Thedude Posted June 15 Report Posted June 15 I drive to South lake Tahoe a lot but last year was the first time in a while I had flown in there. It's a great airport with beautiful views but you can get gusty winds and wind shear and I'm pretty sure the wind report was unreliable last year, so it can get interesting. Kmev gets windy too, but 2000 feet lower elevation with multiple runways and a much wider valley. Just watch out for the gliders and it also gets hot as hell later in the day down there. I had to circle quite a bit to climb out when I left in the afternoon. 1
dkkim73 Posted June 25 Author Report Posted June 25 (edited) Hey All, Very belated thanks! Catching up with a bunch of stuff since returning with plane, work, life (intl. travel) etc. Here are some highlights from the trip, photos and videos (mostly landing, hey we're pilots and I carry too much energy but whatever, but also some GC and Monument overflight video): SLC RWY 17: https://photos.teamkim.net/Travel/Flight-videos-SW-trip-June-2026/i-9nwp3Bc/A Our initial Grand Canyon overflight. 1st time. Wow. https://photos.teamkim.net/Travel/Flight-videos-SW-trip-June-2026/i-54qQmK3/A Base-to-final at KGCN. It was bumpy not much above this: https://photos.teamkim.net/Travel/Flight-videos-SW-trip-June-2026/i-Qq55nkb/A Monument Valley, dropping down. Don't miss doing this yourself! https://photos.teamkim.net/Travel/Flight-videos-SW-trip-June-2026/i-WVx4VsP/A Landing at Reno, visual pattern. https://photos.teamkim.net/Travel/Flight-videos-SW-trip-June-2026/i-6mxXCwf/A Cheers, David Over Lk. Powell: Monument: North of SLC: Departing SLC to the south: Glen Canyon Dam (Lk. Powell): The plane, Boss! Horseshoe Bend, I think: The nut behind the stick and the FO: Edited June 28 by dkkim73 narration, link fixes 4
dkkim73 Posted June 25 Author Report Posted June 25 On 6/10/2026 at 10:33 PM, Ragsf15e said: Wish I was down at my folks now to meet you in Tahoe! South Lake is fine, but you’ll really notice you’re in the mountains. It’s also gonna require flying over the lake a bit. I did my “tower work” there getting my private license in the early 90s. No tower now. Id only land there in the morning with good weather. If it’s later, go to kmev or kcxp on the east side of the mountains. Flying the eastern side of the sierras is unbelievably pretty terrain. Both mev and cxp can get you a rental car and it’s a short and beautiful drive up to Tahoe. My old stomping grounds - it’s where we would go when we were seniors in HS and wanted to ditch class on a nice warm spring afternoon… Indeed! Would be nice to connect there or near Spokane or out here (next time you're here with the family?). Tahoe: I'll bet it was a great place to grow up. Esp. back in the day. I spent part of the 80's in SoCal and early 90's in NorCal. When I was young I used to imagine my kids being young in CA, esp in the mtns or along the ocean along the central coast or old surf towns. Actually, this trip, in South Lake Tahoe (kind of urban compared to hiking or XC skiing on the west shore, but still) we went to a magic show and a cool little speakeasy bar (The Cooler), kind of casino-lite. We did some hiking near Heavenly as well. We really liked the scenery over the eastern Sierras and Owens Valley. It was a bit bumpy after morning but I can imagine coming back and exploring some old haunts. The Nellis guy was pretty chatty, interesting country between LAS and there. I'll have to figure out how to stay out of traffic better next time. 2
EricJ Posted June 25 Report Posted June 25 The gallery links seem to want a password, at least from me.
dkkim73 Posted June 25 Author Report Posted June 25 17 minutes ago, EricJ said: The gallery links seem to want a password, at least from me. So sorry! We're just reactivating our photo sharing... Let me fix that and post back.
dkkim73 Posted June 28 Author Report Posted June 28 On 6/24/2026 at 10:31 PM, dkkim73 said: So sorry! We're just reactivating our photo sharing... Let me fix that and post back. Fixed now! @EricJ
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