Had a great trip to McCall Idaho to attend a big BBQ pig roast my buddy puts on. The more I go to Idaho, the more I love it there. We departed out of Concord VFR and headed GPS direct straight to McCall airport KMYL. You need to cross the Sierra Nevada mountain range so flying high is a good idea. Winds were smooth and no major bumps at 11.5 so I leveled out there. Once you cross the big rocks you're over the Nevada desert and we crossed Black Rock desert and noticed it's actually still flooded from all the rains last winter. There is about a 50 mile stretch where I lost ATC due to radar coverage. Total flight was 3 hrs exactly with a minor detour to fly over the lake. My Twin Bonanza does about 165 kts in cruise so the flight would be about the same time in our 182RG.
So awesome that in less time than it would take to drive to Tahoe I can load up the airplane and be in Idaho. Not that Tahoe isn't beautiful too, but Idaho is pristine, cheap and reminds me of Tahoe 30 years ago. Magical!
The flight back brought some big headwinds and continuous moderate turbulence at 12,500 ft. The return flight added about 30 minutes to the flight time, but 3:30 still isn't bad and we still made it home in time for lunch and faster than we would have on the airlines.
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