North Clear Creek Falls

In July, we had family from Kansas City, KS make a visit to Colorado.  We had a great time touring the our area with them and we enjoyed a brief pit stop at North Clear Creek Falls.

One of the funnest things was they had a little girl the same age as Paige.  Paige has never had anyone her age to play with and the two were practically inseparable.

Bennett Peak Climb

One of my dreams for a long time has been to hike to the summit of nearby Bennett peak with my whole family.  Rebecca and I had been to the summit a few times before, but never with our family.

In June we took a day and decided to make a go of getting to the summit.  At first the girls didn't think it was that fun, but they began to get into it after a while.

Our littlest Cannon soon took the lead and she could hardly be kept up with.  By this time, we were above tree line and feeling the effects of thinner oxygen.  But Paige set the stage and I had to almost jog to keep up with her.  She was like a mountain goat.

The view from the top was awesome.  Spring was finally transitioning to summer, although the temps at the summit were much cooler than we were used to.

Finally, after hiking a few miles and a few hours, we reached the summit at 13,200 feet above sea level.  Even Mo the monkey, our traveling family mascot, made the journey with us.

Thankfully there was this big rock cairn at the summit.  The wind was pretty strong on the summit and having something to duck behind made the experience better.  I was so proud of my little Cannons making it to the summit.  I know it's not easy for little legs, but they did it anyway.

Float Rating - New Orleans

In early June I traveled by myself to New Orleans, LA to attend a float-plane safety course as well as earn my FAA float rating.  During my 5 days in New Orleans I was able to learn a lot about how Southern Seaplanes operates and how to integrate some safer things into what we do in Central Borneo.  I was also able to get up close and personal with a DeHaviland Beaver on amphib floats.  So cool!

Southern Seaplanes main customer is the oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico.  Surprisingly, their operations and challenges are very similar to our's in Indonesia.

Watching the iconic DeHaviland Beaver was a lot of fun.  I never did fly in it, but I was able to ask a lot of questions that I've had for a long time about it.  They are great airplanes.

At the end of my seaplane safety course, I spent a few hours with the owner of Southern Seaplanes to earn my float rating.  The irony is that I have almost 1000 hours of float plane flying in Indonesia, but I didn't have an FAA float rating.  Thankfully, the few flights we took went fast and earning the float rating was fun and easy.  I was also able to do it in an amphibian, which I had never flown before.  It was a lot of fun to be able to take off on land, and then fly to a lake, and then back to the airport.  I'm looking forward to some of that capability when we get our new Kodiak!

Crested Butte

Earlier this Spring, in early June, Rebecca and I had to drive to Crested Butte, Colorado for an appointment.  It was a BEAUTIFUL trip.  That area of Colorado is amazingly beautiful!

While enjoying a coffee downtown, we came across this neat building completely covered in old Colorado license plates.

Crested Butte still has the charm of a small ski town that many places like Vail and Aspen used to have.  I can't say that CB will always be this way, but for now it's still charming and quaint.

I've always enjoyed old license plates; and no, I can't tell you why.  I think the history wrapped up in them and the stories they could tell of all of the places they have been is intriguing.

Yellowstone

Once Kodiak training concluded in Idaho we went to Yellowstone National Park where we camped for a few days and enjoyed each other and the landscape.

From our campsite it was a short walk to see an almost continual herd of buffalo.  It is so fun to just watch those enormous and ancient beasts.

One morning, we woke up early with the hope of seeing more animals.  As we drove by some of the geysers at sunrise, they looked awesome!

It's hard to see, but we did come across a mama mountain goat with her small kid in trail.  These animals are very elusive so we felt thankful to see a mom and her baby.

Being at Yellowstone reminds you that the Earth is ALIVE!  Seeing all of the geo-thermal activity at Yellowstone makes you ponder all of the awesome power that is continually at work under our feet.

We saw a wolf!  As we drove around, we came across a lone wolf that didn't stop to allow me to get a great picture.  Regardless of the poor quality of the wolf picture, it was a highlight for all us to be able to see this animal in it's native environment.

It was late May when we traveled through Yellowstone so all of the rivers, creeks and streams were flowing strong due to the Spring snow melt.

While hiking to see another waterfall, my girls had to stop and play in a stream that we had to cross.  Kids love playing in the water.

The weather was a little chilly in Yellowstone for our time there, but not un-bearable.  There was still snow on the ground and Spring was making it's entrance into the Park.

Our girls enjoyed seeing all of the geysers and watching the various kinds of small and large eruptions of water and mud.

What is a visit to Yellowstone without a stop at the world famous Old Faithful geiser?   It's always impressive to watch that amount of water erupt skyward on a regular basis.

Here was the daily view we were treated to from our campsite.  After weeks of training hard, it was great to just sit and watch Nature at work.

Yes, we might have had s'mores for breakfast...and lunch...and dinner.  We can't readily get s'more ingredients in Indonesia so we had a fun time indulging in them while we camped.

Once again while driving, we came across a lone coyote.  We see and hear them all of the time in our home of Colorado, but we still always get a kick out of seeing them.

Again, the colors of the hot spring pools around the park left us in awe.  It is so amazing to realize all of the dynamics happening to make those pools look the way they do.

Our girls had a great time also pondering and learning about geo-thermal and volcanic activity.  Yellowstone is a land that is very alive.

We took lots of hikes on the nature trails the park has provided.  It made it easy for us to see a lot of the park.

As we drove out of Yellowstone, we saw some swans early in the morning as the fog was just lifting off of the lake.

In May, our girls still weren't used to the idea of having various types of clothes to use throughout the course of one day.  In Indonesia flip-flops and shorts will work all day, year round.  In the Rockies, they only work for part of the day...maybe.

As we drove out of the park, there was still a lot of snow at the southern entrance.  Spring comes late to the Rocky Mountains, something we are very familiar with being from Colorado.

As we drove out of Yellowstone NP, we drove into Grand Teton National Park.  Thankfully, we were able to see a sow Grizzly bear with two cubs.  Just like the wolf picture above, the photo isn't great, but the experience of seeing these 3 bears was.

The Teton mountain range is one of my favorite.  They aren't big in terms of square mileage, but they protrude right out of the Earth like a bunch of knife blades.  So beautiful!

Sangre de Cristo Sunrise

With all of the traveling we have been doing these last few months, we have had a lot of early mornings.  I love watching the sunrise develop in the higher latitudes.  Living on the equator, the sun seems more like a light switch; on and then off.  There is usually no lingering and changing light due to our position on planet Earth so it has been fun to enjoy some great sunrises and sunsets while being stateside.

Yellowstone Cropduster

After my training wrapped up at MAF-HQ in Nampa, ID, my family and I took a detour on the way home to Colorado through Yellowstone, WY.  On the way there, we came across a crop-duster working his magic at a field right on the side of the highway.

I love watching crop-dusters to this day.  Watching them as a boy is what kindled my love of airplanes and aviation.  Even my girls had a fun time watching this pilot make work look like fun.

Kodiak Training

After spending almost two weeks at Spokane Turbine Center (see previous post), I then headed down to our MAF headquarters to train in the actual Kodiak that I will be flying at our location in Indonesia.

You may notice that something might be wrong with this airplane...It has wheels, not floats.  In May, MAF had just taken delivery of this new aircraft, and the floats were scheduled to be installed in July.  See my post from OSHKOSH about this same airplane with it's new set of landing gear.

My boss and I both attended training at STC and then flew this aircraft afterwards.  It was a great time learning the ins and outs of this amazing tool.  It was also ironic that we were training hard in the desert of Idaho, making dust and landing on wheels.  It won't be long until I'm training once again in this same airplane, on floats, making waves on the rivers of Central Borneo.  Airplanes are so cool!

While my boss did some takeoffs and landings at this short, little dirt strip in Idaho, I got out and took pictures.  Above he is just taking off.

Landing performance in the Kodiak is impressive as well.  It had been a while since I was in a wheel plane, so putting the Kodiak through it's paces was really fun.

I took a picture of the flight counter at 36.2 hours.  Airplane "health" is all measured in hours of flight.  I've never owned any type of new machine, and having the opportunity to fly a NEW airplane is awesome. To put it in perspective, the airplanes that this Kodiak will eventually replace each have about 25,000 hours of flight time and are 47 and 52 years old!

I've flown with MAF instructor Scott Channon on many occasions and we had a good time together once again as we spent 3 days in the Kodiak.  I can't wait to use this tool to serve the people in Indonesia.

Spokane Training

I was in Spokane, WA in May for training for our soon to be arriving Kodiak.  One of the fun things about being at airports is you never know what will show up.  While on a break between classes, the Memphis Belle arrived for the weekend.  This is the same B-17 that was used in the movie of the same name.

Walking around these historic aircraft and seeing the inside makes one contemplative.  More servicemen died in a B-17 during WWII than any other way.

With the advanced technology we have with modern military aircraft, seeing something simple, un-pressurized, and laden with machine guns, hearkens back to a different age.

I was undergoing training at the Spokane Turbine Center.  They specialize in turbine aircraft training, specifically the Quest Kodiak; the aircraft I will be transitioning to upon our return to Indonesia.  The yellow Kodiak in the photo above is STC's training aircraft.