and set up on 04. I was looking for a spot for the 180 and actually asked Dick… He said this is good right here… I am thinking WHAT???? We were pretty low and it was not wide, but checked it out and felt ok so here we go. I really had my airspeed down and amazingly only used half of the available space. WOW this plane can maneuver in tight terrain! The 180 back to final was not a problem and I was really on point, nailed the aim point and had to use throttle to get to the turnaround point having used no more than 1/2 to 2/3 of the useable runway. YEAH BABY!!!! At this point I felt like a BC competent pilot… well sort of as I am still 100% green behind my pilot ears and know it. We got out again to stretch our legs, walk the strip and check out the river… yep there might be fish in there. We decided to deviate from the takeoff configuration for this short strip and do a “short field takeoff”, no need to get technical here, but it was not any shorter than the standard two notches of flaps and rotate at the designated speed for the current weight. That was great to learn, as popping flaps and rotating is fine if it is an improvement, but it was not so another lesson learned. Randy Schlitter (sp?) the Rans designer had stated in a video I had watched that the S-21 gets off the ground the quickest in the 2 notches and let the plane decide when to fly. I now believe this 100%. It is not cool youtube stuff, but it just works in the S-21.
Next up was Mahoney Creek but someone was there messing around so we headed to Upper Loon. We chatted all day and this was no different, we flew the Middle Fork upstream to Loon Creek and headed up Loon…. We were chatting away and all of a sudden I said to Dick that this does not look right… He had allowed me to miss a turn and fly into a box canyon on purpose. MAJOR LESSON HERE… He immediately said great work, make a left 180 and let’s get out of here. Dick knew what was going on the whole time and said he was going to give me another 10 seconds or so before he said something. The box canyon was not straight, and when I saw that after the next right turn there would likely be nowhere to go I knew something was amiss. I was really happy to be so far ahead of the plane to have never gotten us into any trouble, and likely had a good 90 seconds before a hard 180 would have been required. The lesson was, stay way ahead of the plane!!!
As for 180’s… I had read all of Dick’s books, Sparky’s book, CC’s book as well as a few others. Now reading and flying are not the same, but it sure does help. Yeah I have watched nearly everything on YouTube going both in and out of all the Idaho BC strips. I like having a visual image before I go in, is it the same being there? Nope, but it did help a lot.
Canyon Speed…. 70mph and 20* of flaps was the norm for me, and it was predetermined from lots of practice and experimenting prior to my trip to Idaho. With the plane set up for canyon speed I could comfortably make 45* banked turns that maxed out at 380’ width on math calculations prior to being in Idaho. I would say that 380’ is generous, and Dick demonstrated a 60+* turn that was amazing. I need to practice that at altitude I had practiced slow flight turns in the S-21 down to 50mph (stall is 42) and knew I could fly as slow as 60mph in a pretty steep bank with the nose down and have plenty of safety margin left.
Upper Loon (U72) - The flight to Upper Loon was amazing, besides the box canyon lesson which will never be forgotten. Plenty of room and not challenging at this point in the day.
At some point around now Dick asked me if my wife liked to fly with me, and I answered in the affirmative… He then said don’t fly this close to the rocks with her. I laughed and asked if I was too close and he said no it is perfect, but non-backcountry pilots and passengers won’t like it. yes I am comfortable flying less than 2 wing lengths from the rocks and trees.
I don’t think I have mentioned this is the most beautiful part of the world I have ever seen and due to my job I have been all over the world spending more than half of my adult like away from home.
Mahaoney Creek 0U3 - We headed back to Mahoney as it is a cool strip and I wanted to try it out. It sits high up on a bluff, not a fishing destination as I am not a fan of walking down 1000’ elevation to fish and then walk back up. Flyover was uneventful and and the two 180’s to set back up were not a problem… but was high over the rocks on long final (relative in the backcountry) and decided to abort early and set up again. This time I nailed the final approach for a nice stabilized approach and landing on a 2200’ strip that has 57’ gain in elevation. Uphill strips were simple at this point in the day. Taxied to the end and off we went following the river to the left to not have to out climb the rocks on the other side of the river that messed up my initial approach. Another nice lesson, use what the land gives you and don’t try to out climb something you don’t have to.
Next up was Thomas Creek (2U8 ) - Dick’s old stomping grounds from his days as manager at Middle Fork Lodge. Fly over and set up were nothing difficult, it was definitely a consideration of sinking on short final as the river is right there on approach to 21. At 2075’ long is was super simple, but Dick had a plan I did not know about yet…. Dogleg takeoffs. There was plenty of room for a straight takeoff, but that was not his plan as he wanted to teach me a non-standard dogleg takeoff run. It was really cool as he had me set-up all the way at the beginning of 03 and all the way to the right. He explained what was required (I’ll let leave the details the CFI to share) and wow it worked like a charm. Dick has some amazing tricks! Was it required here? Nope, but it maybe on a shorter strip and now I know how to do it. Remember landing in short places is easy, but you gotta get back in the air. Now I have another arrow in my quiver.
Bernard (U54) - Bernard is right next to the Flying B so there was some traffic as supplies were being delivered and folks were being flown out. You overfly Flying B on final. All went well and we set up for the approach, well there is a bend in the river with a pretty large hump if you go with a straight in final. I was high and called a go around long before the abort point so we set up again and this time I decided to follow the S-turn of the river rather than flying over the rocks, so it was a low/slow approach over Flying B, with a left over the water, a right back to lineup and then a left to land. It was not a problem, but definitely non-standard. Dick asked if I wanted to do it again and I said you bet. So we repeated the above and I felt really good about the low/slow S-turn to final. I am a huge airspeed guy, but there was so much going on once I knew I had it under control I never looked at the ASI again as I was just flying by feel for maybe the first time in my life.
It was now over 75* on the ground and time to head back to Salmon. We figured it would be a bumpy flight over the mountains and we were not disappointed in the least bit. We got the best out of the day and I was super happy with a lot of new information and stuff to work on.
OK, I am an OCD geek, and I had read about what makes a plane turn, and no it is not the rudder I really felt for the first time that it is the elevator that makes the turn. The day was so amazing, as I developed so much feel for the airplane, stuff I had read about but only scratched my head about prior to my first day in the Idaho backcountry.
So, was it worth it? Earlier I mentioned I was flying with what I believed was a legend, I no longer believe Dick Williams is a legend, I KNOW he is. His knowledge base and ability to really explain in an uncomplicated manner was beyond belief. I learned more in 5.5 hours than I could learn in 500 hours flying around on my own in the backcountry. I hope to spend more time with Dick in the future for sure!
If you are a Rans and/or Rotax 915iS guy, Dick was pretty amazed at what the S-21 could do, I will leave it at that, but having full available power at high DA’s was great!
As for the flight home? NASTY is the way to best describe it. It was 3 hours and 2 minutes of turbulence, well maybe a 30 minute break around Blackfoot (U02) which was a green valley. Pretty much any ground that was brown created turbulent air. The G3x was amazing, and helped me circumvent two storms as there was a hole in the middle. Oh and btw, the G3x has a G-meter, how do I know this, massive turbulence. It went off twice.
And just for good measure… I did a low flyby over 1ID9 which is Courierguy’s home strip. Pretty cool strip, but too short for this beginner
If you have read this far… You are as OCD and aviation geeky as me, so thanks for reading.
So… Training with Dick Williams
We met at the plane at 6am and had a chat while he supervised my pre-flight and then we were off.
Stops:
Smiley Creek ( U87) - We went there first to test out my and the Rans S-21’s capabilities at high DA. All went well, easy landing after a pilot made us wait while they did the run up on the runway. The pilot then made incorrect directional calls on departure (note to self: pay attention don’t just take as gospel what people are saying) and I made a nice landing and taxied to the end for a take off. Little did I know I had an audience for my landing and takeoff as there were several planes and folks out drinking coffee at the departure end.
We would not see or hear another radio call from another plane for nearly two hours as the backcountry was dead.
Atlanta (55H) - We flew over the top (short route) to Atlanta and made a steep decent for the field overfly inspection. In fact Dick asked about shock cooling on the 915iS in the steep decent. He had never flow behind a 915 (more on that later). Atlanta is a one way in and one way out strip, so you need to be solid on your abort point. We flew down river for a 180 and approach. All went well and touched down right on the aim point, but was a bit surprised by the upslope as it was certainly more than it appeared or I expected. We taxied to the top, chatted about the upslope for a minute or two and took off to the right downstream towards Weatherby.
Note: Dick asks on every approach what my aim point is, obviously making sure it is in the right area, but likely more so to judge competence is my thinking.
Weatherby ( 52U) - Unlike Atlanta, this one was not in the middle of a town and was totally devoid of people. It was pretty uneventful and it was once again an in and out.
The one way in and one way out strips were more comfortable than I had imagined as I was nailing my stabilized approaches and landing spots. I was feeling pretty comfortable at this point.
Graham ( U45) - Flight to Graham was beautiful, I had read some trip reports about soft and wet ground on the 1st third of 36, we did a fly over and it did in fact look soft and wet (there had been overnight thunder-boomers (more on that in a bit) so I picked a point about half way down the long (3000’) strip and it was a nice solid landing. I was now used to the uphill landings so it was no longer a factor…. Deadwood is to come next
Takeoff was uneventful and off to DeadwoodBefore bed the previous night was watching the storms and they had a lot of lightening and it caused concerned (remember I am a Utahn as we have lots of fire problems) and sure enough I spotted a small fire that Dick reported on the way to Deadwood.
Deadwood (ID86) - This is the one…. The uphill strip. This is the one that I have been apprehensive about. Dick and I discussed Deadwood prior to leaving Graham. My guesses were correct, I just needed reassurance that you fly level and add power to soften the landing. It was also interesting that he had me pick a landing point much further down the runway/ski slope
than I would have chosen. We overflew the upper end of the runway and then circled out over the reservoir for an approach. It did not look good as I was a bit high and was not getting the sink I needed so I made a left 360 and set up again. This time it was perfect, nice stabilized approach with the aiming point never leaving the spot in my windscreen. I got down to “flare” AGL and added power to fly up the hill and set it down a bit hard but right on the intended spot. The uphill nature of the strip requires both maintaining GS and adding throttle to get to the top of the 117’ elevation gain. We got out and stretched our legs, took a few photos and came in two more times. I had one more that did not look good so I did another left 360 to set up again. The 2nd of the three landings at Deadwood was the best of the bunch.We looked at Sulphur Creek but wanted to avoid the late breakfast group and keep flying as much as possible maximizing our time as it was beginning to warm up a bit. 8500 AGL was still in the upper 50’s OAT but it was now over 70* on the ground.
Indian Creek ( S81) - Approach to Indian Creek is not a straight in final, Dick wanted me to start dealing with more non-standard approaches (this is relative in the backcountry I found). It is a left-right-left to touchdown on what would be classified as mid-short final in normal conditions. Dick really gave me a good picture of what was needed in the pre-landing flyover and it was easy. He did not do much coaching on actual landing approaches as he really made me comfortable before we ever committed to set up an approach. Once again it is an uphill strip, but only 45’ bottom to top, but it is something to keep in mind.
At this point in the day I am getting very comfortable and things are going better than my pre-flight expectations. Dick’s knowledge is off the charts and he makes every challenge seem like it is easy.
Marble Creek (ID8 ) - This is a new strip that is not in Galen Hanselman’s book. Dick mentioned it was only about 800’ useable and asked if I was comfortable, and I was. Note about Dick, he never asks a question about flying he does not already know the answer to. Marble is in fact short, and narrow and right at river level. Did I mention narrow canyon??? We overflew the strip down 04 and then had to do a 180 to come back and set up on 04. I was looking for a spot for the 180 and actually asked Dick… He said this is good right here… I am thinking WHAT???? We were pretty low and it was not wide, but checked it out and felt ok so here we go. I really had my airspeed down and amazingly only used half of the available space. WOW this plane can maneuver in tight terrain! The 180 back to final was not a problem and I was really on point, nailed the aim point and had to use throttle to get to the turnaround point having used no more than 1/2 to 2/3 of the useable runway. YEAH BABY!!!! At this point I felt like a BC competent pilot… well sort of as I am still 100% green behind my pilot ears and know it. We got out again to stretch our legs, walk the strip and check out the river… yep there might be fish in there. We decided to deviate from the takeoff configuration for this short strip and do a “short field takeoff”, no need to get technical here, but it was not any shorter than the standard two notches of flaps and rotate at the designated speed for the current weight. That was great to learn, as popping flaps and rotating is fine if it is an improvement, but it was not so another lesson learned. Randy Schlitter (sp?) the Rans designer had stated in a video I had watched that the S-21 gets off the ground the quickest in the 2 notches and let the plane decide when to fly. I now believe this 100%. It is not cool youtube stuff, but it just works in the S-21.
Next up was Mahoney Creek but someone was there messing around so we headed to Upper Loon. We chatted all day and this was no different, we flew the Middle Fork upstream to Loon Creek and headed up Loon…. We were chatting away and all of a sudden I said to Dick that this does not look right… He had allowed me to miss a turn and fly into a box canyon on purpose. MAJOR LESSON HERE… He immediately said great work, make a left 180 and let’s get out of here. Dick knew what was going on the whole time and said he was going to give me another 10 seconds or so before he said something. The box canyon was not straight, and when I saw that after the next right turn there would likely be nowhere to go I knew something was amiss. I was really happy to be so far ahead of the plane to have never gotten us into any trouble, and likely had a good 90 seconds before a hard 180 would have been required. The lesson was, stay way ahead of the plane!!!
As for 180’s… I had read all of Dick’s books, Sparky’s book, CC’s book as well as a few others. Now reading and flying are not the same, but it sure does help. Yeah I have watched nearly everything on YouTube going both in and out of all the Idaho BC strips. I like having a visual image before I go in, is it the same being there? Nope, but it did help a lot.
Canyon Speed…. 70mph and 20* of flaps was the norm for me, and it was predetermined from lots of practice and experimenting prior to my trip to Idaho. With the plane set up for canyon speed I could comfortably make 45* banked turns that maxed out at 380’ width on math calculations prior to being in Idaho. I would say that 380’ is generous, and Dick demonstrated a 60+* turn that was amazing. I need to practice that at altitude
I had practiced slow flight turns in the S-21 down to 50mph (stall is 42) and knew I could fly as slow as 60mph in a pretty steep bank with the nose down and have plenty of safety margin left.Upper Loon (U72) - The flight to Upper Loon was amazing, besides the box canyon lesson which will never be forgotten. Plenty of room and not challenging at this point in the day.
At some point around now Dick asked me if my wife liked to fly with me, and I answered in the affirmative… He then said don’t fly this close to the rocks with her. I laughed and asked if I was too close and he said no it is perfect, but non-backcountry pilots and passengers won’t like it. yes I am comfortable flying less than 2 wing lengths from the rocks and trees.
I don’t think I have mentioned this is the most beautiful part of the world I have ever seen and due to my job I have been all over the world spending more than half of my adult like away from home.
Mahaoney Creek 0U3 - We headed back to Mahoney as it is a cool strip and I wanted to try it out. It sits high up on a bluff, not a fishing destination as I am not a fan of walking down 1000’ elevation to fish and then walk back up. Flyover was uneventful and and the two 180’s to set back up were not a problem… but was high over the rocks on long final (relative in the backcountry) and decided to abort early and set up again. This time I nailed the final approach for a nice stabilized approach and landing on a 2200’ strip that has 57’ gain in elevation. Uphill strips were simple at this point in the day. Taxied to the end and off we went following the river to the left to not have to out climb the rocks on the other side of the river that messed up my initial approach. Another nice lesson, use what the land gives you and don’t try to out climb something you don’t have to.
Next up was Thomas Creek (2U8 ) - Dick’s old stomping grounds from his days as manager at Middle Fork Lodge. Fly over and set up were nothing difficult, it was definitely a consideration of sinking on short final as the river is right there on approach to 21. At 2075’ long is was super simple, but Dick had a plan I did not know about yet…. Dogleg takeoffs. There was plenty of room for a straight takeoff, but that was not his plan as he wanted to teach me a non-standard dogleg takeoff run. It was really cool as he had me set-up all the way at the beginning of 03 and all the way to the right. He explained what was required (I’ll let leave the details the CFI to share) and wow it worked like a charm. Dick has some amazing tricks! Was it required here? Nope, but it maybe on a shorter strip and now I know how to do it. Remember landing in short places is easy, but you gotta get back in the air. Now I have another arrow in my quiver.
Bernard (U54) - Bernard is right next to the Flying B so there was some traffic as supplies were being delivered and folks were being flown out. You overfly Flying B on final. All went well and we set up for the approach, well there is a bend in the river with a pretty large hump if you go with a straight in final. I was high and called a go around long before the abort point so we set up again and this time I decided to follow the S-turn of the river rather than flying over the rocks, so it was a low/slow approach over Flying B, with a left over the water, a right back to lineup and then a left to land. It was not a problem, but definitely non-standard. Dick asked if I wanted to do it again and I said you bet. So we repeated the above and I felt really good about the low/slow S-turn to final. I am a huge airspeed guy, but there was so much going on once I knew I had it under control I never looked at the ASI again as I was just flying by feel for maybe the first time in my life.
It was now over 75* on the ground and time to head back to Salmon. We figured it would be a bumpy flight over the mountains and we were not disappointed in the least bit. We got the best out of the day and I was super happy with a lot of new information and stuff to work on.
OK, I am an OCD geek, and I had read about what makes a plane turn, and no it is not the rudder
I really felt for the first time that it is the elevator that makes the turn. The day was so amazing, as I developed so much feel for the airplane, stuff I had read about but only scratched my head about prior to my first day in the Idaho backcountry.So, was it worth it? Earlier I mentioned I was flying with what I believed was a legend, I no longer believe Dick Williams is a legend, I KNOW he is. His knowledge base and ability to really explain in an uncomplicated manner was beyond belief. I learned more in 5.5 hours than I could learn in 500 hours flying around on my own in the backcountry. I hope to spend more time with Dick in the future for sure!
If you are a Rans and/or Rotax 915iS guy, Dick was pretty amazed at what the S-21 could do, I will leave it at that, but having full available power at high DA’s was great!
As for the flight home? NASTY is the way to best describe it. It was 3 hours and 2 minutes of turbulence, well maybe a 30 minute break around Blackfoot (U02) which was a green valley. Pretty much any ground that was brown created turbulent air. The G3x was amazing, and helped me circumvent two storms as there was a hole in the middle. Oh and btw, the G3x has a G-meter, how do I know this, massive turbulence. It went off twice.
And just for good measure… I did a low flyby over 1ID9 which is Courierguy’s home strip. Pretty cool strip, but too short for this beginner
If you have read this far… You are as OCD and aviation geeky as me, so thanks for reading.
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