Five weeks of adventure with my Super 170

[170dreams]

When I first became interested in backcountry flying and started reading travelogues and watching YouTube videos, the trips into the canyons of Utah seemed the most adventurous, the landings deep down between vertical red rock walls the most challenging.

And now, five years later, I was about to visit one of these canyon strips: Mexican Mountain.
Would I land there?
Maybe I would.
But I definitely wanted to fly there, see it from above and then decide.

A local pilot I had met in Huntington before takeoff confirmed that the runway was in very good condition, and the weather was perfect.

As I got close, I immediately recognized the runway from the videos: a narrow strip next to the San Rafael River.

After two approaches to check for wind and up- or downdrafts I felt confident enough and landed.

I had made it into Mexican Mountain!

What a place !

[GAHorn]

There’s something unimaginatively satisfying when arrival at a place as remote as that… shutting down… stepping outside….and listening to… Nothing but rustling leaves in the solitude. There’s something about the solitude and self-reliance necessary to give that satisfaction.

Thanks for sharing.

[cessna170bdriver]

There’s lots of good material here for the 170 News.

[170dreams]

A very spontaneous first impression after my landing at Mexican Mountain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWahOBOO1JY

[170dreams]

Landing and camping at Mexican Mountain was the most intense experience of the first three weeks of my adventure.
As I departed and climbed out along the red cliffs of the canyon wall I wondered if the second part of my circuit would provide me with equally memorable moments.

Well, Whiskyblue and I have returned to home base in MA quite some time ago, and looking back, I can answer that questions with a resounding yes.

The topography was different, of course, as were the colors, but the impressions and emotions that hit me in some places were just as intense.

FIrst snow on the Collegiates in Coloroado

The Ozarks

Richland Creek (4AR9)

[GAHorn]

Worthy of a PBS Travelogue. Thanks for Sharing!

[johneeb]

Thanks Wolf, you could fill in for Rick Steves!

[GAHorn]

Thanks Wolf, you could fill in for Rick Steves!

I’d like to see the “out-takes” also!

[JSwift]

Wolf,
Thank you for sharing your amazing adventure. In the end we sport pilots fly because it it inspires us deep in our soul. Your story, your photos and your meticulous care for Whiskey Blue are all inspiring. Safe travels and tailwinds my friend.

[170dreams]

The further east I got on the second part of my trip, the less I expected the topography to wow me.
Well, yes. I was wrong, sort of.
It was on the penultimate day of my adventure when the man-made topography gave me an unexpected peak experience!

Fortunately, a good friend had strongly insisted that I fly up the Hudson River VFR corridor, weather permitting. So I completed the FAA course (ALC-79) and entered the reporting points into foreflight. And when I got there the weather did its best not to let me miss the sight of this spectacular urban topography.

Yep, the stars aligned on this afternoon!

[170dreams]

As I was heading for the northern end of the Hudson River VFR corridor, an old piece of advice given to athletes in their prime came to mind: True champions retire right after they make it to the top.

Well, this flight on the Hudson was certainly one of the top experiences of my trip, and now I was on the way to my last destination, to my last night out. The next day my adventure would end, I would “retire” so to speak.

It seems I had followed the above advice without realizing it.

To say I had mixed feelings would be a colossal understatement. I hardly knew what to feel.

Sadness because more than five weeks of flying and living out of my beautiful and trusty plane were about to end?

Satisfaction that, despite all the difficulties along the way, I had succeeded in realizing my boyhood dream ?

Joy of having created wonderful memories that will last a lifetime?

A fellow 170B pilot who joined me for a beer at GBR, where I had landed to spend my last night, put it this way: “It will take you a long time to appreciate what you have achieved”.

And then the next morning, my final departure: one last time to set up the 430 and the 796, one last time to enjoy the pull of the MT prop, one last time to let the CGR-30's help me tweak the mixture, one last time to appreciate all the information displayed by the AV-30’s that fit so well into a 170B panel.

Rather than heading straight back to home base 28 M I meandered about the airports I had visited while learning how to best fly my heavily upgraded bird.

That gave me a little extra time for the final wind-down.

Then I brought Whiskyblue in for our last landing, shut her down and pushed her back in the hangar.

The adventure was over, we had come full circle.

[GAHorn]

And a Univ of Texas LongHorn Fan to BOOT!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_%27em_Horns#:~:text=The%20gesture%20is%20meant%20to,third%20fingers%20with%20the%20thumb.

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