Next, it was a ride in the Aberdeen Taxi which was a 1980's vintage station wagon with a 1930's vintage driver. Once at the airport, I decided to borrow the courtesy SUV and head to Wal-Mart for a bit of breakfast and to get some cash. I had the FBO top off the airplane, and I took advantage of their free ice to fill my cooler, and then I added two quarts of oil, and I got about the longest briefing in the history of the world (that's what I get for throwing an 11-airport flight at one of the new guys at FSS). And and and... I didn't get off the ground until 1:30.
It was a quick taxi to runway 35, and after a runup I pulled out and slowly fed the power in. The airplane seemed as eager to get out of the hot muggy air at the surface as I did, and we vaulted skyward and I made a turn to the southwest. Green fields still dominated, but it wasn't quite the same green seen in Wisconsin and Minnesota - It was a bit more muted, not quite as bright. These plants don't have the luxury of seemingly unlimited water.
Once again, I decided to practice pilotage skills. It's a lot more difficult when you get out where there aren't lakes all over the place! You really have to keep better track of your position on a consistent basis because otherwise all the roads and such blend together. But, there's nothing like the Missouri River to get you back on track... And is that... Yes, it looks like... Terrain!
Not long after, I was onto the Cheyenne sectional and out of the green area (Surface elevations above 2000). Wall, SD was fairly easy to pick out even from 20 miles away. I curved a bit left and followed the interstate to a straight-in for runway 30. I noted the position of Wall Drug relative to the airport, and it looked like a fairly easy walk. Winds were pretty strong out of the north, but my landing was OK anyway.
I liked Wall. By the time I got out of the airplane, an older gentleman came over and we chatted for a bit. He even lent me his motorcycle to get to Wall Drug. There was a nice Bonanza in his hangar.
Wall Drug is a trip. It seems like the whole town is built around it. The main drag where Wall Drug and every other shop in town is located has parking right down the middle of the street, and it's been that way at least since the 50's:
http://www.mytransponder.com/uploads...00/212/686.jpg
Wall drug is like the entire business district of a small city in itself. There were two "streets" with fake storefronts INSIDE the main building, and not all of the various mini-stores were on one of these streets. It's a labyrinth of places selling boots, books, signs, crafts, food, and various trinkets. The food was actually quite good, probably better than you'll get within walking distance of any other airport in South Dakota.
I also got my free ice water and my free "Where the heck is Wall Drug" bumper sticker as well as an old sign (had to buy SOMETHING ya know).It began drizzling while I was at Wall Drug. I wiped the seat of the courtesy motorcycle off and headed back. Note to self: Make sure you're current in motorcycles next time. I was kind of glad the speed limit was only 20 MPH for the 7-block trip from the airport to the store! But, I was starting to get the hang of it again when I got back. I unchained the airplane and prepared to leave.
Oh yeah, that reminds me. Usually on these long cross countries, you learn something in the air. This time, I learned something on the ground. Prior to the previous night at KABR, I had never chained down an airplane - It's always been rope. So I can tie the knot, but the guy at Wall showed me a trick to using chains: The hook on the end is generally fairly weak and easy to come apart from things, so instead, after pulling the chain through the tiedown ring, you just feed a link of the chain through a link that's opposite the tiedown ring (this is kind of hard to describe, hope it makes sense!), and then feed a third link through that link, and add maybe a fourth and fifth as well. Then, the last link doesn't need to be very strong for it to hold.
So, I fired up the engine and took off. It seemed like I got to 6500 feet a lot quicker than normal - Well, I guess I did. I'm not used to starting from 2800! I headed towards Mount Rushmore, watching I-90 weave its way across the landscape and off to the north. I also discovered why they're called the Black Hills:
The picture doesn't really do the effect justice, but it seems like the trees are only on the hills and they're so much darker than the surrounding vegetation that they look black from a distance. Very shortly thereafter, I spotted Mount Rushmore, and made some turns to allow me to get good video and still shots.
Then, it was time to climb. Mount Rushmore is at 5725 feet and there's a 7242-foot peak in between it and Crazy Horse. So, I hopped over the top and headed back down to check out Crazy Horse. This is the one I'd never seen from the ground, and frankly it's rather disappointing. 60 years after starting, I don't even think they're half done. (I bet La Sagrada Familia gets done faster!) I think it actually would have been better without the big "chalk mark" where the horse's head will be:
Next, I headed to Upton, WY. Not straight, but in a big curve to avoid weather. At one point on the big weather avoidance curve, I hadn't seen a town or really any other sign of humanity in over 50nm, and then I saw them - The majestic beasts that had seemed so mythical to me in the past were right below me - A pack of wild horses. There seemed to be some sort of altercation going on between a pair of them, they were fighting with the rest standing around watching. They paused momentarily as I flew over and then resumed the fight. I circled around and descended to get a closer look, but I guess I spooked them a bit. They broke into full stride, not running away but almost paralleling my track. It looked just like you might imagine - Thundering hooves, manes blowing in the wind, nostrils flared. What a neat thing to see!
Upton's gravel runway was better than I expected, but there's really nothing there except a couple of really run-down hangars with no airplanes.
Oh well, the real mission was just to make a ConUS claim in Wyoming, 'cuz Barb did most of them already. After departing Upton, I turned north. I was looking at my line on the sectional that led to Devils Tower and thinking that there weren't nearly enough distinguishing landmarks along the way, but it really didn't matter - I spotted Devil's Tower by the time I hit pattern altitude at Upton! I set up the plane for a wide circle at about 7300 feet (over 2000 AGL, ya know) and ran the video camera most of the way around. As a result, my only still is this one, which isn't the best quality and was taken a fair way out:
Next, I pointed toward the Crazy Woman VOR, which took me right past Gillette, WY. I called the tower to transition their airspace at 6500, and they told me to report clear (boy, what a busy day they were having
). At this point, there was quite a bit of rain up ahead, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to maintain VFR, so I decided to prepare for a pop-up IFR clearance if I needed one, with the 180 back to Gillette as the backup. As it turns out, I didn't need IFR for the rain, but it was a good thing I'd looked...Looking at the sectional, the highest peak near my route across the Big Horn Mountains was 8230 MSL, so I decided I'd climb a few miles after crossing Crazy Woman. Well, I guess you just don't want to cross Crazy Woman - She'll throw a bunch of clouds in front of you!
Faced with a wall of clouds and some rocks I couldn't see, the IFR charts came back out. My route was almost right on top of V324, and the Worland VOR, the next one west of Crazy Woman, was the IAF for some of the approaches in to KGEY, my next destination. Unfortunately, all of this stuff is right along the corner of L-11, L-12, and L-13 so it was kind of a pain in the butt to piece it together.
Finally, I felt like I had my act together enough to call for a popup IFR clearance. I was already climbing, and was through 9,000 before I called Denver Center. I ended up having to do a 180 to stay VFR while the controller figured things out, but that was OK because the MEA on V324 there is 12,000 feet so I had to continue climbing anyway. About the time I made it back to Crazy Woman, I reached 12,000 feet and got my clearance. Even that high, radar coverage was pretty spotty, but they did finally find me.
About 10 miles west of Crazy Woman, Denver Center handed me off to Salt Lake City Center, and in the handoff she asked me to give the next controller a position report (see "spotty radar coverage").
This is where I started to second-guess myself - I called up ZLC right about the same time I hit IMC, and after adjusting my altimeter I felt a bit chilly. I checked the OAT - It was sitting at about 28F. Hmmm. Uh oh. Pitot heat on. I think I scanned the struts between every single instrument, but there wasn't even any moisture accumulating. Figuring this might be one of those "dry clouds" I elected to keep going and continue to keep a close eye on the wings. I saw nothing.
As is one of my standard practices when there might be ice, I left my landing light on (it's in the left wing). After a little while, I started seeing precip in the beam - Only the lightest shade of green was showing on the 496, with no cells or even yellow anywhere around - And it looked like snow. (side note: Does the NEXRAD on the 496 get dual-polarity radar so it can show snow/ice as well as rain? I only got it after winter was over.) But, the precip wasn't sticking at all. So far, so good.
Then, a minute later, I saw it - Ice! (Yes, in August, in non-Oxygen altitudes - It happens, folks! I saw OAT's below freezing at 12,500 in July in Texas once!) It was hardly anything, maybe 1/32nd of an inch - It basically looked like someone had fogged the leading edge of the wing. There was a bit more on the front of the fuel vent tube, maybe 1/8th or 1/4".
I'll be blunt - Ice scares the hell out of me. It has the potential to turn my airplane from my best friend into someone I don't even recognize. And here I am, already up at 12,000 feet and legally there's nowhere to go but up. But do I want to climb and potentially pick up a bunch more ice on the underside of the wing, when I don't know how far I'll have to climb, and climb performance is already somewhat limited? I know I have about 3500 feet of terrain clearance on the airway, but legally I can't go down unless it's a bona fide emergency. And am I past the highest terrain, or is it still climbing? Looking back at the track on the 496, I was just a hair from the top, but I didn't know that at the time. After a minute of considering what to ask for, I looked at the airspeed indicator and it had dropped 20 knots. GET ME OUT OF HERE!
"Center, Skylane 271G is picking up light rime at 12,000, request return to Crazy Woman, unless you have a tops report." Ah, the good ol' 180. The clouds were pretty light though, and I suspected I was near the top.
"71G, turn left and proceed to Crazy Woman."
I acknowledged and began the turn.
"Oh, uh, 71G, it looks like you're almost out of the weather if you just keep going."
"Ah, 71G will continue then... Thanks."
So, there's a nice squiggle on the brief radar track:
A moment later... "271G, report when you're clear of the weather."
"Wilco, 71G - I just caught a glimpse of blue sky." And about 5 seconds later - "Center 71G is in the clear." Then he was going to hand me off to another sector, but I simply cancelled IFR. I'd had enough of that crap for one day!
CPR UA /OV CZI 255020/TM 0105/FL120/TP C182/TA M03/IC LGT RIME/RM ZLC
Besides, VFR would allow me to cut a big corner and proceed pretty much direct to Greybull. So, the transponder went back to 1200 and I was on my own again, once again enjoying the pretty view.
But, the fun wasn't over yet...
KGEY 150153Z AUTO 33021G30KT 7SM BKN095 19/06 A3017 RMK AO2 PK WND 33030/0144 SLP193 T01940061
And, guess what... Runway 15/33 was NOTAMed closed, which meant landing on 25, making that 21G30 almost a direct crosswind.
This was the end of a flight I wasn't very happy with, and added to that unhappiness - I should have gone around the first time. I just didn't feel very stable with it. But, I planted the plane on the runway. Not pretty, but I didn't break anything except my ego. Again. 
Oh well, I taxied over to where there was a GA ramp with a welcome sign, and couldn't find the fuel pumps, so I decided to take a walk around.There were a TON of big old bombers and transports at GEY. I wished I had Steve along to tell me what the heck they were. I recognized quite a few C-97 like planes, but there were some that had a pair of jet nacelles under the wings too. (I see now, thanks to Wikipedia, that those would be KC-97L's - I guess the B-36E wasn't the only "turnin' and burnin'" airplane.)
There was also a Consolidated Vultee PB4Y-2 out on the ramp:
That's the type that lost its wings a few years ago while doing firebombing work, and apparently all of this type have been grounded since.
This one, though, looks like it's almost in flyable condition, and the fire extinguisher under the wing made me wonder if they started up an engine on it today. I finally found the fuel pumps, returned to the plane, taxied over, fueled, fired up, and took off. I was going to attempt to climb over some clouds west of the airport, so I kept it in a sustained Vy climb. However, after I got above the first layer (and I'm on oxygen by now), there was another, and another, and... Oh, look, off to the right... A friendly-looking little town. And there's a beacon up to the north of town. Kinda funny how those things have been telling me to quit for the day.
I lucked out big-time, too. There was a car parked next to the terminal with its headlights on, and the lights were on inside the terminal. I taxied into a parking spot and was greeted by another friendly fellow. As luck would have it, I ended up with the last room in town for the second night in a row! Plus, with someone just happening to be there to give me a free ride... Hey, this luck doesn't reduce my bag of flying luck, does it?
Stats so far:
484+? nautical miles (Forgot to look at the 430 when I left the airport)
11.5 hours
9 airports touched (KMSN, KANE, 14Y, KBWP, KABR, 6V4, 83V, KGEY, KPOY)
9 ATC facilities talked to (KMSNx2, ZAU, ZMP, KMSP, KANE, KGCC, ZDV, ZLC)
5 airports claimed for the ConUS Challenge (KANE, 14Y, KBWP, KABR, 83V)
128.47 gallons of Avgas
Can't wait for tomorrow!
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