A Journal, with Pictures

As is our cus­tom we have planned a cross coun­try fly­ing trip in Sep­tem­ber when the weath­er is nor­mal­ly good across the coun­try. This year we are going to Col­orado Springs to vis­it friends and then on to Boze­man, Mon­tana to tour Yel­low­stone park. We leave Day­ton, Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 15th, on our first leg to Des Moines, Iowa. We have planned three dif­fer­ent routes and elect to take the north­ern route to avoid thun­der­storms. We arrive in Des Moines, and make an instru­ment approach due to low clouds. We refu­el, have lunch and are on our way to Col­orado Springs in short order. We encounter more clouds and some rain along with a head wind and make anoth­er instru­ment approach into KCOS. We are met by our friend Arron Woods, man­ag­er of the Col­orado Jet Cen­ter who gives us the spe­cial COPA rate and put our plane in his hangar. Our friend and for­mer col­league Pino Bas­sani, who we are vis­it­ing is there to meet us and we are off to the fab­u­lous Bas­sani vil­la in the foothills adja­cent to the Gar­den of the Gods. We are made com­fort­able and Suzy Bas­sani has planned a small din­ner par­ty with pilot friends. The evening turns out to be delight­ful. Suzy is a world class chef, and knows how to pick great wines, as well as friends, so we have a great time, in-spite of our long day in the air. The next day Pino plays tour guide and we are off to Pikes Peak, then the Gar­den of the Gods, lunch at the Kiss­ing Camel Club, then a tour of the Broad­more Hotel. We have anoth­er fan­tas­tic din­ner at the Bas­sani’s, mak­ing our stay perfect.

The next day its up ear­ly for our flight to Boze­man, Mon­tana. There are strong head­winds, so we have plan B to stop in Cas­par Wyoming, which turns out to be what we do. Weath­er at Boze­man, fore­casts a chance of icing con­di­tions so we want plen­ty of fuel in case we need to go to an alter­nate air­port. It all works out and we land in Boze­man ready to explore Yel­low­stone start­ing tomor­row. In Boze­man, Arlin Avi­a­tion gives us great ser­vice and puts our plane in our friend Rick Hegen­berg­er’s hangar. This is much appre­ci­at­ed con­sid­er­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of nasty weath­er in the area. We are off to the hotel and after a steak din­ner, its time for a good nights sleep.