Bob's Ramblings from the PB.

[TangoWhiskey]

Gorgeous. Still watching for your new YouTube video...

 

[Bob Bement]

A fathers day flight to the Minam Lodge

I took three grateful young men into the Minam lodge for breakfast. The clouds were hanging low on the ridge I had to cross to head down the little Minam River to get to the lodge so we had to fly farther north. There the ridge is lower and I could get over into the Minam River canyon. I circled the Red's horse ranch after flying over the Minam to look at the wind sock. I flew down wind at 4600 ft. and headed down in the canyon to land up river.
We had a good time at the lodge looking things over. and I jumped the fence to take off from the longer strip at the horse ranch. A good flight back home.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Great way to spend Father's Day!

 

[somorris]

Sounds like a great day, Bob!

 

[denverpilot]

Nice.

 

[Bob Bement]

An early Morning Flight 7/22/12
I flew from S49 12 miles to ONO to pick up a friend from Las Vegas that was up visiting. We then went to the Olsen cabin and dropped the Lions Club campout the Sunday paper. Then we flew over BKE and on to the Minam Lodge for breakfast. It was so nice into the Minam, cool mountain air and still as it could be. After breadfast we flew around the Eagle cap mountain to Joesph, OR. KJSY and looked down on Wallowa Lake, a beautiful Glacier formed lake. We continued around the mountains and could see Hells canyon in the distance toward the Seven Devil Mountains over in Idaho. Over the Imnaha River and Halfway and Richland we followed the Snake River for a ways. I let my friend out in Ontario and flew back home. A great flight with a great guy. Did I tell you I love to fly!~~

 

[Bob Bement]

Older pictures Showing: 1. Landing down stream at the Minam, 2. Wallowa Lake.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

An early Morning Flight 7/22/12
I flew from S49 12 miles to ONO to pick up a friend from Las Vegas that was up visiting. We then went to the Olsen cabin and dropped the Lions Club campout the Sunday paper. Then we flew over BKE and on to the Minam Lodge for breakfast. It was so nice into the Minam, cool mountain air and still as it could be. After breadfast we flew around the Eagle cap mountain to Joesph, OR. KJSY and looked down on Wallowa Lake, a beautiful Glacier formed lake. We continued around the mountains and could see Hells canyon in the distance toward the Seven Devil Mountains over in Idaho. Over the Imnaha River and Halfway and Richland we followed the Snake River for a ways. I let my friend out in Ontario and flew back home. A great flight with a great guy. Did I tell you I love to fly!~~

I love your flying stories, Bob. Please contribute to share. You live and fly in a geographically and topographically beautiful area.

 

[kimberlyanne546]

I love your flying stories, Bob. Please contribute to share. You live and fly in a geographically and topographically beautiful area.

And you fly a way cooler plane than I do. Please keep sharing pictures and stories.

 

[Bob Bement]

Here is a couple pictures showing my trip log on my 696 GPS.

1. Our trip up with a paper drop close to the Unity Res.

2. Our trip home around Joesph, Wallowa Lake and up the river.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

What do you mean by "paper drop"? Did you drop off some newspapers?

 

[Bob Bement]

What do you mean by "paper drop"? Did you drop off some newspapers?

The Vale Lions club were having a camp out this Fri, Sat. and Sun. I dropped them the Sunday morning Paper. The Boise Idaho Statesman.
Missed them by about 200 ft. is all.

 

[kimberlyanne546]

The Vale Lions club were having a camp out this Fri, Sat. and Sun. I dropped them the Sunday morning Paper. The Boise Idaho Statesman.
Missed them by about 200 ft. is all.

Cool, I'm bombing again this weekend. My second time, new bomber. First time I got third place. This time I hope to do better.

 

[Bob Bement]

I was over flying a alot of tall pine and fir trees and they were down in a canyon and the target was on the side of my bomber. I was lucky to get it that close. I don't think he dropped it exactly when I said let it go either.

 

[tonycondon]

I was over flying a alot of tall pine and fir trees and they were down in a canyon and the target was on the side of my bomber. I was lucky to get it that close. I don't think he dropped it exactly when I said let it go either.

if he had it would've been 400 feet away

 

[Bob Bement]

if he had it would've been 400 feet away

Tony please don't go and pump me all up like that now. :wink2:

 

[tonycondon]

i did pumpkin bombing with Leah once, i told her to drop the pumpkin. she delayed a second, then dropped the pumpkin on the main wheel of the 150, further delaying the drop. We got 2nd.

 

[Bob Bement]

What was your oddest load or passenger?
We had the 4th of July Parade in town and we had several clowns in the parade. It reminded me of a flight I made to Burns, OR.( about 35 min. away )in my 182. The purpose of the flight was to get a bull fighter/clown to our night rodeo from their afternoon rodeo. He wouldn't have time for the 2 hour drive to Vale. about 115 miles. So I said sure I can go get him. He still had his clown outfit on including his big red nose. I wish I had a picture but I didn't take one. I can still remember looking over in the right seat and seeing a clown setting there. One of my oddest passengers.
What about you any oddities, on your passenger or load list.

 

[kimberlyanne546]

What was your oddest load or passenger?
We had the 4th of July Parade in town and we had several clowns in the parade. It reminded me of a flight I made to Burns, OR.( about 35 min. away )in my 182. The purpose of the flight was to get a bull fighter/clown to our night rodeo from their afternoon rodeo. He wouldn't have time for the 2 hour drive to Vale. about 115 miles. So I said sure I can go get him. He still had his clown outfit on including his big red nose. I wish I had a picture but I didn't take one. I can still remember looking over in the right seat and seeing a clown setting there. One of my oddest passengers.
What about you any oddities, on your passenger or load list.

Nothing "odd" yet. Then again I guess most pilots are odd - so - every flight?

 

[Threefingeredjack]

Turtles.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

What was your oddest load or passenger?

I took five once, in a Cherokee Six.

 

[Jim Logajan]

What was your oddest load or passenger?

I took five once, in a Cherokee Six.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

LOL! :ROFL:

 

[Bob Bement]

FiveIn a six that is odd.

 

[Bob Bement]

I made a flight from S49 to 26U McDermitt, Nv. The runway is in Oregon and the town is in NV. On the way down there I flew over the Long Draw fire. I flew over the burn for 15 min. at 137 miles/hour. That was a large fire. There was a range fire close by in Fields, OR. and they had 4 tanker planes flying retardant off of the airport where I landed. I started to park and a Gal came over and asked me to park in front of a hangar where my plane would be out of the way. We would be there for about 1 1/2 hours. The tankers came and went about 3 times while I was there. They were bringing in another mix station and that is why they needed me to move my plane. The owner of the hangar showed up and we had a good visit while I was waiting. He had a 1956 Straight tailed 182 in his hangar. Number 18 off of the line in Witchita In the first year they made the 182. It was unpainted like mine and when he drove up he thought someone had his plane out. ( Except mine is prettier ) The tankers came in and they all parked and I took a picture and a picture of my plane parked in front of the hangar. We had a bumpy flight home as the temp. was 106 in Vale when we got back home.

 

[Bob Bement]

A flight to Hermiston (KHRI) and a breakfast stop at the Minam Lodge.

I flew a couple members of our coffee group to Hermiston to a boat Christening. We stopped at the Minam Lodge for a little breakfast. I took a bag of potatoes and a press to make those Mexican flat tortillas in. I have been working on my video camera and I found a broken wire on my intercom that fastens to my camera, and I fixed that. I tried it out to see how it was going to work. It worked great except I need to unplug my 696 from my intercom as the lady saying PULL UP TERRAIN, PULL UP TERRAIN. sort of ruined my video. From the Minam we went down the River until we were out of the canyon and then we flew over the little town of Imbler and over the Pendelton, OR. airport on our way to Hermiston KHRI. It was a great flight except for a lot of smoke from our many forest fires that we still have going out here.~~~

Pictures: #1. cabin early morning fire in the stove, and #2. the two gals next to me rode in with me. the other is the cook at the lodge.

 

[kimberlyanne546]

The cook has an interesting expression on her face!

 

[denverpilot]

It worked great except I need to unplug my 696 from my intercom as the lady saying PULL UP TERRAIN, PULL UP TERRAIN. sort of ruined my video.

I always liked that in backcountry aviation videos.

Makes me chuckle. Garmin hasn't built a "lets fly down this river canyon" terrain warning mode yet.

 

[Bob Bement]

I made a flight out to a dry lake a few days ago. This dry lake doesn't look dry from the air, and didn't even when I flew by very low to have a look. But I could see a few small rocks laying on top of the lake bed and so I circled back around and got slowed down and touched down on the edge of the lake bed and rolled to a stop. We got out and walked around and picked up some 50 cal. bullets. It seems like some of the pilots in the airforce in WWII used this lake or something around it for target practice. There were bases at Burns and Mountain Home at that time I believe. We had no trouble taking off and we flew on to Rome for breakfast. Rome, OR. that is.~~~

 

[Bob Bement]

Oh! this is what we picked up off of the ground on the lake bed:

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Oh! this is what we picked up off of the ground on the lake bed:

Wow... That's pretty cool! And so is landing on a lake bed!

 

[denverpilot]

Ever since I saw Idaho Mike's video of landing on the Ibex hard pan, I've wanted to go do that. Neat.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Ever since I saw Idaho Mike's video of landing on the Ibex hard pan, I've wanted to go do that. Neat.

Just check your insurance first - Ours allows us to land on anything that the FAA calls an airport no matter what the runway surface is, but you can't just go landing wherever unless it's an emergency.

Sigh.

 

[denverpilot]

Good point. Will have to check. I looked up "unimproved" airports once, but didn't look for non-airports.

Cough. The engine seems to be running a little rough. Cough.

 

[Bob Bement]

One more picture of the landing on the lake. the tire tracks show you the hardness of the dry lake surface.

 

[Jim Logajan]

One more picture of the landing on the lake. the tire tracks show you the hardness of the dry lake surface.

The forecasts suggest that will all be muddy soon.

 

[Bob Bement]

I hope not I have a fellow PBer coming out from Boston to go flying with me. He liked the sound of landing on a dry lake bed.

 

[Bob Bement]

August the 3rd I flew into Big Creek for a money raiser breakfast, to try to rebuild the Lodge there. It accidently burned down in 2008 when someone built a big fire in the old stove and left it. The roof caught fire and it burned to the ground. Now they are trying to replace it with a new structure. I am trying to help. I have three people that are willing to pay $100. each to ride in with me to the next breakfast, Sept. 21. It was a great sunny day with calm winds and just a little fall feel in the air. There were 22 airplanes on the ground and two in the pattern when we counted. The side of the runway drops off steeply and I made a beautiful park. I headed my tail down hill, shut down and backed right in between two Cessna 180s. We had a great breakfast, talked to some folks from Washington state, and then flew down to Johnson Creek for the once a year, Harmonica Fest. We caught a ride the 4 miles into Yellow Pine, ID. in the airport Van and enjoyed the music and people watching until about 4:00 and then caught the van back and flew the airplane home. I didn't get a lot of performance from 54N as the field elevation is 4933' and it was warm at 5:00. But we flew down Johnson Creek until I had enough elevation to head to Vale, OR. A great flight and a great day. I love to fly!~~~

 

[navigator44]

It is so good to see a post from you. Although we have never met, I have read all your posts and viewed the videos.

I hope you are doing well, at least as good as can be expected since your loss. May God continue to bless you, and cause his light to shine on you.

Jim

 

[SCCutler]

Bob: keep 'em coming.

Even a soul-less lawyer gets joy from your stories.