Flying Adventure 2018

[Thomas green]

There is a very unusual hotel in Winnifred Montana. The identifier is 9S7. It is 183 miles on a 348 heading from COD. There are only seven rooms and each one is designed after a different country or city and is extremely unusual and absolutely first class. There is hostil style rooms in addition to the seven suites. It also has a bowling alley in a first class restaurant. Across the street is the museum of the worlds largest collection of Tonka trucks and other artifacts of local Montana. Nothing much else on the town, but you will remember the experience. Grass runway but a giant community hanger for public use. The area was developed by a local boy who became a billionaire and wanted to give back to his town. The hotel website is Winnifredsuites.com

[hharney]

Originally Posted by Thomas green

There is a very unusual hotel in Winnifred Montana. The identifier is 9S7. It is 183 miles on a 348 heading from COD. There are only seven rooms and each one is designed after a different country or city and is extremely unusual and absolutely first class. There is hostil style rooms in addition to the seven suites. It also has a bowling alley in a first class restaurant. Across the street is the museum of the worlds largest collection of Tonka trucks and other artifacts of local Montana. Nothing much else on the town, but you will remember the experience. Grass runway but a giant community hanger for public use. The area was developed by a local boy who became a billionaire and wanted to give back to his town. The hotel website is Winnifredsuites.com

Sounds really cool Tom. Maybe a destination for just before or right after our Adventure

[general]

Sounds like something I might put on my calendar.
I haven't been to a SOPA meeting since Branson Missouri and that's been a number of years ago.
If you're coming from the east or south Saratoga Wyoming is a beautiful place to stop, it's out of the way but you'll be parking with a lot of jets at that little Wyoming Airport
http://saratogahotspringsresort.com

[JimC]

I'll try to make it.

[hharney]

SKYMASTER OWNERS

The 2018 Flying Adventure is in the final stages of preparation so that Registration can be opened. The base location is KCOD, Cody, Wyoming just on the east side of the Park. Rooms have been blocked in Cody at the Holiday Inn but are very limited supply. If you are planning to join us this fall please call or email ASAP to secure a room. They will go quickly and it's still prime season out there so properties are already full.

Dates are set: SEPTEMBER 5 - 9, 2018

Fly in to KCOD on Wednesday to meet together at the Holiday Inn. Thursday and Friday are fly days depending on weather. Destinations will be Jackson Hole, WY and West Yellowstone, MT. Dinners together in Cody as a group, rent a car and drive into the park, come early to explore more of this area or stay later to extend the time in the west.

It would be great to get more Skymaster together again. What do you guys think? Is this of interest or is everyone too busy? Should we start SOAPA Fly Ins back up instead of joining this annual group? Lots of options to do some fun gatherings but someone has to do a lot of work to organize the event. This event posted here is already supported by a good team and that's why I have tried to open it up to Skymaster Owners and Pilots. We have had some Skymaster participation in our Flying Adventures in the Bahamas and Nova Scotia but it has been limited. Let me know your thoughts out there? What do you think?

[Thomas green]

I was under the impression, being very new to any soapa activity , that this was a Skymaster group trip. Either way works for me but I would like to see more Skymaster group activities. I am happy to chip in and do some planning.

[hharney]

Originally Posted by Thomas green

I was under the impression, being very new to any soapa activity , that this was a Skymaster group trip. Either way works for me but I would like to see more Skymaster group activities. I am happy to chip in and do some planning.

Tom / Others

We did some good Skymaster events starting back in 2002. Last one was 2011 maybe I think. It got a little frustrating as most of the same folks always showed up. We would get 6 - 10 planes on average but some did draw more interest. I think we had close to 20 in OKC at Don Niesser's place. Most of those events were focused on Skymasters. We would have speakers and Skymaster related presentations but it was difficult to get folks to do presentations without monetary support. Then the Skymaster pilots on the west coast said we were not being fair to them having all the flyins on the east side of the country so we did the next meeting in Las Vegas and only one western plane shows up. We had Sparky Imason speak at that meeting. Some really good stuff on mountain flying. Anyway, I started doing these annual trips in 2012 for some Michigan guys but thought "Why not invite the Skymaster group too". We have had some participation but not a lot of interest as you can see by the posts in the threads about these trips each year. We did the Bahama Islands in 2016 and had a little interest from like 3 pilots on the forum. One pilot did join us from Las Vegas and with my Skymaster and Tracy and Lisa we had a total of 3 twin tails. That is as big as its got.

In 2015 or 2016 the guys down in Ohio put on a great gathering. There were about 15 birds down there and Make Jackson did a presentation and it was FANTASTIC. My hat was off to those guys that hosted that event. It was great.

Thanks for signing up Thomas Green you will enjoy our trips.

For everyone else if you don't like to join the Bonanza's and RV's then let's talk Skymaster trips again. Although I don't think I am interested in putting the event together because I am doing all the work on these trips, like Yellowstone this year. Give me some ideas or come join us, you won't regret going with us.