Plane spotting road trip : Days 2-6 June 27 - July 1 Pendleton OR => Aberdeen ID - 7 airports

Thursday June 27th 2024 ... After a night in Pendleton OR, before heading out on the road again we headed up to the Eastern Oregon airport (code KPDT) which is on a plateau on top of a hill at the north side of the city.  As a result, it was incredibly windy - on this day anyway - and you can see miles and miles of rolling countryside every direction.  It was served by Horizon Air up to 2008 to Seattle, then taken over by SeaPort Airlines with a Pilatus PC12 to Portland as an Essential Air Service until their bankruptcy in 2016.  It is now continued by Boutique Air also with a PC12 and one was present next to the small terminal.  Fedex Feeder also have C208 Cargomaster flights to La Grande OR and Spokane WA.  There was quite a nice selection of GA, some fairly rare, but the hi-light was a pair of Vietnam veteran Chinook helicopters now operated by the Oregon Air National Guard, though photographing them was hard.  There was also a Huey shell I have still have not been able to identify.

N741SS ~ Pilatus PC-12/47 ~ Boutique Air [San Francisco CA] ~ ex ZS-CWM

Unidentified Bell UH-1 Iroquois

08-08049 ~ Boeing CH-47F Chinook ~ US Army 1-186th AVN/ANG [Pendleton OR] ~ ex 67-18451 (B model) & 86-01652 (D model)
05-08011 ~ Boeing CH-47F Chinook ~ US Army 1-186th AVN/ANG [Pendleton OR] ~ ex 65-8010 (A model) & 84-24367 (D model)

We had a long drive ahead of us and needed to be at our destination before dinner time, so we just headed south east along the I84 into Idaho state and headed to Boise airport which is right on the interstate to the south of the city, known as Boise Air Terminal Gowen Field (code (KBOI), which was about 225 miles and about 3.25 hours.  We passed Caldwell Executive airport (code KEUL) just before Boise which is also on the highway and I saw a Cessna twin piston parked, but we did not have time to stop.  We had our first ever experience at Appleby's for lunch, but first I looked at the aircraft!

KBOI is served by most of the US major and LCC carriers.  The largest by destinations is Alaska Airlines followed by Southwest Airlines along with Allegiant, American, Avelo, Delta, Spirit, Sun Country and United plus Gem Air with Cessna 208's to Salmon ID (which I visited on the way home) and quite a large cargo presence with Fedex, UPS and Amazon along with smaller carriers.  During my brief drive around I saw aircraft from WN, DL & AS plus a pair of Fedex 757 freighters parked next to the terminal and quite a bit of GA and business traffic.  There is an FBO at the west end which also yielded a Brazilian registered Gulfstream.  Over at the far side of the airport is the US military and home of the Idaho Air National Guard who are equipped with the A10 Thunderbolt II and a large SkyWest maintenance hangar, but I saw nothing from either.

Airlines & routes:

AS => BUR, LAS, LAX, SNA, PHX, PDX, PUW (Pullman WA), SMF, SAN, SFO, SJC, SEA & GEG (Spokane WA) with seasonal to BZN (Bozeman MT), MCO & PSP.

G4 => LAS, SNA & IWA

AA => DFW with seasonal to PHX

AA Eagle => PHX with ORD resuming in June

XP => STS

DL => ATL, MSP & SLC

DL Connection => LAX & SEA

F9 => DEN commences in May

S6 (Gem Air) => SMN (Salmon ID)

WN => BUR, DEN, LAS, OAK, PHX, SMF, SAN & SJC with seasonal to DAL & MDW from June

NK => LAS

SY => seasonal to MSP

UA => DEN & SFO with seasonal to ORD

UA Express => ORD, DEN, LAX & SFO

The weather here was cloudless and hot, so began the trials of heat haze for the rest of the trip but also a hive of activity from aerial fire bombers.  I saw a Coulson B737-300 N137CG who are from Port Alberni here in BC and an Aero-Flite Avro RJ85 N635AC from Missoula MT, both of course rare classics now but heat haze prevented publishable photos.  The rarest and best however is none other than Erickson's MD-87 and the only ones left in commercial service other than one which has just arrived in Iran.  Funnily enough I saw this airframe at Heathrow back in 1996 when serving with Iberia!  I also have a video on my Flickr page of the JT8D engine start up.  There was also a Twin Otter bird dog with Vistaliner conversion.

N537AR ~ de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 Vistaliner ~ Twin Otter International [Las Vegas NV] ~ ex N19RA, N147SA & TI-BBQ

N292EA ~ McDonnell Douglas MD-87 ~ Erickson Aero Tanker [Medford OR] ~ ex EC-634, EC-FEY, EC-KVA & SE-DMM

After lunch we continued south east on the I84 then the I86 through to Aberdeen ID to meet our dinner deadline.  We bypassed airports in at least Twin Falls Magic Valley (code KTWF) which has scheduled service to Salt Lake City with Delta Connection.

We spent the weekend mostly non aviation with friends and family, that evening they look me to their local airfield Aberdeen Municipal (code KU36) and they own a few aircraft there, the most exciting being an Epic LT and Piaggio Avanti.

Friday June 28th 2024 ... my friend took me to American Falls airport (code KU01), but there were no aircraft outside to be seen.  We went on to Pocatello Regional airport (code KPIH) which also has scheduled flights to Salt Lake City with Delta Connection.  Driving up to the relatively small terminal building, what is noticeable is the size of the airfield which has two long runways, one over 9000' due to its past as a bomber base.  What is also noticeable is the presence of the recently retired NASA Douglas DC-8-72 which has been donated to the local state university.  That, and the Voodoo gate guardian!

N817NA ~ Douglas DC-8-72 ~ Idaho State University [Pocatello ID] ~ ex I-DIWK, N801BN, N717NA & N436NA

N526MW ~ Kaman K-1200 K-Max ~ Mountain West Helicopters [Provo UT] ~ ex N132KA

59-0417 ~ McDonnell F-101B-115-MC Voodoo ~ US Air Force 136th FIS, 107th FIG [New York ANG]

Apart from the Kaman on fire standby, a Fedex Cessna Cargomaster which connects to Salt Lake City, a couple of bizjets, the rest was GA including a few older classic non flyers with the university including an US Army C310.

Sunday June 30th 2024 ... my friend took us flying in his Epic LT from Aberdeen to Driggs Reed Memorial Airport still in Idaho (code KDIJ), about 100 miles to the north east.  That particular aircraft is an early home built kit aircraft, currently built as a factory aircraft by the new owners and it is a very capable aircraft, outperforming the similar French Daher TBM series in every metric.  Upon arrival in Driggs, we found a Falcon 900, couple of Citation's and King Air on the ramp with a few other GA types.  The purpose was to visit the small Warbird Airplane Museum Collection, access is free when you use the FBO.  It is all airworthy and some were actually away out on the airshow circuit leaving just five aircraft present.  We then flew back to Aberdeen.

N134 ~ Beech A-45 Mentor ~ ex 53-4135

N831EF ~ Aero Vodochodny L-39C Albatros

N4901W ~ Vought F4U-5Nl Corsair ~ ex BuNo 124560 & FAH-601

N112D ~ Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3

N934RS ~ Beech T-34B Mentor ~ ex BuNo 140743

Monday July 1st 2024 ... my friend took us flying in a different aircraft, this time a 1963 vintage Cessna 182 Skylane up to Smiley Creek Ranch (code KU87) about 30 miles past Ketchum also in Idaho in the mountains to the north west.  Upon landing we found a beautiful 1944 vintage Beech Staggerwing plus a pair of older Cessna's.  It is a beautiful spot and we had brunch at the ranch and flew back to Aberdeen.   

N7347N ~ Cessna TU206G Turbo Stationair ~ AV8 [Boise ID]

N8453T ~ Cessna 182B ~ Private [Illinois Valley IL]

N1185V ~ Beech D17S Staggerwing ~ Private [Merced CA] ~ ex BuNo 23703, 44-6773 & BuNo 32881

The only other aircraft I saw at Aberdeen other than those belonging to my friends was this Air Tractor that was spraying over the fields and was very busy the whole weekend we were there.  The type is popular in the area on these duties, we of course see them closer to home in Abbotsford BC with Conair as a fire bomber.

N802AJ ~ Air Tractor AT-802A ~ Agri Jet [Aberdeen ID]