We arrived in Milwaukee (MKE) around 1400 local, waiting for our bags that had to be checked in order to bring tools and survival-related items that the TSA would frown upon. After looking around for the Uber line, we finally found our driver and were on our way to Waukesha (UES), about 30 minutes away. I’m sure your first question is, why would anyone willingly fly to Wisconsin? And your second question is probably, where is Wisconsin? For many San Diego pilots that spend the majority of their time flying around California, it can be difficult to think about flying outside the SoCal bubble. Hopefully this will change your thinking about cross countries.
We were in Wisconsin to pick up this plane and fly it back to northern Idaho. I won’t dwell too much on where my last Lake Amphibian went, Chase Franzen keeps me from repressing those memories by sending me videos of crashing into Lake Isabella. This plane will not meet the same fate.
It was Friday afternoon. We were supposed to meet the owner on Monday and start our 1,500 journey back West. It was a bright sunny day when we arrived and we made it to the airport to take a final look at the plane before finalizing the purchase and sealing the deal. The plane was just as it was advertised and everything checked out. Since we had no return ticket, that was a welcome development. We made it to the hotel just in time for happy hour and then discussed our return plan. My passenger for this return trip is one of my students. He is well-versed in mechanics having just finished building his Rands S6 Coyote II that we are flying for his primary training. He was a natural choice for this trip because of his mechanical acumen and, well, because he was excited to fly a seaplane.
We spent Saturday touring Eastern Wisconsin, which I admit is a beautiful place. Sitting on the west coast of Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee area has some pretty cool places. The Harley-Davidson Museum being among them. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend it. We discussed our general plan of flying Northwest toward Bismark, North Dakota and had a backup plan of going far south toward southern Colorado if weather dictated. The general forecast was almost perfect for the next two days with thunderstorms coming into town on Monday. This was a stress point that we were trying to workaround. I was able to get in touch with the (soon-to-be-former) owner of the aircraft and beg him to meet us on Sunday so that we could get out of town before weather came through. The forecast called for those thunderstorms to remain around the Milwaukee/Waukesha area for a couple days at least and we didn’t want to get stuck for that long. Luckily, the owner was agreeable to cut his turkey hunting short.
Sunday morning we started packing up while waiting for a timeline from the owner. About 1000 we heard from him that he was about four hours away and would meet us at the airport. We went to the airport early, pulled the plane out of the hangar, did a thorough preflight, packed the back seat full of our luggage and a bunch of extra gear that went with the airplane. Running a weight and balance calculation put us 50 pounds under gross with full fuel. And we waited. We ran through the plan several times, agreeing that if could get airborne by 1500, we would try to make Bismark (BIS) that night, just over six hours away. We planned GPS-Direct to BIS, with a slight southerly deviation around Minneapolis (MSP) to avoid most of the Bravo. Weather was starting to close in with the edges of thunderstorm activity at the south side of our route just about the time we got to the MSP area. In addition to this development, we would have to stop for gas, fill up quickly and get back in the air to make it to BIS before sunset.
While the plane was perfectly capable of flying IFR, between the freezing levels and the fact that this was a brand new plane, I wanted to stay VFR. We got airborne at 1430 in beautiful VFR skies and light winds. This weather continued for the next couple hours and we landed in Litchfield, Minnesota (LJF) with darkening skies and 20-30kt winds. We hurriedly filled up the airplane, watered the lawn, and departed for BIS with about 2.5 hours left until sunset. We chose 4,500′ for our altitude on both legs since any higher would have put us into IFR conditions. About an hour and a half outside of LJF, we again encountered beautiful VFR conditions and landed in BIS as the sunset with 30kt winds. Unfortunately, this was the easiest day of flying.
The forecast that night in BIS was for snow showers into the morning, letting up around 1100. We had a good meal at the hotel and discussed options. We had none. If we wanted to get out the next day, we would need to plan on leaving about 1200 or miss our window of the lowest of the forecasted winds and best visibility. The ceiling was forecast to be about 3,000′ for most of our next planned route, which took us a bit more Northwest than we wanted, toward Havre, Montana (HVR) instead of the more southerly route toward Great Falls (GTF) and Helena (HLN) where we would have to start our mountain crossing. We preflighted the plane in the hangar we rented for the night, pulled it out, and climbed in. The winds dropped to 25 kts with no turbulence reported but there were ceiling and visibility issues everywhere to the west. We found our best route to be slightly north and then due west, where we would fly at 2,500′, keeping us 1,000 to 1,500′ below the ceiling along that route. The weather was as predicted for most of the next leg to HVR aside from it being only 28 degrees outside. Luckily, the plane is equipped with an insanely effective Janitrol-like heater which made the flight very pleasant.
We landed under beautiful clear skies and 15 kt winds in Havre and quickly filled the plane up with go juice. From Havre, we started our southbound leg to get down toward Great Falls (our next stop) and then either Helena (HLN) or Missoula (MSO), depending on weather. This is where the weather started getting interesting. From this point on, we would need to climb MUCH higher than we had been since we were getting into the Rock Mountain Range and would need to cross at a bare minimum 6,500′ depending on our route to MSO. Our flight to GTF was uneventful but as we were landing at GTF, we saw the clouds along our next planned route of flight, and they didn’t look good. We once again quickly filled up with dead dinosaurs and looked at our planned route options. Our first option was to head to HLN and then cross over the Rocky Mountain Front just to the west in the Mullan Pass with our backup plan being to fly through the Rogers Pass to the north. As we climbed away from GTF, we quickly recognized the rapidly decreasing weather along our primary route of flight. Our backup plan required us to fly nearly due west directly toward the mountains before turning south for a few minutes before getting to the Rogers pass. We both agreed to that plan with our new backup being a return to GTF. Luckily, the weather cooperated enough to get to the pass.
What we saw ahead though caused us to reevaluate all of our life’s choices. The clouds were still broken and scattered, but they were high. I started to climb as fast as the flying boat would let us, which is to say we were climbing at 200-300 FPM. The service ceiling of the LA-4-200 is 12,500′ and we were at 8,500. I used the orographic lift as much as possible to assist with my climb and when we finally cleared all of the terrain and few clouds we were trying to avoid, we were at 12,000′ MSL. At this point, we needed to start our downhill run toward MSO but with enough terrain clearance to avoid getting into any turbulence. There was a single saddle just north of the Blackfoot River with the mountains sitting at 7,600′. We descended to 8,500′, crossed over the ridge line and immediately started our 5,000′ descent to MSO. No sooner did we land that the rain started pouring down. We had flown nearly 8.5 hours, crossed half of North Dakota, half of Montana, a timezone, and the Continental Divide.
The next day grounded us with no way to get out of the valley and make the final 1.5 hour flight to Sandpoint (SZT). We took off early the following morning in perfectly blue skies and decided that once we got to Lake Pend Oreille (pronounced Pond OO-Ray), we would treat ourselves to a few water landings.
This trip, like one I had taken nearly 10 years prior from Atlanta to San Diego reinforced an ideology I try to preach. Get out of here! Get out of the SoCal bubble. It’s easy to get complacent with flying in California. The weather is very predictable and usually easy to navigate. Regardless of your certificate type, expand your skill set and move further west or North. We have numerous European pilots join the club to fly our aircraft all around the country but many of our local pilots rarely leave SoCal. So here’s my challenge to you:
- Get yourself a checkout in a new airplane. Doesn’t matter which one, just pick one that isn’t a 172 or a PA28 and get checked out.
- Fly to Saint George. Why SGT? First because it’s a beautiful flight and second because there are a lot of National Parks close by to camp, hike, or generally just explore. It is an easy flight, only a few hours on the Hobbs, and you can do it in a weekend.
- From there, find somewhere further. Go north into Oregon, Washington, or Idaho. Go east to New Mexico or Colorado.
Your skills as a pilot will increase, you’ll build your confidence, and your passengers will love the opportunity to see some amazing country. Stay safe out there.
