Last weekend I had the most fun flying experience of my career, to date–about ten hours in the air, flying out of three airports around the perimeter of beautiful Bitteroot Valley in the Bitteroot and Sapphire Mountains of Western Montana, south of Missoula.
Meanwhile, after having taken the Kitfox (‘bomber’) on the road a couple of times it’s become fairly easy to load and unload it. Here’s a pic of the plane, ready to trailer and the 400 TBs that Miguel made for the valley are in the buckets on the dolly beside the plane:
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I can push it up onto the trailer with the use of the wheel ramps:
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After propping up the tail and attaching the wing braces (protects from side wind blasts) and strapping it down securely it’s ready to go anywhere:
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In this one you can see a rack with four gas ‘cans’ in it. Each holds six gallons plus the oil that I mix into the fuel. I used Amsoil for the first time, this trip, and the engine ran better than ever. Denny–the fellow who sold me my trike and trained me to fly it–told me about Amsoil. He’s able to go twice as long between engine overhauls since he started using it in his two-cycle motors and the exhaust is so clean that it doesn’t smudge his aircraft.
I spent a lot more time building the front section of that trailer than I did building my first plane, by the way. The amount of logistics that is needed in order to get an aircraft conveniently portable is daunting & it took me a couple of years to reach this stage. The trailer will eventually be enclosed with a combination of canvas stretched over parabolic-section frames. I chose the parabola to resist violent side winds, like you commonly find in the high plains states. It’s taller than it needs to be but when we’re camping in the trailer (aircraft tied down outside) we want it to feel spacious. I can achieve this and keep the weight down.
I did some filming on the last (most spectacular0 day of flying but forgot to switch it over to lower resolution, so I’m unable to edit it. The engine vibration/frequency also made the picture waver constantly so it was a little disappointing, though I did get to show Carol a few minutes of the most breathtaking bit, toward the summit of the huge mountain you can see from Dooney nd STevo’s property on the western edge of the valley. It’s just like the Swiss Alps there.
Carol and Dooney were doing readings at a psychic fair in Hamilton (south end of the Valley) all weekend and the store owners asked Carol to spend another day (Monday) to take care of the people who were unable to find a spot on the schedule in the previous three days. That was quite an honor for Carol and I was impressed by the professional and efficient way the fair was conducted. The store is not newager-friendly, which is also refreshing. Carol was invited back to do more readings, there, and I think Dooney (she assisted Carol, this time) will be, too.
Here’s the valley–click on the box to see the photos:
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