My first fill day at Johnson Creek had me waking up at 6:30am to the sound of an airplane taking off.  Since you are in such close proximity to the runway they take off practically right over your head.  Nothing like the supersonic cracks of a constant speed propeller waking you up in the morning!  The early bird was joined by an almost constant precession of airplanes taking off.  I decided to stay in my sleeping bag because it was COLD!  Hard to believe it would get up almost to 100 degress later in the day.

I enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast of the provisions I had brought along.  Given the previous days’ events I decided to just hang around the campgrounds.  It was a beautiful place why go anywhere?  I spent the morning catching up with friends I have known for years via the Internet but never met in real life.  Later on we drove into town in one of the courtesy vans to have lunch.  The food in Yellow Pine was mediocre but the company was great!  Glenn Mathis and his wife Gwenn, and Tracy and Neil Salmi formerly of Rans.  I got some great flying tips from Tracy and Neil, both of whom know Rans airplanes like the back of their hands.

Saturday night was the big potluck.  There were probably about 80 people present and there was PLENTY of food.  Lots of leftovers.  The highlight of dinner was the home made ice cream  Apparently in years past they had run out but not this time.  There was enough ice cream for seconds and thirds and even the kids that were there got tired of eating ice cream.  After dinner a raffle was held.  The prizes included aircraft oil, tie down kits, fuel bags, and even a Hawaiian vacation and a ski trip.  What was kind of ironic was that the person who donated the Hawaiian vacation won the ski trip.  Can you say “rigged?”

After the dinner and raffle there was even a band who played for an hour or so.  Yes, they hauled in their instruments and amplifiers and all by plane!  There was much revelry into the evening but I am not a night owl.  I walked among the various groups of campers visiting for a while.  Everyone was friendly and offered me a seat.  But my mind was already on the next morning’s departure so I didn’t stay up too late.  I headed back to my tent and fell off asleep pretty quickly.

After enduring a sleepless night on a scratchy couch in an airport shack in Emmett, ID I was finally on my way to Johnson Creek.  The air was cool and still and as long as my vise grips held, I was certain I’d be sleeping in my tent this night.  I spoke to some locals in Nampa the day before and was told that the way they always flew into Johnson Creek was to head direct toward Warm Lake or Landmark (a USFS air strip) and then fly up the drainage (canyon) to Johnson Creek and that way I would be able to fly a fairly normal pattern, though it would be a tight pattern.

That’s pretty much how it went down.  Again, I had the sun in my eyes so it was difficult to see down in the drainages.  I found Warm Lake up on the ridge just south of Johnson Creek and adjacent to Landmark.  I crossed the ridge and then started to descend into the drainage.  It was still smooth as glass.  Soon Johnson Creek came into view and I was still a little high so I chopped the power so I could really get down into the bottom of the drainage. 

A friend had sent me an email the night before with some last minute instructions on landing at Johnson Creek which I kept reviewing in my head.  I knew I needed to get closer to the right side of the drainage, to stick my wing in the trees as it were.  The problem was it was all in darkness on that side of the canyon.  The sun was blinding me to what was there.  Soon I was in the shadow of the side of the canyon and I could see better.

The radio was letting me see what I couldn’t hear.  Plane after plane was departing JC.  Everyone was on their breakfast run.   I entered the downwind and announce my intention to land.  Two planes radioed back that they were rolling and would try to stay out of my way.  (Yeah!  My antenna really worked!)  I rolled around onto final into what would be an overshoot in a normal pattern, but at JC it’s SOP.  And here is where I ignored the advice given me.  I came in low over the trees at the north end of the strip and as soon as I had cleared them I chopped the power.  I touched down maybe 200 feet beyond the end of the runway and stopped maybe 300 feet later.  I had really underestimated how quickly the plane would slow down on the runway!  I added power and started taxiing up hill.  Then I came to my senses and thought, get off the runway stupid!  So I moved off to the side and continued my uphill slog.  Luckily there were no more planes either landing or taking off so I didn’t inconvenience anyone.

I pulled up next to a spot that had a tent but no airplane.  I tried to estimate about how much room an airplane would need and pulled in.  I went through my after landing checklist and then shut the engine down.  I sat in the cockpit for a few minutes with the doors open.  I took in the tree covered canyon wall in front of me, listened to the sound of Johnson Creek rushing by, the few birds that were in the area, and just let the adrenalin slowly drain from my body.  I wasn’t afraid on the approach, I was very alert, and now I was very elated!  I made it!

First order of business was to set up camp.  Once I had the plane positioned where I wanted it I set up my tent and pulled all my camping junk out of the plane.  Tent, check.  Chair, check.  Food, check.  Way too heavy tie-downs, check.  The plane was now empty, camp was set up.  Now I had two choices, fly out for breakfast or take a shower.  Since I was pretty sweaty and grungy from sleeping in the pilot shack in Emmett I decided to take the shower.  That turned out to be a VERY good decision.

Since everyone was either gone or relaxing (it was 0900 by this time) I located the showers and took a nice hot shower.  Afterwards I was out talking to some of the folks from NorCal when I saw everyone heading toward the north end of the field.  Some were jogging, some were running, some were walking.  I thought it must be some ritual that I didn’t know about.  I put my shower kit back in my tent and hung up my wet towel, no mind you, the required walking across the field.  I still didn’t notice what had happened.  Then I saw the wife of one of the NorCal guys and walked over to say hello.  That’s when I noticed. 

At the north end of the field two planes lay in a crumpled heap.  My first urge was to run down there to see if they needed any help.  But my first glance around told me that they didn’t.  With all the people swarming around they had more help than they needed.  I walked over to where the friends wife was sitting in the shade of a Maule’s wing and asked her what had happened.

The information came in slowly from different people but what had happened was there was another influx of airplanes coming in to land.  One was a Piper TriPacer, the other a Piper Arrow, not a Baron as reported in the news.  The TriPacer was struck from behind by the Arrow.  Neither one saw the other.  They collided between 40 and 60 feet in the air and fell in a heap.  The two men in the TriPacer sustained relatively minor injuries.  The man in the Arrow sustained more serious injuries and had to be LifeFlighted out by helicopter.  There was one passenger aboard the Arrow who did not survive the crash; the pilot’s 20 month old son.  He died shortly after being extracted from the wreckage.

Shortly after the crash we received word that Johnson Creek airport had been closed until further notice.  All the planes that had gone out for breakfast would not be allowed to return until the FAA reopened the airport.  This meant that 60 airplanes or so would have to find other placed to go in the mean time.  The day dragged by slowly.  I didn’t have much of an appetite and the only subject of conversation that day was the crash.  That didn’t help my appetite much either.

Finally at 7pm they reopened the airport and there was a rush of planes coming back.  Several times I thought we would have a repeat accident.  Maybe it was just my visual perspective.  Happily, there were no further incidents and everyone landed safely.  Including a couple of internet friends that I knew through my Rans affiliations.  Even though the airport was now a little more lively now that everyone had returned, the wreckage stood down at the far north end of the field as a somber reminder of the day’s events.

For those who have never heard of Johnson Creek Airport it is considered the gateway to mountain flying in Idaho.  It is like the Ritz Carlton for back country aviators.  It is a beautifully manicured 3400 foot long, 150 feet wide grass runway near Yellow Pine, Idaho.  Never heard of Yellow Pine?  I’m not surprised, it’s a long way from anywhere.

My day started at 0430 Pacific Time.  I had already packed my camping equipment in the plane and fueled up.  All I needed to do was throw my suitcase in the plane, update my weather briefing, and go.  I actually should have gotten an earlier start because as I was climbing out over the Sierras the sun was coming up.  This made the peaks particularly difficult to see as I was climbing almost directly into the sun.  As I leveled off at 9,500 MSL over Lake Tahoe I turned toward Lovelock, Nevada I at least got to turn to where the sun was hidden by a tube in my cockpit.

About two hours after I departed Oakdale I was landing at Derby Field, Lovelock, NV.  There isn’t much there other than an old MIG and a fuel pump.  I topped off and continued on as fast as I could.

The scenery pretty much stayed the same for the next two hours.  High desert punctuated by low mountains all the way up to the Boise, ID area.

I stopped in Nampa, ID for fuel.  It took me forever to figure out how the fuel pumps worked there.  How many different places can they think to hide a fuel pump switch?  I topped off my tanks and taxied out to depart.  It was hot and the density altitude was pretty high so it was a long takeoff run followed by a listless climb out.  I felt some odd turbulence as I was climbing out but didn’t think much of it.  I was also unable to clearly hear the AWOS (Automated Weather Observation System) at Nampa.  Oh well, continue climbing out and heading toward Cascade, ID to top off once again before heading into Johnson Creek.

As I got closer to the mountains it started getting really bumpy.  I looked at my phone to see what time it was; 1:15pm.  Dang.  I really should have started earlier.  As the bumps got worse the advice given me about Johnson Creek kept ringing in my head, get it on the ground by 11am.  Double dang.  I elected to divert to Emmett, ID and wait out the heat.  I enjoyed a bumpy flight all the way into Emmett and made an uneventful landing.

I still had plenty of fuel so didn’t bother topping off.  I elected to escape the 100+ degree heat in their local pilot’s lounge.  Pretty much a small shed with a couch, table and chairs, and most importantly, an air conditioner that could cool an entire house!

I turned on the air and after I cooled down decided to go get a snack out of the airplane.  As I walked back toward my airplane I immediately recognized what caused the unusual turbulence as I was departing Nampa.  My communications antenna was missing from the bottom of my airplane!  Triple dang it!

At this point I knew I really couldn’t continue to Johnson Creek without some way to communicate.  While it is completely legal to do so, it is not wise.  As long as the ring terminals on the antenna wires had not been torn off, I could gerry rig up a new antenna.  I decided to go into town and see what I could scrounge up.

I borrowed the courtesy car and drove to their local True Value hardware store.  I bought a piece of brass welding rod, some duct tape (red to match my airplane), and an assortment of zip ties.  I drove back to the airport after stopping to buy a HUGE cold soda.  After I got back I pulled all my cargo out of the plane so I could get to where the antenna was mounted.  As I had suspected the ring terminals were still intact on the wire ends.  I slipped the center conductor ring terminal over the welding rod and zip tied it in place near the bottom of my new “antenna”.  I then wrapped the entire lower end of the rod in duct tape to insulate it from the ground plane.  A ground plane is a piece of metal that all antennas need to operate properly.  I then zip tied the base of the antenna so that the bottom of the duct tape wrapped antenna was touching the ground plane.  I then used some vise grips to attach the antenna ground wire to the ground plane.

But what I didn’t know was if it really worked.  Luckily there was also a radio scanner in the pilot’s “lounge.”  It was set to scan about 10 frequencies.  A row of red lights would flash in sequence to show which frequency was being scanned.  But I would have to wait until it got darker to see the lights.  I whiled away the hours by having dinner, thinking, and chatting online with an Internet friend who is learning to fly.  It was finally dark enough that I could see the red lights flash when I propped the scanner up in the window of the pilot shack.  I powered up the plane and pressed the push to talk button and viola!  The red lights stopped scanning and one light stayed lit until I released the PTT button!  Then I had a thought, “were my radio transmissions going to be understandable?”  To test that I downloaded a voice recorder app for my smart phone and left it recording next to the scanner.  I went out to plane and transmitted “testing 1-2, testing.”  When I replayed the recording I was perfectly understandable.  My MacGuyver fix worked!

Being a cheap skate I decided to just sleep in the pilot’s lounge that night.  I wish I hadn’t I only got 2 hours of sleep.  But that didn’t matter.  I awoke at first light the next day and was airborne before the sun came up on my final leg to Johnson Creek!

Stay tuned for Part 2!