Flight 19 Rocky Ramble

Put the Baron into the Beechcraft shop. Asked for a single-engined aircraft to keep PRB company. Happily, the fellows had a Bonanza V35B available as a loaner. A true classic.

Pictured below is the Carenado Beech Bonanza V35B. (It is the default Carenado paint. "Title=Beechcraft Bonanza V35B USA")

If you don't have the payware aircraft, you can download an "AI" using Mike Stone's (early) V-tail with a custom repaint here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?k425kijp8bd93y4
 
I tried catching up to you guys last night but amongst the bed time routine for the daughter and my inability to press pause I found myself lodged in the mountains.

Due to time difference, I'll be solo flying anyway, but I'll have to start again. :)
 
Rocky Ramble

Proposed General Aviation Routing from Calgary to Sun Valley.

Start CYBW Springbank

CYBW-(49S)-KFCA
...186nm Kalispell Glacier Park Intl
....Glacier National Park

KFCA-KBTM
...159nm Butte Mooney
....Butte rough and tumble history of mining and labor strife
....(Fly IBEY ILS if possible)

KBTM-KBIL
...169nm Billings Logan
....Billings is largest city between Calgary and Denver

KBIL-(KMLS)-KGDV
...177nm (Miles City)-Glendive
....Down the Yellowstone River
....Texas cattle drives stopped here for Railroad shipment to Chicago

KGDV-KSDY-KPWD-KOLF
...166nm [Sidney]-[Plentywood]-Wolf Point
....Stop at either, or both, KSDY and KPWD
....Scout sites for oil exploration offices
....Wolf Point is main city of Fort Peck Indian Reservation
....and Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame

KOLF-[M75]-KHVR
...154nm [Malta]-Havre
....Possible stop at M75
....Follow the "High Line" to Havre, the railroad city

KHVR-(KGTF)-KHLN
...149nm (Great Falls)-Helena Regional
....Founded in 1860s in Last Chance Gulch, Helena was a gold town.
....By 1888 claimed 50 millionaires.
....From Territory status and Statehood Montana's Capitol

KHLN-3U7-KCTB
...134nm [Benchmark]-Cut Bank Municipal
....Discrete delivery of Bear Traps for Benchmark Wilderness Guest Ranch
....See giant roadside Penguin at Cut Bank

KCTB-(KCII)-KBZN
...177nm (Choteau)-Bozeman Gallatin
... Pass over Choteau and David Letterman's ranch
....Bozeman served Virginia City gold rush and then surrounding cattle ranchers
....Now home to Montana State University....Airport serves Big Sky Ski Resort

KBZN-[29S]-KJAC
...133nm [Gardiner]-Jackson Hole
....Weather permitting, we stop at Gardiner ski lodge and entry to Yellowstone
....and then to iconic mountain resort town Jackson Hole.

KJAC-(46U)-(U46)-(0U7)-(HLE)-KSUN
...180nm (Alpine)-(Big Southern Butte)-(Hollow Top)-HAILEY-Sun Valley Friedman Memorial
....Scenic route through mountains and then over desolate Snake River Plain to grand Buttes and
....the Craters of the Moon black lava fields to famous ski resort.

Then a bit of recreation in the Sawtooth Range...
 
We left out of Butte heading IFR to Billings along I-90. I think I probably tripped a few police radars enroute. And I'm pretty sure I saw Moses run a red light but he says it was a yellow. All and all a nice drive to Billings.
 
A few more pics.

This was a delightful leg from Butte to Billings. Peacemaker showed up in the striking yellow Northrop N-9M to charm us all. Moses and Willy took the idea of following I-90 literally. As Montana has instituted speed limits, we worried that M & W might end up with the highway patrol on their tails. (The original Montana Vigilantes in Virginia City, adopted the mysterious number "3-7-77" as a symbol of their very rough justice. The Montana Highway Patrol continues to use that symbol on their shoulder patches. Same for the Montana Air National Guard.)

Mainly, this part of Montana provides a marvelous mixture of rugged terrain and big skies. At Billings, you can see the Flight 19 lineup: Beech 18 (Willy), Northrop N-9M (Peacemaker), Cessna 337 (Moses), Beech Volpar (Taco), Bellanca Viking (SrG), and Beech V35B (MM).
 
We took off from Billings and headed on to Dawson by way of a fly over at Miles City. Great flight following the Yellowstone River for most of the way.

One difference between the landplane and amphib versions of the Twin Beech.. The brakes on the amphib aren't that good and it's hard to steer on the ground.
 
MM said:
Put the Baron into the Beechcraft shop. Asked for a single-engined aircraft to keep PRB company. Happily, the fellows had a Bonanza V35B available as a loaner. A true classic.

Pictured below is the Carenado Beech Bonanza V35B. (It is the default Carenado paint. "Title=Beechcraft Bonanza V35B USA")

If you don't have the payware aircraft, you can download an "AI" using Mike Stone's (early) V-tail with a custom repaint here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?k425kijp8bd93y4
Click to expand...

Nice, I was wondering what you're first plane was (baron) but this Bonanza is a great choice. I thought there was a 'twin' theme going on here which is why I chose the cessna 340, but as it's not the case and 150 is about the norm speed, I feel the need for a biplane. I'll have to look at me Waco's but I hear the Stearman model 4 calling me.

...unless I can find the drive space to install that gorgeous Simtech Beech Staggerwing pack.
 
We almost made a full circle over the Bakken formation, KGDV - KSDY - KPWD - KOLF. Had a few "unfortunate" incidents along the way (I blew out a tire on landing at KSDY). But otherwise it was a great flight as usual.
 
Seems the Beech 17 does have a steerable tailwheel, but as the tailgear collapses on engine start most of the time I'm gonna have to park it until I have time to rework the contact points. Spent 2+ hours after the flight messing with them with little success, so the Stearman Speedmail gets the call. Should be no problem keeping up with SrG's Vega.
 
A couple of Kodaks from our latest flight across Wild West Montana.
 
We drifted farther west along the high plains to Harve, MT. Nice flight although the foo fighters were a bit aggravating tonight.
 
Having the Beech Staggerwing's rear gear collapse and the aircraft disintegrate around me as I changed from outside view to interior view was the last straw, immediate de-resolution for the land version. I switched to the Maule M7 with tundra tires which turned out to be a blessing. I'd forgotten how much of a joy it is to fly, and managed to keep up nicely with the rest of the pack, even over the mountains.
 
During our stopover at Great Falls, I landed just short of a fence and blew out a tire going through it. Time to buy stock in Fix-A-Flat.

After that it was on to Helena.
 
Enjoyable trip to Helena. During the first half, we were presented with a constant image of the Earth, Moon and Sun in juxtaposition. Led Moses & PRB to wax poetic!
 
Forgot to put film in the camera before the last leg of our adventure, so instead I'll include a couple pics from my last drive across this interesting region. There's a reason they call it "Big Sky Country" ...
 
There I was just flying along, minding my own business skimming the treetops when all of a sudden there's a loud bang. Went to land and the floats were just gone. Guess some trapper will find a pair of fancy canoes...
 
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