If you ski—or even if you don’t—you’ve probably seen the reports on the lack of snowpack throughout most of the West. Pictures and videos of ski resorts with little to no snow have made their way around social media. After a less-than-ideal ski trip in December with afternoon temps in the 40s at Wolf Creek, we got ready for our second trip of the season to Colorado.
Pagosa and Wolf Creek
When we were looking for a vacation home about six years ago, it needed to meet a few qualifications. It had to be within a four-hour Mooney flight from Southern California, have an airport (obviously), be in the mountains, and offer skiing in the winter plus other year-round activities. We settled on Pagosa Springs, CO, and have loved it!
Right on the edge of that four-hour range, there have only been a handful of times we’ve made the trip without a fuel stop, but the winds for this trip were forecast to be perfect. With full fuel tanks we climbed out to the east, through the Banning Pass, and then turned northeast, staying at 9,500 feet until we were past the Turtle MOA with its floor of 11,000 feet. Once clear of the MOA we climbed to 11,500 feet where the winds were forecast to be even better heading eastbound—and they didn’t disappoint. Approaching eastern Arizona and crossing into New Mexico, our groundspeeds jumped from the 180–190 mph range to just cracking 200 mph.
After flying 672 miles in 3:53 we were taxiing to transient parking when the FBO called us up on Unicom to confirm parking and services.
FBO: “Mooney on Unicom, do you have transportation setup?”
Me: “No ma’am. We were hoping to borrow your car and run over to our house to get ours.”
FBO: “Sounds good, as long as you’re back by 5pm I’m good with that.”
Me: “Yep, we’re close, just over on Handicap.”
I tied down the plane and the fuel truck came by to top us off because their self-serve was offline. Kathy walked over to the FBO, got the keys to the crew car, and we made the short drive to our house, picked up our car, and had the crew car back before they closed for the day.
The skiing was better than December but the snow was still pretty thin, so we made the decision to only ski one day at Wolf Creek and finish up our trip in Idaho with a day at Grand Targhee. Our son and daughter-in-law live in Idaho Falls, a short drive from the ski resort, so we would be able to visit them and get in some skiing—a win/win!
Planning a new Cross-Country Route
After years of flying the same routes, this one would be completely new. I sat down at my computer to plan it out. I could do it on my tablet in iFly GPS, but for planning long-distance cross-country routes I like to use SkyVector.com. It’s easier to see the big picture, zoom in, drag the route to different waypoints, and—for multi-leg trips—click on the fuel prices.
First I put in the departure and destination airports, which draws the shortest distance. Then I start looking at airspace and obstacles. Flying out here in the West in a normally aspirated plane with mountains in the 10–14,000-foot range, you don’t fly direct very often. I’ll select VORs or, if I need to fly off airways, switch over to the IFR Low charts and drag the route to a point that fits where I want to go.
For a VFR flight they don’t need to be perfect—just the general idea of the route so I get the information I need from my weather briefing. On this route, for example, between OAB and IBWIJ we flew over the canyon cut by the Green River before cutting the corner above the West Tavaputs Plateau and heading towards Strawberry Reservoir. After the reservoir we didn’t go all the way to NONTY but flew through Daniels Pass, the lowest point to cross the mountains. If you put the routing in you get the idea. The final route that was filed was KPSO DRO CEZ OAB FIRRE IBWIJ NONTY EKLKA KIDA.
We didn’t bring the skis, but with boot bags and ski gear along with regular stuff, the luggage and backseat were full. Weight wasn’t an issue but all the space was taken up. I had plugged in the engine heater the day before our departure and there wasn’t too much frost to clear from the plane. After brushing the frost off and pre-flighting the plane, I turned it around so the wings were directly facing the sun and we took our car back to the house. By the time we returned the plane was clean and we were ready to depart.
Pagosa (KPSO) to Idaho Falls (KIDA)
The flight was beautiful. I love flying routes I’ve never flown before and seeing new scenery. The rocks around Moab were stunning and the snow in patches along the route added some variety.
Flying past Park City, you could see just how little snow they had at that point—the mountains were mostly brown with just a dusting of snow and white ribbons coming down where they had made enough snow just to cover some of the ski runs. Bear Lake was beautiful as always, and the farther north we went the more snow there was until all of the hills and mountains were white.
I’m pretty sure the tower at Idaho Falls doesn’t have radar. The tower was instructing pilots to notify him when they left the Delta airspace, and when I checked in I was instructed to make straight in runway 3 and report a three-mile final. The winds weren’t as favorable as our flight to CO two days earlier, but it wasn’t as far and we were able to make the 574-mile trip in 3:50.
Grand Targhee
We had a great time visiting our son and his wife, and the day at Targhee with them was perfect. A high overcast gave way to bluebird skies and the view of the Tetons was breathtaking.
NOTAMs and a Heated Hangar Pre-Flight
Sunday morning I sat down at my computer for what I thought would be a “check the box” weather briefing and was quickly reminded why we are supposed to always get a weather briefing. We have flown Idaho Falls back to California a number of times so the route wasn’t anything new. I filed to our typical fuel stop at Delta, UT (KDTA) and from there home to Fullerton.
I pulled up the briefing on 1800wxbrief.com and started scrolling through when I saw that there was a NOTAM for no fuel at Delta—ruling that out as a fuel stop. I amended the plan, stopping at Fillmore (KFOM), and pulled the briefing again. When I got to the NOTAMs I saw Fillmore had no fuel available. That’s weird, I thought, and at the same time was glad I had paid attention to the NOTAMs. Next on the route was Milford (KMLF), working my way down the valley. We’ve never used Milford as a fuel stop because it’s the most expensive of the three airports, but with DTA and FOM having NOTAMs for no fuel it was the next option.
The briefing showed that there “should be” fuel available at MLF. I say “should be” because at these small airports there’s always a chance there could be issues. The safety plan was that if MLF didn’t have fuel when we arrived I would still have enough to go to Cedar City or St. George with reserves.
We had breakfast Sunday with Kathy’s oldest brother and his wife before getting dropped off at the airport. I had asked the price to have the plane put in their hangar for one night and it wasn’t exorbitant, so when we got there Sunday it was sitting in the middle of a huge, heated hangar along with a couple other planes.
Yes, I realize that earlier I was searching for airports to save money on fuel on the same trip I paid to put the plane in a heated hangar. No, that is not ironic—let’s just say that saving money on fuel helps justify spending it on the heated hangar. 😊
“Did you want to pre-flight in the hangar?” the gentleman behind the desk at the FBO asked.
Given the option of doing pre-flight outside in 19°F temps or inside a 50°F hangar I replied, “I’d love to!”
If you have never done your preflight inside a heated hangar when it is 19° outside you haven’t lived. Would I pay and do it again? Absolutely!
Back to California
The flight home was uneventful (the best kind of flight) and the scenery was again gorgeous. The stop at Milford for fuel was an easy in and out and after 800+ miles of flying in about 5:15 we were back at our hangar at Fullerton.
Kathy jokes about our “whirlwind trips” and this was no exception. I think we clocked in around 36 hours at each stop on the trip. But we skied in Colorado and Wyoming (Targhee is just across the border from Idaho and often referred to as Wydaho) and made some incredible memories with family. As we say, just another trip in our Mooney Time Machine!
