I left Watsonville about 10:30 am on Father's Day, spent the first night in Winnemucca, Nevada, and flew the rest of the way on Monday, arriving in McCall just after lunchtime. I was greeted at my tiedown by Art Lazzarini, chief CFI for the company. And then I was greeted in the office lobby by 3 more friendly pilots, two students and one more instructor. The seminar didn't begin for 24 hours, but pilots would continue to arrive all that afternoon and throughout the next morning. That afternoon I had an introductory meeting with Lori MacNichol, owner of the flying school, as did all the arriving students.
After meeting with Lori, I checked into my room at the AmericInn, which just happened to be across the street from the airport. It couldn't have been any more convenient. In fact, our ground school classroom was held in the conference room of the hotel, just down the hall from my room.
Our first ground school was Tuesday afternoon. We received our flight assignments at the end of the day, both time and instructor, for the next morning. There were 14 students and only half as many instructors, so we were split into two student groups. Each instructor flew twice each day; from 6am-9am with one student, and then from 9am-noon with another student. Each student would alternate flying times for each of the three days of flying. Each day of flying was followed by and afternoon ground school.
Ground school was very well done. This was not something slammed together to fill the available time. Each subject covered was enlightening and important to learning to fly in the mountains. And the curriculum was comprised of important lessons learned from years of flying; and taught by accomplished instructors. After all, each classroom instructor was also a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI). They covered such important subjects as density altitude (the effect of temperature and altitude to engine performance); learning the characteristics of our own plane at different speeds; how not to get yourself boxed into a closed canyon; how to turn around in a canyon in the smallest space possible; flying along the right side of a canyon to maximize the space available for turning around; the characteristics and effects of wind and temperatures around mountains and in canyons; how to evaluate a landing strip or spot prior to landing, including determining the best landing direction, the best abort point, and departure direction; determining the best approach speed and attitude for short field landings, and the best speed and attitude for short field takeoffs, especially with terrain or large trees limiting access into and out of landing strips; and last but not least, survival gear and methods in mountainous terrain. I was very impressed by the content and the quality of the presentation of our ground school. It was well presented quality information that made me a better and safer pilot by the end of the week.
The actual flying we did each morning was just plain fun! Of course, we were learning a lot about flying our own plane in the mountain environment and becoming better and safer mountain pilots. But I was having so much fun that I hardly had time to notice how my skills were improving with every landing and departure. My first flight was at 6am on Wednesday with Paul. This day was practicing on open grass strips around McCall. All of these strips were relatively long and in open areas with easy approaches and departures. None had any trees at either end requiring a steep approach. All except one, that is. The last strip I practiced at did have tall trees at one end. The first couple of times I landed and departed using the open end of the strip, just to get used to it. Then I landed at the end with the tall trees to practice a steep approach. The strip was very long, which left plenty of room for error. After two or three times, I became very good at maintaining a stablized steep approach with a minimum of clearance above the trees.
Day 2 of flying started at 9am with Bart, a minister from Gardnerville, Nevada. As it turned out, Bart and I have two common friends who live in that area. Like the other students on day 2, we flew into the high mountains east of McCall for our next series of practice strips. The first strip for me as a popular one known as Johnson Creek. Johnson Creek is probably the most famous and most used strip in that part of Idaho. It is a well manicured grass strip 3,400' long by 150' wide. There are two full-time state rangers employed to maintain the runway and surrounding camping site. It is one of the smoothest and softest grass strips I've ever landed on. It has room for over a hundred planes to park alongside the runway, and camping and day-use facilities for that many people as well. There are many picnic tables, outdoor grills, bathrooms and shower facilities. I was amazed to find such a nice campground hidden so far away into the rough mountains of Idaho. Apparently, it is very common for backcountry pilots to use Johnson Creek as their base camp for a stay of several days, while they take several day trips to other strips in the area, and then return to Johnson Creek in the afternoon to spend the rest of the day and night.
After Johnson Creek, I flew to 2 other strips that day, each with its own personality. Every strip in the backcountry has its own difficulties with surrounding terrain obstructing either the approach departure or view of the runway until on final approach. Some strips have trees at one or both ends; some are very short or very narrow; and others are tucked into a closed canyon, requiring a landing in one direction, and a departure in the other direction (leaving from the same end that you entered.) Since every strip was so unique, I decided I would never go into a new strip without having someone along who knew that strip very well. That is, until I had gained a whole lot more of mountain flying experience under my belt.
Day 3 started at 6am with Woody. We hit 3 more new strips that I hadn't been to before. The most memorable was Sulphur Creek. It was long and wide with no major terrain or obstructions to intimidate me during the landing. There was no soft grass, rather, it was mostly dirt with some gravel for the last 1/3 of the strip. We parked off to the side and Woody said, "Let's go get some coffee." Along with another student and instructor who had landed just behind us, we walked back down the runway a hundred yards to a lodge that I hadn't noticed on landing. Inside were a few people having breakfast in a big dining room/living room/family room. I was surprised to see so many people in the middle of what I thought was nowhere. Woody informed me that this lodge at Sulphur Creek would be the home base for Lori's advanced mountain flying course next summer. After enjoying our coffee and the view from a plastic chair outside the lodge, we climbed back in Victor for the next strip. We hit a couple more that day, but none as memorable as Sulphur Creek.
Friday evening, after our last ground school, all the students and instructors met at a local restaurant on the lake for a farewell dinner. I was surprised to see Rich Stowell, from my emergency maneuvers course in Santa Paula, at the restaurant and waiting to have dinner with us. He was spending the summer in McCall to offer his course to backcountry pilots, including those attending Lori's mountain flying seminars.
I highly recommend Lori MacNichol's McCall Mountain/Canyon Flying Seminar to any pilot wishing to increase his flying skills, wanting to learn more about controlling his or her own plane or just wanting to have a great time flying in a whole different environment from normal flat country asphalt runways. It was the most fun I've had with Victor since learing to fly.
Sky King
