Flying cross country? Trying to cover a bit of ground? Need to get somewhere fast? On a budget? Take the airplane. Want to go sightseeing? Low and slow desired? Doorless? And land on cool spots? Have a little extra cash to burn? Let’s take the Air Jeep; aka the helicopter. After a month in Montana and a few days in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, we spent another month in Utah this fall with the motorhome. We have gotten to know Utah pretty well over the years, but we still can’t get enough of it. Funny enough… our Utah bucket list continues to grow instead of shrink. I managed to fly four times this time around, two of which were around the Salt Lake City (SLC) area: the first time in an airplane and the second one in a helicopter because there are different aircraft for different missions. I flew with Platinum Aviation (https://platinumaviationut.com/) and their sister company Utah Helicopter (http://www.utahhelicopter.com/), respectively, out of South Valley Regional Airport (U42). Flying the airplane first gave me a great overview of SLC and its surrounding suburbs, towns and, more importantly, mountains and outdoor areas. It also allowed me to pinpoint a few areas to fly with the helicopter later: slower, lower, closer. Source: ForeFlight We started out flying southeast towards the Point of the Mountain VFR checkpoint (VPPTM) but remaining west of it as hang gliders and paragliders love to fly from it. What I like most about the greater SLC area is that there are mountains both east and west of the valley (unlike in Denver, for example, where there are only mountains west of the city). However, having two significant bodies of water (Utah Lake by Provo and the Great Salt Lake in SLC) makes it easy to get your bearings correct. We then followed Provo Canyon, crossing the Wasatch Mountains, from about VFR checkpoint VPPVO to Heber Valley Airport (KHCR) over Deer Creek Reservoir. I chose to hug the right side of the canyon this time to enjoy views of Mount Timpanogos and have “my out” on my side of the airplane in case we encountered any troubles. According to the locals, the leaf colors started to change early this year and I sure appreciated it. I guess not all is bad in 2020. I did not land in Heber City. It did not look like a challenging airport to fly in and out of. However, it did look nice so we’ll plan on spending some time in the area with the motorhome during a future trip so we can explore Strawberry Reservoir, the Timber Lakes, and the surrounding mountains as well. And, from Heber City, to Park City via Jordanelle Reservoir, a popular place for boaters and RVers. Of course, we got to see a few ski resorts and the Utah Olympic Park (last picture of the next set) as well. On the way back towards SLC, instead of taking Parley’s Canyon (since I’ve seen it via car multiple times and you can see it in the picture below), I took the next canyon north to see Hogle Zoo (VFR checkpoint VPZOO). That put us right in the middle of downtown SLC and then ATC had me fly over the north end of KSLC over to Antelope Island. It’s always pretty cool to fly over big airports and see aircraft coming and going. Flying to Antelope and Stansbury Islands looked a bit surreal. The landscape is very unique and a bit “out of this world” looking. There’s salt, marsh, agriculture, sand, water, algae, rocks, desert, all mixed together with a variety of different colors and forming a variety of different shapes. You are also seeing some of the smoke from the California fires in these pictures as well. The flight back was uneventful, with a short landing at U42. (While it may seem like I'm dragging the tail a bit, I actually had 4 white lights on the PAPI. The long empty land in front of it may create an illusion.) To be able to see the fall colors a bit better and because I always enjoy landing off-airport (especially in areas with terrain and elevation), the helicopter flight focused around just that. Plus, I had time to do some fun hover maneuvers once back at U42. The two flights were on different days. One of my personal minimums is: Don't fly both aircraft types on the same day! (Because it’s not safe for me to be flying “the blender” and take pictures, these pictures come from GoPro video footage. That’s the reason for the wide angle.) I first flew towards downtown SLC with the idea of flying around the University of Utah and then heading south along the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains. Approaching the I-80 and I-215 junction leaving Parley’s Canyon on the left. Flying down the foothills: Utah Helicopter has permission to operate in and out of a private property close to one of the canyons, so we stopped in there as well. Off-airport landings are usually my highlight of heli flying and this time was no exception! I mean, aren’t these beautiful mountains? Here’s an example of some of the cool and unique things one can see from the air: Lined up with Taxiway A: Approaching and hovering over H3: Being dual rated is the most fun one can have. Best of both worlds!
Fly safe and fly often!
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