Spring weather has finally made its appearance here in the rainy Pacific Northwest (actually its not so rainy here—a lot less than New York City—but we like to tell people it rains a lot so they won’t move here), so the warmer weather flying season is finally getting underway.

Saturday morning I got up early to fly a Yak-52TW to Cody, Wyoming. I hadn’t been to Wyoming in many years. My dad had an uncle who had a ranch in Jackson Hole (the “Elk Ranch”—appropriate given the elk antler arch in downtown Jackson), back before it became glamorous, and he and his brothers worked summers there and at West Yellowstone during the Depression. Once or twice we visited when I was a kid and my brother, sister and I and various cousins got to play cowboy. I drove through there in the mid-70’s expecting to find a place to stay without making reservations. Wrong. We arrived late at night and I was stupefied to find the sidewalks jammed and “No Vacancy” signs lit up all over town. Oh, well. We drove on down through Afton (then the home of Aviat, the Husky, Eagle and Pitts factory), passing through at about 2AM, lights out, as we continued down into Utah. Back then I could drive all day and all night, take a quick nap and do it all over again. No more.

Anyway, it was a long time since so I was looking forward to seeing the big sky and cowboy country again. There are some big mountains there, too.

The forecast was mostly VFR, except expect thunderstorms in the mountains, forecast to deliver lots of turbulence, wind, rain and even some hail. The forecast said thunderstorms would push through Billings, Red Lodge and Cody in the afternoon, so I was eager to get going. I got to the Arlington airport about 7AM after listening to the AWOS reporting fog. The fog was even thicker than reported, unusual this time of year, though pretty well confined to the airport and immediate vicinity. After about a three hour wait and leisurely breakfast at Ellie Mae’s I finally launched about 10:30.

Yak-52TW’s are fun and versatile airplanes. Fully aerobatic and light on the controls as a good aerobatic airplane should be, they’re also pretty good x-c airplanes, carrying 74 gallons of fuel. Cruise performance is a function of fuel flow and 400hp burns quite bit, so after climbing to 9500 feet to clear the Cascade Range I throttled back almost to “Granley Low Cruise,” so called because Bud and Ross Granley like to go REALLY SLOW to conserve fuel in their Yak-55 (Bud) and Yak-18T (Ross) when they travel to airshows, trying to stretch the range. But then -55’s and -18T’s don’t have 74 gallons. Still, I like having lots of fuel in reserve, and the engine has a sweet spot at about 1860RPM and 22” MAP, so that’s where I like to cruise. Fuel burn comes down to about 14GPH, so with 74 gallons I can fly for over five hours if needed to circumnavigate weather or whatever. Not a lot of places to stop in the mountains of central and eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana or Wyoming, so I like to keep my options open.

I flew by Spokane and through Mullen Pass without unexpected adventures, though there were some pretty big cumulus clouds in the pass, bases about 8-9000 feet, thermals that pulled the -52TW upwards at over 1500fpm at times and provided some pretty good bumps. Continued on through the mountains to Missoula for fuel and lunch. It was hot and I was glad I had on my baseball hat, long sleeves and long pants. Turned my collar up, too, but still got sunburned on the back of my neck. Maybe the glider guys are right, bucket hats do provide a little more protection. The air was nice and cool at 9500’ so the sun protection provided a little warmth, too. Fuel was $4.55/gallon at Northstar Jet in Missoula, compared to the $4.458 I paid at the Pilot Shop (hi Rick and Jan) in Arlington. I put on 41.0 gallons after covering about 340nm, the M-14PFXDK giving a little over 8nmpg at a true airspeed of about 125 knots. They loaned me a car and I drove over to the terminal for a quick lunch of a chicken salad sandwich and a cup of soup that looked like a combination of leftover chili, elbow macaroni and chicken broth. Don’t remember what they called it, but it was better than it sounds.

Got back on my horse at about 2:50PM and headed for Helena. Did I mention there are lots of mountains in Mountana? REAL mountains, not little kiddie stuff like some places. Lots of thunderstorms were brewing up, too, as forecast, so I detoured a bit, trying to pick my way over lower ground (such as it is in mountain country), past Bozeman, almost went as far as Livingston skirting weather and mountains, dropped by Red Lodge and finally to Cody. All in all uneventful, though there were some BIG cu’s in the mountains I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with, black, rain-filled air below them and hail forecast to be one inch diameter. Fortunately, the front stalled a bit and didn’t get as far east or north as fast as forecast. I made position reports (used Flight Following and filed a VFR flight plan, too—nice to have some radio company when there’s nobody around on the ground), there wasn’t a lot of traffic on FSS, Center or Flight Watch, but I gave them PIREPs anyway.

Cody is an interesting place. Home of the Buffalo Bill Museum and a 100-year-old hotel built by Buffalo Bill himself, it lies just east of Yellowstone at the foot of the mountains and is a big tourist attraction. The airport terminal isn’t much (fine by me), but they have airline service with Delta Connection and United. There are a few BIG privately owned hangars occasionally used by a few prosperous folks to park their Gulfstreams when they’re in town, but otherwise its a pretty sleepy place. While shutting down and pushing into the hangar, chatting and getting the circulation in my butt going again, I was not at all surprised there was zero airport traffic. The terminal was empty, too. Nobody home nowhere except the security folks who came by to see what we were doing. Guess I’m a dangerous looking character, especially in a Russian airplane.

I didn’t have time to see much of the town or environs, but it looks like a combination old western town and booming tourist spot. We had dinner at one of the old time watering holes and then I went to the “Beartooth Motel” close by the airport to spend the night. Got up at 3:30AM (Seattle time), caught a ride to the airport, arriving about 4:15, checked in, grabbed a quick bite and cuppa joe, got securitized and departed on Delta at 5:30. Arrived in Salt Lake after a quick ride, then waited a couple of hours for the flight to SEA and home just before noon, where I was met by my wife (thanks for the ride, sweetie pie!) and, after a not so quick stop for her to shop at the Bead Store, we finally got home about 4PM.

The Delta ticket cost $349.60 and the trip took eight and a half hours, including checking in an hour early and the drive home from SEA, but not including the shopping stop. The Yak burned about 70 gallons, or about $300 worth (I don’t have the exact figure because we didn’t fuel up in Cody before I left). My Yak flight time was about 5 hours from leaving home to arriving at Cody, and took about 11 hours total, including my 3-hour breakfast at Ellie’s and leisurely lunch and refueling in Missoula. Except for the fog, fuel and food time, it took me under six hours, home to destination, compared to more than 8 hours by airline jet. Not bad.

I not only saved $50 and a couple of hours flying the Yak, it was a lot more fun, too, though my butt got numb both ways. The cowboy and big sky country are spectacular places and I wish I could have stayed longer to see more, but I’m always glad to be back home