Bob's Ramblings from the PB.

[Bob Bement]

Brian, I don't know where to start on your assignment. I was teaching in Filer, Id in 1959, I was working on the weekends at a service station for a man named Paul Turnipseed, one day he asked me if I would like to take an airplane ride. I jumped at the offer. He had a 1954 Piper Super cub. We took off from the Twin falls airport and flew to Jackpot NV. He let me take the stick and I was hooked. I would have never even got to fly except for some strange circumstances. I was teaching school in Vale, OR. and this fellow teacher was a war vet and a pilot, his name was Leroy "Duke" Paulson. He taught a ground school and the FAA sent a person to our school to give the test. I took that class and passed. However too many years went by and I didn't start lessons. Then a real good friend of mine, a farmer had a son that was in that ground school class, had gone on to be a CFI. He decided to move back and farm with his dad. We made a deal that if I helped him buy an airplane he would teach me to fly it. So we bought a Cessna 1953 170B. That is what I learned to fly. It was not the best instruction, in that he did it in and around his farming and my teaching, Ambulance Duty, Fire Dept. Sheriffs Posse and all the other things I was doing at the time. But in 1980 I took my check ride and got my PPL. SEL TW. As the examiner said now you have a license to learn. I flew over a lot of the places I have shared videos with all of you for a long time before I tried to land there one of them was the 1840 ft. strip at the Owyhee Res. also called Pelican point Then One day I just went by myself and landed there. The same with the landing strip at Red's Horse ranch in the Wallowas. I said I can do that and I went and landed there. I almost hit a doe deer that ran in front of the 170 though. That was close, I expected to see blood all over the windshield. but she made it and I was on the brakes as hard as I dared.I didn't use a CFI to take me into any of these places, mainly because I couldn't afford the cost. I did ride in with a guy named, Mel Tucker, To Big Creek, in the Idaho back country to pick up Jack Walker, a fellow pilot and gold miner. That is the only training I got to fly into the back country. I flew into Big Creek the first time to Pick up Jack and bring him out. I had a hard time finding big Creek I got a little to far south and had to fly north along Johnson Creek a ways to fine Yellow Pine, and then over Profile Mountain to Big Creek. Jack wanted to land at Warren to look at an old D8 Cat. I had never been there or looked at a map or anything so he led me there and I landed for the first time. ( to Be Cont.)
Attached Thumbnails 1. On final to Owyhee Landing strip, 2. on final to Big Creek, ID., 3. Red's Horse ranch bottom right, The Minam Lodge upper left.

 

[Bob Bement]

(continue a little)

I offered to take a fellow teacher to Deer Park, WA. to pick up a pickup truck that his dad had given him. On the way back I was flying along in the 170 when things started shaking, papers in the right seat were fluttering. I tried Mags, fuel, Mixture, carb heat, lost a little altitude, nothing seemed to help. I was about 20 miles North of LaGrande,OR. around Mount Emilie. I landed at LaGrande and found out I had a cracked cylinder. I left it to be fixed. Because of this I lost my partner. Larry my CFI and friends son, had some remodeling done on his house and the contractor was my new partner. He never got cleared with the Insurance Co. to fly a TW and a few years later I bought the rest of 58 Charlie.I became the OR rep. for the international 170 club. in about 1988 and we scheduled a fly in at Johnson Creek with the Idaho delegation of the 170 Club. My wife went along, a rare event. She didn't like to fly. So that was my first flight into Johnson Creek ( they have a webcam: JOHNSON CREEK AIRPORT WEBCAM ) Johnson Creek is at 4900 ft above sea level and is a nice wide 3200 ft long runway. It is in the bottom of a canyon and you have to make a tight turn to land upstream or fly farther north and turn around Yellow Pine and come back up Johnson Creek to land. The flight around Yellow Pine is frowned on by some pilots. In 1992 I sold my trusty 170 and applied the money on a 1959 Cessna 182. It was a basket case sitting on the Caldwell, ID. airport. A friend ( I thought) made me a deal I couldn't refuse. ( read here if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is) Three years and $12000. later I flew my restored airplane home. ( to be continued )

This is a landing at Johnson Creek airstrip, just not the one in this story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjONA7HyL-w

 

[Bob Bement]

My 182 proved to be a very reliable work horse of an airplane, There are only 5 aircraft on the Vale airport, a piper pacer, a piper that has been made into a experimental aircraft, a Luscomb, and a 150 Cessna. So My 182 is the only airplane that can go good and carry a good load. I am also the airport manager in my retirement years, I have time to fly friends around. I have a young man that I had in school and on a basketball team I helped coach. He bought the Mud Flat ranch. This ranch is about 50 miles south of Vale in the Owyhee area. To drive to his ranch you have to drive 20 miles west to Harper Junction. Then about 35 miles south on the Crowley road, make a left turn at the Copeland ranch and drive the last 15 miles around Cedar Mountain to the ranch. To drive takes about 1 3/4 hours, 2 hours if they are pulling the horse trailer. They found out that I can get them there in 19 minutes. So I get to fly to Mud Flat from time to time. They have two strips there one N-S and one E-W.They are just dirt and both about 1800 feet long. One time I got a call and they had 900 head of cattle in the coral and a vet. there to preg test the cows. They were using a Electric squeeze chute, run off of a port. generator. Well the electric motor burned out. They were at a stand still. Rick called me by cell phone and asked me if I could fly to Ontario,OR ( 12 miles east) and pick up a motor his brother would have there and get it out there as they needed it badly!!! I made the flight and they were there on the end of the runway with a 4 wheeler waiting when I shut down. They were up and running by 10:00. I felt good that I had saved him a lot of time and money. They would of had to turn all of those cattle out and regather them for lack of feed. And the Vet. would have to come back or stay there. More money. Another time a big 18 wheeler truck had to make a single trip in as they had been one truck short to get all of the weaner calves hauled out. I got a call from Rick that the driver had a flat tire on his trailer and he had a spare tire, but no Bud wrench. A special tool to remove the lug nuts on the wheel. So I went to the tire store picked up a bud wrench and flew to Mud Flat ranch. Again they were glad to see me show up. I tell you these stories as to give you an Idea of how my community depends on me and my trusty niner zero five four november. ( to be continued)

 

[Bob Bement]

Brian asked about my short field landing strategy. I didn't always land that good. I think some of you have the wrong opinion of my flying abilities. One time I landed at the Owyhee on that 1840 ft strip, I had four in the plane, a slight tailwind, and a little to much airspeed. I didn't think that I was going to get stopped. In fact, I turned in to the parking area and left some pretty good skid marks in the dirt where I turned hard to the right. I learned that you actually have to start landing before you are landing. That is you want to arrive over the end of the landing strip with the airplane ready to give up flying. To high and to fast doesn't work on a short strip. And yes Brian I learned the hard way with a lot of landings and a lot of learning the hard way.
One day when I had the 170 the Malheur Co. Sheriff called and wanted to know if I could fly him down to the Owyhee River above the Dam and above the Hole in the ground ranch. It seemed that there had been a rafting accident and they had a person drown. He wanted me to fly him to the area of the accident and if they didn't find the victim tangled in the ropes on the raft, we would fly the river back toward the Dam. The raft was caught up against a huge rock and they had to get out to the raft to see if he was there. The Sheriff thought that the deputies would have had time to get this done by the time we flew down there, as they had left long before we did. However when we got there they weren't done. Rather that circle for a while I just found a straight place on a BLM road and landed the TW plane to wait it out. It was a cold threatening rain kind of a day, so we were sitting in the plane talking. This spot was probably 20 miles from anyplace. As we were talking someone banged his hand on the outside of my door. I about jumped through the roof. I didn't know there was anyone within miles of us. When I finally got my heart to start beating again I opened the door and he asked if we were alright. I guess he thought we were having some engine trouble or something. If he had had a long string of moss hanging off of his arm I probably would have died right there. To finish the story we didn't find the victim on the raft and we didn't find him flying the river. He surfaced a few days later and they used a boat to find him.
So to answer your question I think I learned how to make short field and soft field landings by just doing them over and over and being a pragmatist I do what works for me and That is how I learned. ( To be Continued).
__________________

 

[Bob Bement]

#29
Bob Bement



Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 2,221
Re: Paging Bob Bement!
( a continuation of Bob's ramblings)

In 1962 I got a teaching and coaching job in Harper, OR. I was caoching basketball and baseball when I started, I started the football program later, but that is another story. My superintendent there was the same person that taught me ground school, Leroy "Duke" Paulson. He was also giving flying lessons at the Vale airport. We all lived in Vale, twenty miles away and had a car pool. There was Duke, Ann Kindschy, Donna Nicholes, and myself. I was coaching baseball and Duke was giving Ann some dual instruction in a 180 Cherokee that the flying club, in vale, owned. There were several men in on the ownership of the 180. One was named Herb Holton. While I coached baseball the other three car pool members drove back to Vale. Then Duke and Ann got in the 180 he gave her some dual while flying up to Harper. He landed on the road that went from Harper to the little town of Westfall. Right By Bob Harts driveway. I would catch a ride with the Smit boys driving to Westfall and fly home with Duke and Ann, while she got some more dual. This was before I had a pilots license.
This all came to an end when one of Dukes student Pilots took the 180 one night and with his wife, son and son's girl friend, flew to Boise for dinner. He had a drink or two with dinner and flew the plane back to Vale. Mind you he had no PPL, he was a student. It was dark off of the south end of the Vale airport and he had more weight that normal.As you have already guessed he stalled and crashed about 1/4 mile off of the approach end of 36. The two kids got out with bad burns, but the boy couldn't get his parents, who were hanging upside down, out of there seat belts.
That did away with the flying club and Duke, taking some of the blame, for the actions of his student, quit flying.
This past summer I made a flight with Duke's son Steve. Steve has a environmental business, that works in asbestos, etc. Steve needed to fly up to Helix, Or. Helix is about 20 miles North of Pendleton, OR. in the NE part of OR. I told steve that Bill Holton lived close to Helix and I would like to see him. I called Bill, who is the son of the part owner of the 180 Herb Holton, and told him of our plan. Now Bill just happened to wind up with 4558C, my old 170. He had made a strip on the hill behind his place. He said that he would have to mow it as he had since sold the 170 to a guy from Alaska. I told him what time and he said he had a car we could use to go to the school in Helix, where Steve had a job. This video I will post is a landing at Bill's strip in Helix. As you can see this is grain country and most of the fields had just been harvested when we made this flight. Please excuse the cuss words I slipped here and I have no excuse.( A landing and take off from Bill Holtons strip)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzQAZPZeP1o

 

[AdamZ]

Bob as always your post are some of my favorite to read and view. Thanks!

 

[Bob Bement]

( another story by Bob Bement)

I got a call from Malheur County Deputy Sheriff, Bob Speelman, at my home about a few minutes to 9:00 pm. It was in June or July ( I am sorry but I don't have my log book for dates). The year was about 2004. He asked me If I could make a flight to try to find a downed aircraft. I said I could and that I would go get the plane ready. I hurried out to the hangar and pushed the doors open. I swear that is when I am going to have to quit flying when I can't get those big sliding doors open anymore. This hangar belongs to the city and I think it was built shortly after WWII. The rollers are bad, the track is bad and my back is bad. I got 9054 November out and preflighted and wanted Bob to get there because we were running out of daylight. I didn't know it but, there was a conflict with the CAP as to who should get to fly to the scene. I can see if they are closer and can get there quicker. However I don't think that should slow down the search. Bob finally showed up and I knew that we didn't have time to plug the numbers into my GPS, we had to get going. So Off we went and I asked him which way and he said up above Brogan in the Pole creek area. I headed the plane that direction as I tried to plug in the Lat. Long. into my computer. I was having trouble getting it for some reason, I guess I had too many things going all at once. flying climbing adj. controls and trying to get the new bearing to work. Ah! finally there it is. I was already on course and made a slight correction to the right. Brogan is about 25 miles from Vale in a NW direction. I lined up on the GPS heading and we were both looking for some sign of the downed plane. We passed the way point and nothing. I went another couple miles and turned a 180 and came back on the heading and there it was. The reason we missed it the first time was because if was down under a rim rock and a steep down slope to the creek below. The airplane was a Glassair that had iced up and spiraled down from 15,000 feet. The plane had burned and had started a small fire that burned itself out. There was a a black circle with a grey cross in the middle. I punched the new way point button on the GPS and gave it to Speelman and he wrote it down and relayed it to Brian Wolfe in the Sheriff vehicle on the way to the scene. I told Brian, on the aircraft radio, that this is the pasture I had flown for Gary Smith and that if he could get Gary he might help find their way to the scene. He radioed back that Gary was right beside him in his rig. I thought maybe I had better just fly and not try to run everything. Brian is the under sheriff for the county,but was also a student of mine. They turned the CAP aircraft around as it was still 10 - 15 miles out. However a 172 Cessna did show up and stayed to damn long to suite me. I told Speelman either we are going or they are going. We were in the dark now and The 172 was assigned an altitude 1000 ft. above ours, and there he was his lights right out in front of my plane. Thats all we would need is to have two more planes down there. You are probably wondering why we needed to be there still. Well It seemed like the posse members hadn't quit figured out how to put a Lat. Long into a GPS. They had me fly over the site and flash my lights. Finally the 172 went back to Ontario and we got to stay. That wasn't any bargain as the area of the crash was just down from Cottonwood Mountain 6700 ft. MSL and up Pole Creek canyon. about 7 miles from Brogan. Flying toward the mountain was a black hole, and back toward Brogan there was a good amount of light. About 10:30 we finally headed for Vale. When we were circling I got a call from the pilot of the 172 telling me of a strong wind that gave him trouble landing at ONO. When I got back to Vale I circled the field and there was a strong wind out of about 280 degrees. Now we have a 10 -28 short (2000 Ft.) cross wind runway but it is unlighted. So it would be 36 for the landing. This wind was gusting to, God only knows what speed. Come to find out the pilot of the 172 dinged the ends of his prop landing in ONO. I set up a down wind for 36 and turned base. I noticed how black it is south of the approach end of 36. The crosswind took me a little past a straight lineup for 36 and I reminded myself to not bank to much when I was slow, I pushed the throttle in a little for the gust factor and gradually brought us in line with the runway. I had the left wing down and the right rudder pedal in to keep me lined up, but the wind would gust and then take it away and I was trying to keep up. I had my right hand on the throttle and left on the yoke. I was flopping around like a chicken with his head chopped off. I imagined that Bob Speelman was over there in the right seat thinking I hope we can walk away from this landing. I was doing every thing I could just to get it on the ground. Finally the left main tire touched down and I held the yoke to the left a little to keep that wing down. I got rid of the flaps with the Johnson Bar flap handle and got it slowed down and gave a sigh of relief . I taxied to the hangar and Bob helped me put the plane away. I think there was some words of thanks and a good job done. I patted 54 November on the cowling like you would a good friend. That is because she is. ~~~

 

[Bob Bement]

I was going to share a trip from S49 to (WMC) Winnemucca, NV. with this gal. She called and asked if her girl friend could ride along with us. I said sure, thinking the three of us would be a good load. But, when they showed up she had a boyfriend with her that would push 300 lbs. Each of these gals were over 200 lbs. and I am (sorry to say) about 235 lbs. I had about 30 gal. of fuel. It was cool and the runway is 4700' long, and elevation is 2249' at Vale, OR. (S49). I used a good bit of runway but was able to fly off with no trouble. I thought that one of them might ride home with someone else. That wasn't the case however, and it got worse as the elevation at WMC is 4308' and it was 2:30 PT when we were ready to head back home.I put in just enough fuel to get home + res. I don't know what the temp. was as I was afraid to look. I picked the longer of the two runways, thinking if I can't get out of ground effect I'll sit it back down and stop. We made it but it wasn't pretty. I will ask a few more questions if the situation ever happens again. So the point is I am still learning after all these years of flying. Don't ASSUME, I used to tell my Driver Ed. students. It can make an ASS out oF U and ME. I assumed there would be three instead there were 4 large people. Again my trusty 182 made up for my stupidity. Don't try to tell me that a Cessna 182 won't pack a load, Hell I had trouble getting them all in there and getting the seat belts around them. Live and learn had a whole new meaning for me.~~

 

[Bob Bement]

(This was moved from a post I had made on the Classroom thread earlier)

Bob's Ramblings: My wife has been ill and wanted me to get up to Portland to be with her. I needed my mechanic John McIntyre to do a 500 hour inspection on my Slick mags first. John asked me if I could drop he and his wife Anitia, off in Roseburg, OR on the way. I said sure.
The transfered post:
I flew to the Portland area on Thursday, by way of RBG ( Roseburg, OR.) The flight was good up until we got to the Cascade Mts. They had a couple of fires just east of Roseburg and it was really smoky. Then when we got a few miles out there was an overcast with 1100 ceiling over Roseburg. We had to get in a river bed and fly under the overcast the last 10-15 miles. I had my mechanic and his wife with me. He had just performed a 500 hour overhaul on my mags the day before. He put my plane in his hangar and wouldn't let me leave for a couple of hours until the weather got better. He is the greatest mechanic and friend a person could have. I am staying with my wife here in the Portland area for a while as she is not feeling well. Bob ~~

 

[Bob Bement]

I made a flight into Red's Horse Ranch with Tim McPherters and his son David. Tim was a real good sprinter when he was in High School. He would usually get four first place finishes for me in most track meets. He was my 100, 220, 440 relay and long jump man and we had a great relationship. He would do anything for me and I for him. This was David's birthday and we were taking him into Reds for that occasion. I had been into Reds for some reason a few days earlier and told them I was coming back and to have a cake baked, which they did. I was still flying the 170 at this time, about 1991 or 92. I told my wife when I got home that I had trouble climbing out of the Minam River canyon with the 170 with three of us, as it was warm that day. She said if I was going to do those kinds of flights I needed a better airplane. I knew a friend of mine that had an old 1959 182 that he had started to restore and he was going to sell it to a Doctor. I contacted the friend and he said he would rather sell it to me. He said it was all there it just needed to be put together. Well if it sounds to good to be true it probably is. To shorten this part of the story I sold my 170 to another friend named Rick Breashers and used that money to get into the 182. That was in 1992 and with the help of Marv Mcneil it took me 3 years to get it running, so I could fly it home. We had to install an engine that had about 200 HSMO, a fresh prop, overhaul all the accessories, new glass, tires, bat, some different radios, recover the seats that were just springs, firewall cover, carpet and other interior, some instruments, and controls, change the generator to an alternator, and a few other things I can't remember. But it has been a great airplane for me.
I was in my Vale house one night watching TV. and the phone rang. This lady was talking a mile a minute, said her name was Susan Bowker and she was the activity director at a Care Facility in Gresham, OR. She said she had a program called "Forget me not" and she tried to satisfy her residents wishes. She went on to tell me about a man named Francis Hoopes, he had been a pilot in his earlier days and he had suffered a severe stroke. He was in his 80s and in a wheelchair. His right side and speech had been severely affected. She started crying and continued to tell me that she couldn't find anyone to help her with his wish to take another airplane ride. She told me that a good friend of mine,and hers, Rick Breashers had given her my name. It seems that she called one pilot and he told her "lady that is expensive, and I gave at the office". I told her I would be glad to help her out, just let me know when. Well it seemed that Francis was a little under the weather at the time, but she would be contacting me. She called later and we set things all up. I would fly into Troutdale Airport TTD and give him a twenty minute flight. I needed to go to West Linn to see my wife anyways so it would give me an excuse. It would be a 300 mile flight each way. So I flew to West Linn the day before and spent the night, I got up early the next morning and went out to the little strip, called Aero Acres, where I had the plane tied down. I preflighted it and flew the short distance to TTD. I didn't have any trouble finding the spot I needed to go. After the controller had me land on 25, I taxied back to where all of the balloons, snoopy and the red baron cutouts, and the red carpet were laid out. There was also a whole bus load of residents there to give Francis morale support. I got out and met everyone, Francis and his wife, Susan, and the two that were going to ride along. Herb to video and Teresa a nurse. They brought a big husky guy to help load Francis and we all got in and ready and off we went to give Francis his ride. We preflighted, ran up and we were cleared to take off on 25. We climbed up to 2500 feet,turned up river, and I turned the plane over to Francis to fly. I kept my feet on the rudder pedals and he ran the yoke. We flew up the Columbia River to Cascade Locks CZK and I asked Francis if he wanted to shoot a landing at the strip there and he thought that would be great. So we did. ( there is a video of that landing in my videos.) We took off and flew back to TTD and Francis did almost all of the landing with the yoke I worked the flaps throttle and such. He was very happy and appreciative to get the opportunity to make this flight. We took some pictures of every one and then we loaded on a bus and went to eat. I have got a lot of nice things said about me for this flight, but I am here to tell you I got enough reward just seeing his eyes light up and see his smile. I was double happy! He showed the video I gave him to everyone that would watch. The Oregon Health Care Assoc. took my Video and edited it to make the one I posted on You tube. I visited Francis on Christmas that year and he passed away in June. I didn't make it to the funeral because I had flown to IL. and was on my way to Gastons for the annual fly-in for the POA forum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fOqaU96iLI

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Great stuff Bob, thanks for posting it here.

I'm waiting for the one that says "One day, some kid showed up in a newer 182, a 1971, and I showed him what real flying was about..."

 

[Bob Bement]

Great stuff Bob, thanks for posting it here.

I'm waiting for the one that says "One day, some kid showed up in a newer 182, a 1971, and I showed him what real flying was about..."

I don't have a video of that do I. I remember we took a ride in my old 182.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I don't have a video of that do I. I remember we took a ride in my old 182.

You did have the camera, and I think it was running for at least one of the landings.

 

[Bob Bement]

( More of Bob's ramblings)

I had a long cross country flight planned with my older brother Dick Bement and his wife Gay. The year was about 1997. We would be flying from Vale, OR. to Russellville, AR. My son Bob and his family lived In Russellville, where he had a job in the nuclear power plant. I had been pouring over all the charts I had bought for this trip. I had the route all programed into the GPS. It was a new GPS that my generous son Bob had bought for me. It was a new item at the time, an Appollo Presedus hand held. My son would be making the return flight with me and he thought that we needed to have one. I only had a nav/com, and transponder for radios in my 182. I had the fuel stops and the over night stop all planned. The first stop would be Rock Springs, WY. We got an early start of about 6:00 local or MT. Part of Malheur County is in MT. all went well on our flight to Rock Springs. We landed and topped off the tanks and I filed another flight plan, after getting a briefing. Then off we went on our way to Akron, CO., our next fuel stop location and waypoint. The cloud cover was building and the terrain was getting higher. I pressed on hopping I would be able to out climb the clouds. Now this was my very first long cross country and I was new at this game. I was about to get a lesson. I was climbing higher and higher to keep over these clouds, intent on staying on course. I thought I could out climb them. Before I realized it I was in a bad way I wasn't above that cloud in front of me and I didn't have room to turn back. And just like that I was inside a cloud and not a IFR pilot. I don't remember if I had any thoughts of " this is how it happens, this is how pilots get killed" I started a 180 turn to the left, and I was thinking I know some of these clouds are like donuts some plain and some filled with filling, Granite filling. I must have been thinking this as I was pulling back on the yoke to climb. That is until the stall warning horn started to make it's beeping sound. I immediately pushed the yoke forward and it quit. The thought of those mountains hiding in the clouds that now surrounded us made the stall horn go off again. Again I pushed the nose down. Finally we popped back out in the clear blue sky. I was happy and at the same time I was so mad at myself that I spent the rest of the trip beating myself up. I am not proud of this part of my story, but if it will help a young pilot I don't mind if it changes you opinion of me. They say EXPERIENCE is a good teacher, but the test comes first and the lesson comes later. If you don't pass the test,--- how can you learn something? We flew back a ways and turned a little to the north and picked up I-80 and followed it to Larramie, Wy. There we got into CAVU weather.
We picked up a real good tail wind and at times I saw 195 mph ground speed on the GPS. We landed at Akron and fueled and I filed again. We had planned on stopping in Oakley, KS. But, when we got there it was only about 1:00 PM local time,and we decided to try to make it in one day. The 40 + KT. wind was doing it's job. One more fuel stop just south of Wichita, at Arkansas City. We got to Russellville, AR. just before dark and we were glad to see my son there to greet us. It was a great trip except for, me nearly killing all of us. I promised myself that I would never get caught in a cloud again and I have kept that promise. I think it was Will Rogers that said," Good judgement comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgement. I used to tell my Driver Ed students, If you can learn from someone else's mistakes, you won't have to make the same mistakes yourself. This was a great cross country and one of many that I have the pleasure of making. But, I still can beat myself up for that bone head mistake. ~

 

[Bob Bement]

(A story that I have told before on here But you may have missed it)
I mentioned in one of my previous posts the fact that I have a younger brother named Ronnie. Ron was born down Syndrome. He likes to go flying with me even though he is afraid of heights. He doesn't like to go passed the second row in the football bleachers. He tells me," Low and slow,Bob". Since our folks are both deceased Ron stays with me or my other brother Roger Bement. Ron likes to get in the right front seat, get the headset on and put both hands on the yoke and help me fly. He doesn't try to over power me and so doesn't cause any trouble.
Rick Johnson called and said he needed to catch a ride with me to his Mud Flat ranch. Ron was staying with me at the time so he rode along in the back seat. When we got to the ranch Rick said he didn't need a ride back as someone was going to drive in and he would ride out with them. So I told Ron to get up front for the flight back home. He got in and went thru his routine, headset and yoke. I fired up and headed down the N - S runway. 54 November got ready to fly and I eased back on the yoke for takeoff. About this time Ron's seat headed for the baggage compartment. I yelled for him to let loose of the yoke, but I guess he thought that was the only thing keeping him from falling right out of the plane. He held on tight and wouldn't let go. I on the other side of the front seat I was pushing forward on the yoke as hard as I could and I finally pulled him forward to where his seat pin dropped into a hole and he relaxed his arms and I leveled off just short of a hammer head stall.
The next time I ran into my friend Rick, he asked what kind of a take off I used at the ranch last time? I seemed to go up a lot steeper that usual. I told him that was a Ron takeoff, and he was doing the flying.~ ~ ~

 

[Bob Bement]

#58
Bob Bement



Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 2,222
Re: Paging Bob Bement!
( some more of the same from Bob )

There is an old Vale family by the name of Wilcox that are well know in the Vale community. Two of the Wilcox boys, Dave and John went on from Vale, High school to play football in the NFL. John for the Eagles the year that they won the championship. 1960 or thereabouts. Dave played his entire 12 or 13 seasons with the 49ers. Dave was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2001 with a great group of Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, Howie Long, and a owner of one of the teams. Another brother Charles, or Smiley as they called him bought the Clover Creek Ranch along with his wife Joyce, and his son Rick and Rick's wife Judy. I loved to fly into the ranch if for no other reason then to just have a cup of coffee. The ranch is about due west from Vale about 40 miles in distance. About a 15 minute flight. That is what we were doing this morning, with my friend John Tiffany we were after a cup of coffee. Usually this strip is in good shape as the Ironside road district grades the strip when they bring the grader in the 14 miles from Highway 26. I had forgotten that Steve Miner had passed away over the winter with a sudden heart attack. The new grader operator didn't know the routine. The cows had been out in the strip when it was really wet, leaving huge tracks all over the runway. I was afraid that it was going to shake my radios out of the plane.
I remember one time I had flown into the ranch, way back in the early 1980s. The wilcox family was having a reunion. My brother Roger, who had played football with Dave in HS, wanted me to take him up to the ranch to visit his team mate for a while. When we got up there Dave wanted to take a ride around the ranch to look it over from the air. His 15 year old boy Josh was going to ride along with us. We loaded up and took off and started a circle around the ranch property. This ranch has a lot of juniper trees and other timber in the higher terrain. We saw a few head of deer and then we saw six branch bull elk in one spot. Well Dave and Josh got real excited and told me to circle back around. I started a circle and Dave said "oh darn we have lost them", I reminded him that it takes a while to make a full circle, and that I would put them right under his side of the plane. I flew right over them and then just a little farther away was another bigger bull elk. So there were seven all together. They were impressed and they were telling everyone of our find when we landed the 170 back at the ranch.
Later on another time when Smiley passed away they had a funeral on the ranch and they fixed a spot to bury him on a hill where Joyce could see from her big old kitchen window. A lot of the family was there. Well one of Dave's boys, Justin is the Defensive coordinator for the Boise State Broncos. He had practice and needed to get back early. So I flew up to the funeral and right after it was over I flew Justin back to Vale where his car was and he made it to Boise in time for the practice.
I get a call from time to time that they can't find some cattle and wonder if I can fly up and take Joyce, Luke and Cody, their two boys to look for the lost cattle. I get a kick out of those two boys. they were just little when we started doing this but they acted like they were way older then their years. I think it was because they were around older people all of the time. I love that slow flight looking for the cattle, with a couple notches of Flaps, hand on the throttle, cowl flaps wide open, and watch the mixture doesn't get lean. That is fun.
A lot of time in the winter months when the runway has to much snow on to land. At a time when I need a flying fix, I would buy a Sunday paper and fly over, open the window and let it go. I had an old guy by the name of Leroy Barton that dropped the paper for me one day and it hit on the roof of the front porch, bounced off and landed at the bottom of the steps. Hell my paper boy in town doesn't do that good from his bicycle.
I love to fly into Clover Creek Ranch, But I don't do it as much with the fuel prices getting so high. It is a great place to go however. ~ ~ ~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esx_qqf1Qsk

 

[bbchien]

Bob I love reading these.
The Instructor who gave me my CFI-I add on rating just wrote her recollections at age 83. She published them, for heaven's sake you need to so as well.

When a couple showed up in the FBO for $15 I put $15 under the door of the CFI who had them with a note, "but I want it autographed" Got it this am under my door with Jeannie McLaughlin's signature in tht front.

If you need help orgainzing this I think I can do it.

 

[Bob Bement]

Bob I love reading these.
The Instructor who gave me my CFI-I add on rating just wrote her recollections at age 83. She published them, for heaven's sake you need to so as well.

When a couple showed up in the FBO for $15 I put $15 under the door of the CFI who had them with a note, "but I want it autographed" Got it this am under my door with Jeannie McLaughlin's signature in tht front.

If you need help orgainzing this I think I can do it.

Bruce, Several on the Purple have told me that as well that I needed to write a book. I don't know if I am up to it. I am just doing what a fellow pilot asked me to do share withe them. If I decide I will call on you. Thanks for the offer. Bob

 

[Bob Bement]

( A continuation of Bob's ramblings)

I was reading a flying magazine at home one night, I don't remember which one. I told my wife, "here is a book I would like to read, about a guy that few in the Berlin airlift". She said then order it, and so I did. I ordered an autographed copy and I sent a little address card in my letter. It was one I had printed with a picture of my old 170 on it. I explained that the address was correct but that I now flew a 1959 Cessna 182. A few weeks later here came a package, with brown wrapping paper and it was my new book. I hurriedly unwrapped it and started reading it. The book title was THE BERLIN CANDY BOMBER by Gail S. Halvorsen. It was a great read and I got into it and read until late the night I got it. The next day I was back at it again and really enjoying the book. My wife got my attention and asked me if I had seen what was written on the outside of the book wrapping paper. I laid the book down and went over to look, and there on the outside was a little message: I WOULD SURE LIKE TO TAKE A RIDE IN THAT 182 SOMETIME. GSH. I couldn't believe it the candy Bomber wanted to go flying with me. I finished reading his book and then I sent him a letter to the return address on the package he had sent me. I asked him if he ever gave any community talks about his airlift days. He wrote back and said yes he had one scheduled in Seattle, Phoenix, and one other. I thought that doesn't sound like Vale,OR. with 1900 population. I wrote back and told him if he could come to Vale and give a talk, I in turn would give him a flight into the Frank Church Wilderness area and the Middle fork of the Salmon. He liked the sound of that and said, that had always been a dream of his to see that part of the world. I finally looked up his phone number and gave him a call. We had to put our plans on hold as his wife had just died with a sudden heart attack. When we got back to our plan he told me there had been some change that took place in his life. It seems when he went to Phoenix there was a woman that had been his girl when he went off to the war in the 40s. She didn't wait for him and had married another. It seems that her husband had also passed away and so they got together to talk about old times. They started going with each other and they finally got married about the time he was to come to Vale. He said that they had a travel trailer and they would be taking a little honeymoon trip when they came to Vale. We had the talk scheduled for the 12th of July and we would be flying into the back country on the 10th, 1999.The 10th was a Sat. and so his talk was on Mon. eve at the LDS church in Vale. They got to Vale on the 9th and we had a back yard BBQ in Ontario at a member of the Ontario EAA club. He was a hit with all including the young people that were there. We left early the next morning and flew over to Ontario to meet up with some members of the EAA group that were going to fly along with us. Only one plane was ready to go and so we didn't wait around we got going. Our first stop was to be Sulphur Creek Lodge for breakfast. Sulphur Creek is about 5 miles west, off of the Middle fork of the Salmon River. It is a few miles inside of the wilderness are so it is a roadless area. The airplane that had started out with us gave me a radio call and said they had an exhaust problem and something came loose and they were returning to Ontario. We flew over Cascade, and the Cascade Reservoir and then over Warm lake and Johnson Creek, Landmark FS landing strip,one more mountain range and we were in the head waters of Sulphur Creek. I had my video camera with us and it was in Gail's hands, so he was doing all of the videoing. He was doing the commentary as well. We lost altitude from about 8500 ft down to 6800 to set up a landing back to the west we went down almost to the middle fork of the Salmon. Then we flew back up the Creek to land at the lodge. Gail in the right seat and Loraine, his new wife, in the back. We parked and got out and took some pictures and then went in and had breakfast. Eventually the EAA group arrived, but we didn't wait for them so we loaded up took off and headed down the Middle fork toward Indian Creek landing strip. We weren't going to land there but we turned up Marble Creek on our way to a strip called Chamberlain Basin. We over flew several strips as we went down the middle fork. Pistol Creek, Thomas creek and Indian Creek. We passed over the Big Creek landing strip and I noticed two planes circling to land, it looked like, but we headed on North for Chamberlain. I had never been into this strip before but it was 4100 ft long, so how could a person get in trouble here. I set up and made a standard left hand approach. I can't remember the exact elevation and I don't have my Fly Idaho book with me. I noticed we were close to the tree tops landing this way. They told me later right traffic works better as the valley turns to the north off of that end of the runway. Oh well live and learn. I parked the airplane and Gail and Loraine went for a walk out in the timber. I sure hoped they didn't get lost. The Ontario EAA group arrived and I had to move my plane as I was not parked where they were going to set up camp. They were going to cook an evening meal for all of us and we were going to leave when the sun went down and it cooled off some due to DA. They had some dutch ovens and an ice cream maker. They cooked a stew like main dish, we had salad, homemade Ice cream, and a cobbler dish cooked in a dutch oven. It was really good. We had some great stories as we ate. Hal and Loraine told us they saw a cow moose on there walk out in the timber earlier. When it had cooled off we loaded our stuff in the 182 and off we went back to Vale We went down the main Salmon and then over Warren, ID., Mccall and back home. I got to introduce the Candy Bomber at his talk to a full house on Monday. He gave a great talk and the people all loved him. That night my wife cooked a nice supper for the Halvorsons and we shared some great fellow ship. This flight was one of my most memorable flights and rates up there with the flight that I got to give Francis Hoopes. ~ ~ ~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR0qs-F4Woc

 

[Bob Bement]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8BtHWfDemY

 

[Bob Bement]

Re: Paging Bob Bement!
Each year I donate an airplane ride for our local Mural Society auction. We have about 30 building sized murals, in our little town, to try to draw a few tourists to town. We are located on the Old Oregon Trail, in fact we are the first Oregon town on the Oregon Trail. I have been doing this for a number of years now. I have one old guy that tries to buy it each year. His name is Benny Maag, and he loves to go flying with me. He took his brother Emil a couple times, until Emil's health failed. Now he likes to take along his friend Keith Gressley. Benny is a retired farmer and Keith is, too. Keith trained in P-47 in WWII, but didn't get in the action before the end of the war. They are both in their eighties, but still get around pretty good. In the last year Benny has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Now I have about run out of places to take him, but when the Big Creek Lodge burned down a couple of years ago, Mackay Bar opened theirs to the public. It used to cost $25.00 to land at Mackay Bar landing strip. I had never landed at this strip and so I got on the computer and watched a video of another pilot landing there. I think he was a pilot with an instructor, but I couldn't hear as they didn't have their intercom hooked up like I do. Anyways we set a date and I emailed the lodge that we were coming in. It was on a Sat. and turned out to be a great day. It is about 96 air miles the way the crow flies. We took off and flew over Cascade Res. just a little NW of Yellow Pine and we flew into the south Fork of the Salmon River and then followed it to Mackay Bar. It lays in between two sharp bends in the Main Salmon River, just above where the South fork dumps into the main River. Just below the landing strip and the lodge the main Salmon makes about a 180 degree turn. We flew about 5 miles up the main river canyon and then made a turn to head back for a landing . The Strip is not high, elevation wise, and DA is not a problem. The tops of the ridges on each side of the river are in the area of 8200 ft. So you are about 6000 ft. down in the canyon. The air was full of airplanes this day it seemed and I had a hard time giving my call, that I was on a final for landing at Mackay Bar. You can't see the landing strip until you make a sweeping left turn on short final. You had better crowd the right bank and be close to the trees on that side also. As I said this was my first and only attempt at a landing here. To tell you the truth I was a little anxious. Luckily everything went ok and I got it on the ground. I had to make a slight turn to the right as I didn't know exactly where the grass strip really was. We got parked and went and got some breakfast. There were quite a few other pilots doing the same thing. They recommend taking off up stream but I decided to take off down stream. I didn't want to take off into all of that traffic that was landing down river. This take off is a little tricky If you look closely at my video as I am taxiing to parking you can see what it looks like on that end of the runway to takeoff. You have to get in the air try to build all the speed you can and then make a 180 degree turn and try to climb a little at the same time. Or else try to go up the South Fork which is not straight ahead either. I wish I could have gotten a video of the take off, but I turned the camera off instead of on. I told someone I was trying to fly and video at the same time and I would rather screw up on the videoing than the flying. We had a great time and a nice flight home. As I write this I don't know how Benny is doing, Back in Vale, as I haven't heard. I know they gave him 6 months and he had out lived that. ~ ~ ~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EPJkvyIt_E

 

[David7700]

You should definitely publish them! Great stories, Bob.

 

[Bob Bement]

(Ramblings from Bob Cont.)

I got this call from an old cowboy up Ironside way and he asked me if I had ever run and horses. I told him that I had helped the Ross brothers, John and Don and a guy named Roland Hyde, up on Hoodo Ridge, when I was about a 14 year old kid. We were trying to get a horse in for a bucking horse, as Roland had a bucking string he used in Rodeos, at that time. Well it seemed this old guy wanted me to run them with my airplane. He said that they got into a large field that belonged to the BLM and they were going to get him for trespassing. This field was like 10 miles square. I told him I didn't have a very good airplane for running horses, as it didn't slow down real good. Well he talked me into giving it a try. I Got my friend Marv McNeill to help me. We got some small sacks, and some small sized stones. We put some flour and a couple rocks in each paper sack. then we stapled up the bags. The thing we were going to try was to get in behind the horses and as i turned away Marv would drop a sac in behind them to scare them. So we loaded up our sacks and got the plane ready, I didn't add any fuel as I had enough for about two hours and it would only take us fifteen minutes to get up where this pasture was. It turned out to be in the same area where Bob Speelman and I had found the downed Glassair. It was a little farther east but the pasture ran from Pole Creek to Thorn Flat. They were going to take the fence down in the south west corner of this pasture and if we could get them up close they had someone on horse back to help. So we got to the area and after a few minutes Marv and I located the horses . I got slowed down with two notches of flaps, and with the cowl flaps wide open and the mixture enrichened we made a move to the side away from where we wanted them to go. Marv opened his window and as I turned to the left he let a sack go. It did the trick, as the flour sack blew up the horses took off in the right direction. By repeating this procedure we moved the horses up a ridge and through a little draw and then out on the flat and toward the open spot in the fence. Boy this was a piece of cake. Nothing to it. About this time in came this cowboy on his horse and ran right up to our horses and scattered them back the way they had come. I couldn't believe it all he had to do was stay back and just follow them. So now we had to go get them and go through the whole drill again. This area was in some rim rock terrain and this slow flight, this close to the ground was getting a little stressful. We managed to get them back and headed the correct direction once more. We had to circle repeatedly as the horses were getting tired and were getting used to the flour sacks. We had them going for the hole in the fence and here comes our rider again and I'll be damned if he didn't do the very same thing. Well I had had it with this guy and I told Marv, I am like the monkey that was making love to the skunk. I have enjoyed all of this I can stand. We left for Vale and to hell with running any more horses today. My gas gauges were banging in the red by now and I was anxious to get this thing back on the ground. I saw the old guy that had called me a few days later and he said no problem the young kid he got to help didn't know what to do. The horses came into a coral and a gal got around and closed the gate and they moved them in a truck. I sure got to practice a lot of good slow flight, hand on the throttle in some rough terrain. Good stuff.~ ~ ~

 

[Bob Bement]

#84
Bob Bement



Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 2,224
Re: Paging Bob Bement!
(Another story by Bob)

My wife stays in the Condo in West Linn, which is on the SE part of Portland, OR. area. I stay in Vale, Or. in the summer as that is where my airplane is and I am the airport manager, also I fly for the County Sheriff some. I needed to make a run to Portland to see her, so when Steve Paulson called and said he needed to go to Portland, it worked out just right. Now the flight from Vale to Oregon City, where I land, is a nice flight of 279 SM. It is a pretty flight and the route is over Bully Creek Reservoir, back side of Cottonwood mountain, east of the Clover Creek ranch. West of Ironside Mt., North fork of the Malheur River, North of Strawberry Mt. pass over John Day, N. of the little town of Dayville. Almost directly over the Kimberly VOR, North of Mitchell. town of Antelope, N of Madras, S of Maupin, Over Timothy Lake which lays south of Mt. Hood 11.225 ft high. Just a little farther and I start my let down for Aero Acres where I land. It is close to the Condo. If I have low clouds I have to go to the Dalles and fly down the columbia River Gorge. I have been stranded in The Dalles, Hood River, Cascade Locks and Troutdale by low ceilings and visibilities. Today however we could go straight over the top. We landed and my wife picked us up. We took Steve to his job and then we went to eat. My older brother went along with us, at this point he was not doing very good, as he had advanced prostate cancer. After we ate we went and retrieved Steve. My wife run us back to the airport, and we headed for Bend, OR. Steve asked me if we could stop at a place called Brothers, OR. on our return trip back to Vale. I asked him if there was a landing strip there, and he informed me that there was. So we flew over the Cascades and landed at Bend, OR. airport for a load of 100LL avgas. We took off and headed for Brothers about 45 miles away. When I got there I flew over the landing strip and lo and behold there were about 40 old cars in all conditions parked almost the length of this old strip. I'll bet it hadn't been used in 20 years. So I made a circle and found a gravel road that came in from the NW that had room to land in between two cattle guards. I made another circle and set up for a landing over the first cattle guard and got stopped before we arrived at the second one. Which we were able to do. Steve had to check a school for Lead in paint. It didn't take long and we walked the 1/2 mile back to where 54 November was parked and we were out of there.The flight home took us over Burns, Juntura and home. A nice visit with familly and a little work done by Steve. A good days flight! ~ ~ ~

This is a takeoff from Aero Acres and a flight over the Cascades to Bend. Just not this flight in my story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVJ6GRFv1Fw

 

[Bob Bement]

( another story from Bob)

Our good friends Dorrance and Darlene Standage, invited Essie and me to stay with them at their cabin on Cascade Lake. Dorrance and I were the starting guards on the 1952 Vale basketball team. We have been friends since the freshman year in H.S. He and his family bought this nice place on the lake as a retreat. It is a lot more than a cabin, it is two story, and a basement. With a big play room over the garage. From Vale it is about a 2 hour drive. I explained to my wife it was only a 31 minute flight. They could pick us up at the Cascade airport and we could take them to breakfast in Cascade. She finally agreed and it was all set. I got a call from Dorrance about an hour before we were to leave and he said the wind was blowing fairly hard at their place. I told him that was ok and we would see him there. I checked and the wind, and it was blowing but not to extremes and Cascade had a nice long runway. U70 Cascade is 4300 ft long and 60 feet wide, runway is 12/30, field elev. 4742'. When we loaded our gear in the 182 in Vale the wind was just a breeze. The wind was out of the west and we would be flying almost due east so we would have a little tailwind. Every thing went smooth until about 10 miles out of Cascade. You see Cascade lays in a big Valley surrounded by some good sized mountains. When we came over the ridge on the west side of the valley and started loosing altitute all hell broke loose. The wind had picked up form the breeze we started out with, to a strong west wind. As it blew over this ridge it must be rolling over and over. Some of the things we had sitting on the back seat, of the plane, were now in the air heading for there final resting place, of on the floor. I had my right hand under my seat holding on for dear life. I looked over at my wife, that wanted to drive and not fly, and the look on her face was not one of happiness. Now if this wasn't bad enough, a voice came in over our radio and straight into my wifes ears, " What does it look like, Mike". (answer) "Well it is upside down on its back and I don't see anybody moving around". (First Voice)" OK. Mike." So not only are we on an airplane that is acting like old widow maker, out of chute number four, but there has been an airplane crash in the back country, evidently. I tried to get lower to the ground to see if it would get better but it didn't seem to help much, but it did seem to be getting a little better the farther we got away from that ridge we came over. I set up crosswind for a landing on 12 and was thinking that is going to be a crosswind as it is a west wind blowing. It turned out the wind wasn't blowing that hard on the ground and I made a uneventful landing and taxied to parking, where Dorrance and Darlene were waiting for us. My wife was still a little shook up and had a hard time picking up her overnight case. She was still shaking so bad. We had a good weekend visit and a great flight home, with no WIND. ~ ~ ~
__________________

 

[Bob Bement]

( Rambling Cont.)

I flew to La Grande, OR. and picked up a long time friend, Ken "Pug" Musgrove, he was also, a High school teammate of mine. We had planned a flight into the Minam Lodge for breakfast. My neighbor, that lives right behind me in Vale, has a daughter that lives in the same town as Pug and her husband Mike , was going to ride along. We loaded into the 182 after I shut down, at the La Grande airport, and headed out to the east for the short 17 mile flight to the Minam. We would have to climb fast as the elevation is 2717 at La Grande and the pass we had to fly over is at about 6000 ft. We flew just south of Mt. Fanny, over what is called Moss Springs. This is the end of the closest road to the Minam Lodge. This is where the horse people park their rigs, when they ride into the lodge. It is about 8 miles from Moss Springs to the Minam Lodge. The elevation is 3600 ft at the strip there. Once you go over the top of the ridge you have to start letting down as you go down the canyon caused by the Little Minam. I got down to about 5000 ft as I crossed over the hog back ridge that is just to the west of the Minam and Reds Horse ranch. Now we turned down wind for a up canyon landing, I had to hug the right side of the canyon to make a canyon turn down in this canyon. The tops of the ridges on each side are about 7500 ft. and the strip is 3600' as I mentioned. So we are about 4000 Ft. below the top. It is important to go down far enough so you don't arrive over the threshold too hot and too high. The strip is about 2000 ft long and has a little bend to the left at the end. Gravel and grass. We made the turn and started back up stream. The intercom had been busy, but for some reason got quite all at once. We were over the river and getting closer and closer to the tops of those big pine trees. There is a slot in the trees we went through, then over the river, fence and flare, just a shot of throttle, hold it off, hold it off, Beep, Beep went the stall warning and we were down at the Minam. We had a good breakfast and the trip home was just a nice flight with a great old friend.

I got word just four days ago, Dec. 19, 2009, that My old team mate had died, at the La Grande hospital. He had been sick for a while. It set me on a memory trail of those good days in Vale, HS when Pug and I played Football and Basketball together. He was the tailback in our single wing formation. I was his favorite target to throw to. My highlite had to be the Baker City game that we won 7-6 when the Bulldogs were rated 9th in the state of Or. Pug threw me a 30 yard TD pass for our only score. We finished the season with one loss, a little town of 1900 finishing in the top 8 teams in the state. We lost our first game in the semi-finals. We were on the first team in basketball, he was only 6 ft. tall, but our leading rebounder. I was the point guard on that team. I was sad to get the news that my team mate had died. He and his wife Gayle, have spent some great times with my wife and me. RIP Pug old buddy. ~ ~ ~

This is not the video that goes with this trip into this place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVxDKXJWkT8

This is an overhead photo of Red's horse ranch in the right of the photo and the minam on the left.

 

[Bob Bement]

( Rambling on by Bob)

Talking about my team mate Pug Musgrove reminded me of a flight I made to Clover Creek Ranch with him and my brother, Dick. They were having a Vale High School athletic reunion. On the last day, Sunday , they were going to have a breakfast at 10:00 AM at the Welcome Inn. I talked Pug and Dick into going for a quick trip up to the ranch for coffee and talk to Joyce and Smiley. I still had the 170 Cessna at that time. It was sometime in the late 80s. I remember Dick had his Video camera going. We landed with no problems and had our visit and coffee with the Wilcoxes. When we got ready to leave I had to taxi to the upper end of the landing strip for the down slope takeoff. The 170 only had 145 horses and I wouldn't make it if I tried to takeoff upslope. Now for some stupid reason I pulled to the far right of the runway to make my turn around at the upper end for takeoff. My back wheel was only a foot or two off of the runway. I didn't see the badger hole, as the grader operator had removed all of the, above ground, dirt. My Maule tail wheel dropped into that hole, It was like a post hole. The rear of my plane dropped down as the tailwheel broke clean off. I shut down and we got out to look to see what had happened. It wasn't flyable and we took off walking back to the ranch. I remember one of them saying: " He ain't much of a bush pilot, we fly in and walk out". We had to borrow a pickup from Smiley and got back just in time to get into the back of the line for Breakfast. They each had fun relating that story to all, at my expense.

Now both Pug and Dick are both gone west. I have a few more stories about flying with my brother Dick I will have to share with you later. ~ ~ ~

 

[wpierce]

Bob, I was going to offer to transfer from one board to the other, but it appears you are up to date! Well done you old computer neophyte!

 

[Bob Bement]

Bob, I was going to offer to transfer from one board to the other, but it appears you are up to date! Well done you old computer neophyte!

Thanks Wayne I need all of the help I can get. I spent a while transferring.

 

[Bob Bement]

(Bob's ramblings Cont.)

My brother Dick was 18 months older then I was, however we were almost like twins. He had decided to spend two years in one of his grade school classes. That put the two of us in the same grade. We played football together, and we broke horses together, and we flew airplanes together. He wasn't a pilot, his love was fast speed boats, and speed water skiing. Late in his boating days he got injured badly in a crash of his boat. a broken Femur, and the nerves in his left shoulder were damaged to the point that his arm just hung at his side. He was a great brother and I still miss him a great deal.

One day when I had my Cassna 170 we had made a trip to Clover Creek to visit. We were on the return flight to Vale. We had to go through the saddle between Cotton Wood Mt. and Juniper Mt. which is about 5500 ft. I was letting Dick fly from the right seat, as he liked to try his hand at flying. Now he hadn't flown much and I probably hadn't explained everything to him about what did what, and why. After crossing over the saddle in between the two mountains, I said we had to loose some altitude. I guess he didn't hear me, and I rolled in some down trim. A few minutes I noticed we weren't loosing much altitude and I rolled in some more nose down trim. After a few more minutes he told me that I was going to have to take it. When I took the yoke I found out why he needed me to take it back, as I had him loaded up with about 100 lbs as he tried to hold our altitude. We both got a big laugh out of it as he told me," God, I thought you must be the strongest guy in the world to hold that for hours."
He was one of the first ones to go for a flight with me in the 182 when I first got it restored and flying. It was only shortly after that when we dropped our folks ashes over Bully Creek Reservoir. Brother Dick and Roger went along and helped me, and youger brother Ron was on the ground at the park with the wives watching and taking pictures. Ron didn't want to go as he was not sure about flying at that time. I was a real emotional time for us as our parents would never think of putting Ron away so to speak. He was always treated like all of the rest of us. So we brothers decide we would take turns taking Ron in with us. Ron has a room at each place with his pictures and personal items there. We try not to move him until he has spent at least 3 months in one place. Now it is down to brother Roger and myself, and Ron stays at the Bement Ranch with Roger most of the time. Ron is 59 years old. Dick died at 68 with prostate cancer. ~ ~ ~


This video of landing at the Roger Bement ranch, to pick up my other brother Ronnie. He was going to Vale with me to help me drive truck and help my good friend Dorrance Standage get his farm crops out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zalHuulykEA
__________________

 

[Bob Bement]

( some more ramblings)

Re: Paging Bob Bement!
I got a call one late afternoon from the County Sheriff dispatch. They needed an airplane to go search for a lost 2 year old. It seems that he was with his grandmother out in the Mud Flat area, 45 miles south of Vale. He wandered away and they couldn't find him. This area has some tall sage brush. They said it was near McNulty reservoir. I told them I would get the plane ready for when the deputy got there. I hurried out to the airport, it is only a mile from my place , and got the airplane out and checked fuel, oil and did a walk around. I got mud flat up on the GPS. I had it programed into the user way points already. I had been to the McNulty reservoir before and knew it would only be a few degrees off of the Mud Flat heading. Greg the Deputy got there and we took off and I headed in that direction. The deputy was sort of amazed when I flew straight to the location. We only had a few hours of daylight left so we started a low level search of the area. I could see that they had a ground search going on and my friend and deputy, Bob Speelman was on the ground. The road they were on was also the dirt dam that made this reservoir. That is where they were parked when the young boy disappeared. There was also some water still in this stock watering reservoir. I was making some really low slow passes over this area trying to see the little guy. Greg made the comment he had never flown this close to the ground with out landing. I wished that we were flying an airplane that would fly a little slower. We didn't need to get any lower, in fact if we had we would be on the ground. Just before dark I got a call from another pilot Dale Cruson. He said that he was at the reservoir but there weren't any vehicles there. I told him he was at the wrong place and asked him to describe where he was. He said there was a wind mill there and a reservoir. I told him he was at the Copeland place and to follow the road to the east about 4-5 miles to get to our location. Bob Belnap in his helicopter was following him as well. They had been following the Crowley road to find the McNulty. We had to leave and go back to Vale as we ran out of daylight. The little guy was still missing. I got another call early the next morning that they wanted me to fly again if I could. I said sure and met a different deputy, last name Hunsager who would be my spotter this day. I checked 54N over we loaded up and headed back to the location again. We were assigned and area to search and we began making passes. Our search area took us from the low area below the reservoir to the Copland or the Crowley road. This deputy didn't like it so low to the ground, and so he had me gain a little altitude. All we found was a lost sheep that had strayed away from a flock that was a few miles to the north. After an hour of this flying we flew over to the Mud Flat strip and landed, so we could stretch our legs and other functions we needed to attend to. We had only been back in the air for a short time when we got word that the little boy had been found. It seems that two of Rick Johnson's daughters on horse back were moving a bull back toward their ranch from the search area, when one of the girls heard something that sounded like a wimper. They followed the sound and found him under a sage brush and next to a large rock. He was scratched and had some ant bites but was ok otherwise. He was hungry and when one of the girls offered him her apple. He took it and started eating it. We went back to Vale and put the plane away. We were glad that things turned out like they did. One searcher said there were cougar tracks found in the area, and another said a cougar was spotted a short distance away. This is a very remote area and the Boise TV channel 7 that sent a unit to cover this story had two flat tires trying to get to the location. ~ ~

 

[SCCutler]

Man, Bob, as a father, that story made my stomach tumble!

Keep 'em comin'!

 

[Bob Bement]

I have a few more, but we had to take my wife, Essie, into the hospital this AM for a couple units of blood. Her RBC and Hemoglobin count were way low and she had gotten dehydrated to boot. I may not get back to you for a spell. Just be patient and I will post some more in time. Bob

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

I have a few more, but we had to take my wife, Essie, into the hospital this AM for a couple units of blood. Her RBC and Hemoglobin count were way low and she had gotten dehydrated to boot. I may not get back to you for a spell. Just be patient and I will post some more in time. Bob

Ok, we will be praying for her.

And we will be patient - we know you have other priorities right now.

 

[Bob Bement]

( Ramblings cont.)

Wayne Pierce wrote that I should let my wife write a story entitled " I remember when the danged fool took his airplane to ----------." and it reminded me of the time we went to Portland. My Vale Viking football team was playing at The Dalles, in football. I was talking to Doctor Bob Davis, he is like the team doctor. I told him I was planning on flying up to the game. He said he would like to go along. So the 4 of us planned the trip. Bob's folks live in The Dalles, OR. so we would drop them off in The Dalles and then we would fly on to Portland, and spend time with out daughter and her family. We didn't have the condo in West Linn at this time. It must have been about 2004, or there abouts. I planed on coming back to the game that Friday night with my daughter Beckie, as I didn't want to fly the Columbia River gorge at night. Friday afternoon we loaded up in the Cessna, Bob, his wife Betsy, Essie and myself. We headed for The Dalles. We had a head wind and the flight took us about one hour and forty five minutes. When we got to The Dalles the wind was really getting with it. The wind was out of the west. There was a high pressure area on the west side of the Cascades, and a low pressure area on the east side. I think some of the wind molecules had spread the word that it was easier to just blow down the Columbia River Gorge, rather than go clear up and over the Cascade mountains. So most of the air was crowding up the Gorge. I picked runway 25 for our landing, a 4647 foot long and 100 foot wide strip of asphalt. We landed with no problem as we didn't roll far before we were stopped. The hard part was taxiing to the gas pump and the plane was rocking as the attendant fueled the plane. We left Bob and Betsy and my wife and I got back in and took of for our short flight on into Aero Acres. This is where the fun began. The wind picked up as we started down the Columbia River Gorge. Hood River is called the wind surfing capital of the world, there is a reason for that. The wind was moving us around pretty good, and I had a ground speed of 102 miles an hour. It was a little bumpy, too. Later my wife told me that see thought it might be better if she just looked out the side window, at the hill on her side of the plane. So she said she was looking out the side window and never moved her head and the next thing she knew she was looking at the River below. The wind picked up my left wing and knocked my right wing down at the same time and I had to move the yoke completely to the left to get back on the level. We continued on in silence for quite a while. I don't know why but I can make a trip clear across Oregon at times and it is so calm and clear that it is sometimes boring. But, let my wife get in the plane and it seems like I always have something happen. We didn't have any more problems on the trip to the Portland area. We picked up Bob and Betsy on Sunday about noon and flew back to Vale. We did make a stop at Clover Creek ranch to drop of the Sunday Oregonian News paper and have a cup of coffee. It was a good flight except for that one little dipsie doodel in the gorge. ~ ~ ~
__________________

 

[Bob Bement]

( Rambling on)

About 1985 we were thinking about elk hunting. We were going to make a camp at my dad's cousin's place the Herman Laurance cow camp. My father and Herman's wife Maria, were first cousins.This place is situated at the foot of Ironside Mountain. My folks, Jack and Laura Bement, along with brother Ron were already there. They had driven over from Hammond, Or. on the Oregon coast by Astoria, OR. They pulled a 18 foot camp trailer that they named TIRE'D TEEPEE! We would have the whole Bement family there for elk season this year. There would be Roger and Jan, Dick and Gay and myself. My wife didn't care about tent camping so she begged off going.
It was still a few days away and my brother Dick and I decided to fly up and visit the folks. We had told them in advance that if we flew over to come down to the Lockhart crossing landing strip and pick us up. We were all ready to go, when my other brother Roger said he wanted to go with us. Now I had the 170 and three of us on that strip at about 4000 ft MSL. might be a little much. The strip is high in the middle and low on each end. Read here it is a hill in the middle. It is about 1700 ft long and the county road is actually part of the landing strip. The road comes into the strip about half way from each end and then goes away only to make a bend and cross the strip at the south west end of the strip. Well, I told them we would have to drop them a note and tell them not to come pick us up. We wrote the note and fastened it to a home made parachute. Brother Roger in the back seat was assigned the job to drop the note as we passed over the cow camp.We made the 40 minute flight up there and got ready to drop our sure fired communication. My brother got a little anxious and dropped the note before we got over the camp. They were watching us and didn't see the note come out of the plane or drop on the other side of the road from them. I watched as Herman, Ron and dad loaded into the pickup to come get us. I told my brothers we will have to land now or they will be mad at us. So we circled around and made a landing back to the north east. We decided that we would go back with them and visit and because the temperature wasn't all that high, and we would have a little head wind we would be able to fly back out of there with all three of us. So we had a nice visit back at the cow camp with the folks and Herman and Maria. Herman was a real cowboy and Maria met him when she was a horseback. They had been ranchers their whole lives. Their home place was just about two miles north of Vale. Where they raised the hay to feed their cattle in the winter time. We finally decided to go back and fly back home. They took us back to the landing strip and we loaded up to takeoff. Dad,Ron and Herman parked at the far end of the runway on the road to the right of the runway to watch us takeoff. I taxied as far as I could to the other end and turned around. I stood on the brakes and run the engine, on the 170, up full power before I let off of the brakes. It didn't set the world on fire going up the hill. When I got to the half way point I still had a way to go to get takeoff speed. Ah, but now we were going down hill. I held it on the ground as long as I could and as the berm from the grader approached I pulled back on the yoke and the 170 along with the three Bement boys went flying. Over the road and then I pushed forward on the yoke and down the hill toward the Little Malheur River we went. We checked a fence on the way and by this time we had enough ground speed that we were able to climb up and circle back over the cow camp and home. It has been a big joke all of these years how Dad, Ron and Herman watched us roll by them, instead of fly over them. ~ ~ ~

http://www.youtube.com/skybobb#p/u/21/HdghsTeL6mQ

<><>

 

[Erik1010]

All videos and posts are a delight to read! You should think about compiling them together and writing some sort of book.

 

[Bob Bement]

All videos and posts are a delight to read! You should think about compiling them together and writing some sort of book.

Erik, Not sure I am interested in writing a book just sharing a few experiences with my forum friends. Maybe some day. Bob

 

[Bob Bement]

( Rambling on )

I had made a flight into Rick Johnsons cow camp called the Holdout cow camp. This place sits at the foot of Quartz Mountain. The strip was real short and I got the Sheriff to talk the BLM into lengthening it when they graded the Watson road. They did but they didn’t mark it out first and the grader operator just took off down through the brush. So the runway has a fish hook on the lower end of it. This is a real up hill, one way strip. A go around would be impossible as you would run into the foot of the mountain. Marty Rust owned the Mud Flat ranch, before my friend Rick Johnson bought it. Marty tried to land his Cessna 185 on this strip before it was lengthened and wound up with the 185 on its back. There is a missionary group from Caldwell, or Nampa that uses this strip to train their pilots for the unimproved strips they have to land on.
I took off form the Holdout and headed for the Owyhee Reservoir in my 182. There is a group of hills between where I was and the lake. I hadn’t had time to get much altitude so I headed for a little saddle, in the ridge ahead. Just as I approached and started over this low spot, or saddle, I looked out my front window and much to my surprise I saw a jet airplane coming straight at me. I just had time to push and bank right as far and as fast as I could. I remember the belly of that jet streaking past my left wingtip. And then he was gone and my heart was beating in my throat. That was as close as I ever want to come to a mid air crash. This jet was a twin tailed small jet I think it is of foreign design. A trainer, I think, I wasn’t familiar with the make. I learned later that it belonged to and was flown by a Steve Appleton, CEO of Micron in Boise, ID. I have heard since that he flies up the Owyhee res. right on the deck. And has had some other close calls. This was sure one of my closest calls in all of my flying. ~ ~ ~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqZ1i41OBDY

 

[Bob Bement]

(Rambling on)

The Sheriff dispatcher called and wanted to know if I could fly Bob Speelman on a search. I said I had to fuel the plane, and I would be ready to go in about 30 minutes, and I would meet him at the airport. I went to the airport and got the airplane out, washed the windshield and taxied over to the gas tank and filled both tanks. I checked the oil and did a walk around. I didn’t know our location so I didn’t set the GPS. Speelman got there and gave me the information. A pickup, full of young boys, were stuck in the mud and they were lost. They called their parents on a cell phone and gave this information, plus the idea that they, thought they were, south of where they were supposed to be. There phone went dead after that. The parents filled in the rest of the information, the boys were at the Dry Creek cabin. Dry creek arm is on the Owyhee Reservoir, that is where the cabin was located. They were headed for home and evidently took a wrong turn. I knew that the road coming out of the cabin area heads west, and makes a sharp turn where it crossed the stream and heads north. If you weren’t paying close attention it would be easy to miss that turn onto the Twin Springs Road. It not only is a sharp turn but goes down into the creek at the same time. So we loaded into my 182 and headed for Dry Creek. This area is about 30 miles south of Vale, about due south. When we got over dry creek we headed south along the twin Springs Watson road. We flew the road and found nothing as we circled over the old town site of Watson. This is about 55 miles south. There is nothing there now as the back water from the Owyhee Dam flooded out this area when they built the Dam in 1932. We flew around the area and gave a good look for any vehicles that could be stuck. We flew back on the road until it forked and headed toward the old Page place. I followed this road until we came to a place where the water was running over the road. I asked Bob if he thought they could get a pickup across that and he said he didn’t think so. We turned south and flew to the Mud Flat ranch and landed. We went in the ranch house and wrote a note on a tablet they leave on the kitchen table for such things. I explained what we were looking for, Kids lost, stuck, red Chevrolet pickup. Now there is a reason that they gave this area the name Mud Flat. It is that gumbo mud that sticks and builds up on anything it touches. One time a while back I asked Rick why his horse trailer was out in the middle of the flat all by itself. He told me it was real wet when he started out and that was as far as he could pull it. The mud had balled up under the fenders and had all four wheels stopped. When we landed I noticed that the runway was wet. I was a bit concerned because I knew it could build up on my front wheel enough to cause some problems in the front fork. I told Bob we would clean a little area for the mains, down to dry dirt. And I would hold the yoke all the way back and hold the brakes to raise the front wheel and tire off of the ground. I had him slide his seat back as far as he could. So I fired up and after I let the engine warm up and checked the mags. I put my plan into action, but like some plans it didn’t work the way I planned. The tires slid ahead in the mud instead of holding, and I wasn’t going straight ahead. We were headed off of this narrow landing strip. I had to get off of the brakes straighten us up and just take off. I used a soft field takeoff. To try to keep the front tire out of the mud. We got airborne and then I wondered what was going to happen when we landed. I couldn’t tell how much mud was packed above that tire. We did some more looking on a few smaller roads that took off from the Watson road to no avail. About this time, as we were headed back to Watson to look again to see if we missed something. Bob got a call on his radio that they had been found. It seemed that a trucker named Bruce Perry was taking a load of bulls into the Mud Flat ranch. He went into the ranch house and found our note. He got back up on a high spot on the road and called the Sheriff dispatch and told them that the boys had gotten out of the mud and he had told them how to find their way back on the Crowley road. So we headed for home. We didn’t go far enough evidently they made it through that first bad spot only to get stuck as they tried to go around the next one. We did however get and assist, on the rescue. My fears were unfounded as when we landed there wasn’t enough mud to cause any trouble. ~ ~ ~