In 2011 I commuted between FOTMs exclusively in F.S Flight Club liveries. My last leg in December, 2011 was flown in the Flight Club EMB-190. I really liked the plane and once I arrived to Portland after the January FOTM I looked up several YouTube Videos about the plane and cockpit - its really a nice piece of work! At that point I decided to fly EMB-190s in 2012. So, after a full month in Portland I flew an Alaska EMB-190 back up to Juneau so that I could start off "properly" for Brad's Feature Flight. All I could get out of him was that we'd be "Heading for some mountains." That really wasn't helpful but I tried to be an adult and wait patiently for the mail to arrive. With the EMB-190 safely hunkered down at the airport I headed into town and the suite I had waiting. While sipping my hot drink by the fire I reviewed the cockpit that I'd be seeing a lot of in the coming year.
Right on time the mail arrived with instructions to start out in Las Vegas, NV. "Been there, done that, got the shirt" as they say; so I headed directly to Salt Lake City, UT. I returned to the airport and readied the plane for a 5 AM departure. Despite some wind, departure and climb were pretty stress-free and 90 minutes later, 33,000 feet somewhere over BC I enjoyed the February 1st sunrise.
ATC gave me a straight-in approach off of the Great Salt Lake and I landed on the marks! Shut down was at 09:30 local time.
Now, staying with the EMB-theme that I've taken on for 2012, I switched to the EMB-120; I figured if it could win the Turbo Challenge out of St. Barts and could handle places like Jompur Nepal that Utah would be no problem! I loaded up a cool-looking Aussie theme and departed 45 minutes later at 10:15.
As I had been loading up Brad's flightplan I noted that he was talking about Utah Mountains; and while there are mountains about, the airports weren't exactly IN the mountains. Anxious for a challenge and interested to put the little "Brasilia" to the challenge I hit many of Brad's recommendations while throwing in a couple of my own too. My first stop-over was at a place called Salina (44U) where I landed at 10:45 AM.
After an hour on the ground I headed up and over the mountains to Beaver (U52).
From Parowan I headed to the southernmost airport for this FOTM, an area I've been to before: Bryce/Woodland (UT26). I took a couple of passes over some of the best Rock Climbing in North America before landing at the little airport. I stayed here overnight before heading back toward Salt Lake.
Just after sunup and breakfast I headed for Panguitch (UT17). I was on the ground there from 07:40 until 08:38.
The next stop-over was in South Jordan (U13) from 08:50 to 09:50.
Next we headed up over the mountains to Wayne - Wonderland (38U) which is over 7,000 feet ASL.
Our last stop was in Mount Pleasant (43U) from noon to 13:00.
From there it was back to Salt Lake for a nearly 26-hour layover. I was anxious to lose the long-johns (I've been wearing them since November) and had an invitation to visit Paso Robles, CA ...
(Story to be continued in April)
Brad, thank you for the scenic challenges in Utah! I had a good three days there.
