My favorite time of the year is coming! Summer is almost here (or here in Houston anyway!), the mountains are calling, and we must go… fly them! 2020 was the first time my husband Jared and I visited Montana and now it’s (like) an addiction. After spending a little over a month in neighboring Idaho, we spent another 1.5 months in NW Montana in 2021. The first year we left wishing we had done some seaplane flying in the area but the local seaplane company, Backcountry Flying Experience, was all booked up. Last year, we made sure to secure a few flights months before. NW Montana offers big open lake water, mountain lakes, numerous rivers, and advanced mountain flying. But, unfortunately, low visibility from both smoke and weather made us cancel on a couple of occasions and, even on the day that we flew, the weather limited us (due to clouds and wind which also translated into pretty choppy water). Regardless, I had a great time. I practiced some river flying and docking, we evaluated a lot of different areas for debris and other conditions, and we went aerial sightseeing over Flathead Lake. A "flying Yasmina" is a "happy Yasmina," no matter what! This Piper Super Cub PA-18 is the champ that let us take her on a joy ride but normally she’s quite the work horse. She spends all summers training pilots. Backcountry operates from a nice lot on the banks of the Flathead River, just north of Bigfork. Bigfork is a cute town from the ground and from the air. It has been honored with flattering designations in many publications. It is a lovely, upscale, year-round resort village that is brimming with art galleries, fine restaurants, golf, high-end boutiques and live theater. If these pictures don’t represent Montana and all of its beauty (outside of National Parks), I don’t know what does! The weather prevented us from seeing beyond the Flathead Valley but the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Jewel Basin, Flathead National Forest, Flathead Lake and all the little rivers and creeks around were awesome to see. The mechanism to go up and down from this particular house to/from the lake was quite interesting and elaborate! But I’d prefer to have access to Lakeside Airport (MT03) given the choice. It appears to have a nice 3,376 x 60 ft paved runway in a beautiful setting. MT03 is a private airport with prior permission and training required. It is essentially a “one way in, same way out” kind of an airport due to significant runway slope and rising terrain on the south end of the runway (as can be seen in the picture I took below). Landings should be done to the south (19) and departures (01) to the north. A low pass prior to landing is recommended to clear the runway of any sort of animal or wildlife. You know the drill... a good pilot is always looking for places to land should an emergency happen. A good seaplane pilot is always evaluating available water for obstacles, moving objects, and debris. There was definitely a lot of debris (big tree logs) on the north side of Flathead Lake. Splash safe and splash often!
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- Summer is made for flying and the great outdoors
- Splashing around Northwest Montana - Same Places, Different Perspectives... From the Air and From the Ground - Going-to-the-Sun Skyway - Flying Up in the "Big Sky" AuthorYasmina Platt Archives
December 2023
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