It’s Todays Flight for 2025

[dkkim73]

9 hours ago, Slick Nick said:

Kalispell city airport is neat, there are some nice people there. Take a flight up past hungry horse dam, it’s a sight to be seen! 

Good to know; I also read good things about the airport scene there, flight school, AP etc. Probably I should try to give those smaller airports a bit of business, too. 

Just searched up Hungry Horse dam. Very impressive, will do. Next time I think we will also go exploring some of the valleys paralleling the Flathead nearby; couple of nice linear ridges and good scenery. 

BTW for anyone reading, there is a nice Montana state chart which, though not nav-current, is a good planning and orientation chart: 

https://www.mdt.mt.gov/aviation/docs/aeronautic-chart.pdf

I laminated a big print out and am going to mount it in my office. If you register with the state they will also send you a decent size water-resistant one. 

9 hours ago, Ragsf15e said:

Well the parking on the “city side” isn’t much more than a three car driveway, but it’s really nice to park and walk across the street to restaurants.  I have a nice picture of my wife changing our son’s diaper just behind the wing at that airport!

Ah, making memories. I was tempted by the proximity to town, but figured I'd go to the big airport for the first run and get the lay of the land. 

 

[Ragsf15e]

Over Blackrock desert just north of Reno.  Awesome visit with my parents, brother, nieces, nephew, etc.  good tailwind down from Spokane to Carson city and back too!

 

[0TreeLemur]

Aurora over Alabama (33.3 degrees north), Veterans Day, 2025!   Lightly edited to eliminate motion streaks on point lights.   The strobe photobombed the shot (shoulda turned it off).

That green light on the horizon is not city skyglow- there's no city north of where this photo was taken.

According to the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center- this was an "X-Class" solar flare, about as big as they come.

[Sue Bon]

I flew to Courchevel airport with a friend of mine today in his C150. It's nuts. The runway length is 1762 feet and has an 18.6% incline after the first 25 yards or so. You need training and certification to land there and my friend's was due to expire in a few days, so we went for two landings and a coffee. He promised to take me in my Mooney once I get the propeller back, so I'm a bit nervous, but excited. Anyway, check this out:

(Runway is to the left, sloping up the hill...)

Here it is cropped....

[EricJ]

13 minutes ago, Sue Bon said:

I flew to Courchevel airport with a friend of mine today in his C150. It's nuts. The runway length is 1762 feet and has an 18.6% incline after the first 25 yards or so. You need training and certification to land there and my friend's was due to expire in a few days, so we went for two landings and a coffee. He promised to take me in my Mooney once I get the propeller back, so I'm a bit nervous, but excited. Anyway, check this out:

(Runway is to the left, sloping up the hill...)

Here it is cropped....

Very cool!   I would not have thought a C150 would be practical to go there, but apparently so!

 

[Ibra]

46 minutes ago, Sue Bon said:

my friend's was due to expire in a few days, so we went for two landings and a coffee

While ago, I had the site training and checkout but I had to keep landing currency every 6 months. It was a hassle, I was living in London and flying all the way in winter was not possible, driving was a lot of hassle compared to flying. 

A friend of mine suggested, I can legally fly Super Guépard ULM (unregulated ultralight) and then get a local instructor to do checkout in Jodel or Robin. So I flew in ultralight to get checked by the local school, you have to see the face of the instructor when I told him, I arrived by air 

I never tried in Mooney, so it’s on my to do list one day, the rules have changed now to make it 9 months, so easy to keep current outside winter and ski season, the airport still deserve lot of respect, the guy in the tower (Yves who does AFIS) used to have an album with hundreds of pictures of incidents and wrecks, especially with faster and heavy turbines.

Edited Thursday at 09:18 PM by Ibra

[Ibra]

Flying over Mt Ventoux on the way back from Corsica, this was right after sunset (before official night)

Edited Thursday at 09:21 PM by Ibra

[Sue Bon]

9 hours ago, Ibra said:

on the way back from Corsica,

So pretty! I had planned my last long flight for this year to be Figari on the south of Corsica, but decided to cancel due to a leaky prop that was splashing the windshield with oil. I'm hoping to make it to Rouen next year. Maybe we could even meet some day

 

[Ibra]

9 hours ago, Sue Bon said:

due to a leaky prop that was splashing the windshield with oil. I'm hoping to make it to Rouen next year. Maybe we could even meet some day

Hope all is sorted for the propeller...

Definitely up for meet up next year !