KPAE - KBEC for BAC Fest

donaldmcn

Initial Climb
Day 1:

The plan was to go from Paine Field (Everett, WA), to Cheyenne with a stop in Boise, ID and a stop in Rock Springs, WY.

Departure out of PAE @ 7 am was through a thin broken layer at 600 AGL that moved in as we were getting the plane ready. After that it was clear and smooth all the way to Boise.

Departed Boise VFR for Rock Springs. On the way Flight watch said RKS was having T-Storm activity, so I started to think maybe an alternate would be good. Nothing ahead on the Storm scope, but we were getting bounced around pretty good at 7500 MSL, and around Burley we have a pretty good build up to the south of us, that decides to let loose a lighting strike. It was behind us, but a bit close for comfort. Clear skies ahead, so no worries. We followed I-84 to Brigham City, where another check with flight watch said there where moderate to heavy radar echos between Evanston and Rocksprings, and there was a Convective Sigment just to the south of the route, so I decided a stop at Evanston, WY to get a good check on the weather was a good plan.

After a trip into town for some lunch, the weather picture between Evanston and Cheyenne was looking pretty marginal, so we decided to stay in Evanston for the night.

Planning Evanston, to Goodland, KS, and then Goodland to BEC. Hope to be at BEC by around 3pm local.

don
 
A bit after the fact, but here is the rest of the trip:

Weather was good leaving Evanston. Chris Linderman was flying over EVW just before we departed, and said he was stopping in Greely, CO. We were planning to go to Goodland, but the weather there was down to IFR minimums, and their ILS was out, so we opted to stop in Greely.

We met up with Chris and his wife in Greely, on their way out.

Weather over western KS was looking a bit dicey, so I decided to file IFR, and off we went on the final leg, GXY to BEC.

We ended up between layers most of the way, and never really ended up in the clouds, but we were above a solid overcast layer for quite a while. Weather at BEC was nice with an easy visual into BEC.

Great reception at the Beech factory, and organization for the Event. Thanks again to Dave Buttram and everybody else for setting things up.
 
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