My New 182 Flies to Dead Cow

Well, it’s been a long time. I didn’t quit flying completely, but I have only flown intermittently and not to very photogenic places. I spent much of last winter replacing the ragged headliner on the 210 and doing major repairs to Betsy’s mom’s house (she had passed away). Our summer fun was mountain biking in Croatia and a mule-supported remote climbing trip in the Sierra.

I did sell my beloved T210. I flew about 2,500 hours in that plane. Traded it really. Craig Morton had a nice clean 1963 182E and a growing family. Betsy and I, on the other hand, are almost completely retired and find ourselves taking our Sprinter van more often than flying.

So now Craig flies a sweet T210 and I fly a sweet 182. He can get his family out to cool places in a weekend, while I basically have no weekends.

I decided to put an autopilot in it and like usual, it took WAY longer than I expected. Kind of like rebuilding the deck on Betsy’s mom’s house. I put in a King Aerocruz 100 – not a nice Garmin but much less expensive and you can install it yourself (with a mechanic) and not through a Garmin dealer.

So my first big trip with the 182 was a 3 week trip to the southwest, and my first stop was the Dead Cow Lakebed, the home of the High Sierra fly-in (which is taking a hiatus this year). Betsy is driving the Sprinter (bless her heart) and I’m in the plane. Yes, it sounds silly taking both, but the trip was planned around the airplane and getting photos for a new book I’m writing. And it is super-awesome to have the van, Betsy and our 1-yr old border collie Copper along for the three week trip.

I’m just super lucky to have a wife that can’t fly a plane…

A sunset landing on the Dead Cow playa was cool. The interior of the plane is in very nice condition thanks to Craig, so I carefully took off my shoes when I got back in the plane the next day. That fine playa dust can really be hard to get rid of.

After Dead Cow? Direct to Hanksville Utah to meet Bets and some friends.