Yeah, no thanks. Friend of the family took a wrong move in a single a couple of years ago heading to Oshkosh from Sandpoint. Flew down a dead end, couldn’t get turned, couldn’t get the altitude. Crashed and killed all 5 people aboard.
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But, if you do come, I’ll get Burt Rutan along to dinner and you can nerd out.
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That’s horrible. Too many tragic stories like that in general aviation. I never fly through valleys, I always try to get at least a couple thousand ft above the tallest peaks for both safety and comfort because mountain wave turbulence can be nasty. I also file IFR at places like Sandpoint with high terrain around because they have specific departure procedures for terrain avoidance and you obviously have ATC’s guidance.
Not to say I’m immune to mistakes, pilots more experienced than me have lost their lives due to reckless decision making, I’m just saying there are ways to reduce risk.
I do a fair amount of risk reduction in my day to day work, but nowhere does it seem more needed than aircraft.
Kind of related - I was in the cockpit during a descent and landing in a kc135 and the pilot’s console went dark (there’s probably a better technical term for this that I don’t know). I was blown away at how casually we seem to be flying without them mid-descent, they turn back and ask the engineer to switch over and he says something like “oh yeah these breakers go out all the time” while he pulls some off a big board. Switches over to the other side after a minute and carry on, total pros but I was low key shitting bricks haha
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It’s all about redundancies. Planes with glass cockpits will have an independent electronic backup system or steam gauges if you lose your primary flight display.
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https://sandpointreader.com/pam-bird-killed-in-airplane-crash/
Article about it. There were 3 people. I thought it was 5. But Bitd and her husband see friends of my parents. My stepdad is an inventor so he, Burt Rutan and Bird were all friends.
Bird was in the news again recently as he invented the respirator.
For people who make it to Circling Raven, you will not be disappointed. Great track.
There’s some really good golf in the region, especially if you are loose with geography and include Gamble Sands and Palouse Ridge.
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Having played all the CDA tracks I think Circling Raven is the best of them all. And it’s much cheaper than the big 3.
Was browsing through some pictures when putting the schedule together and it looked fantastic!
Where at in Montana are you golfing?? I’d say you should swing by but it could be anything from like a 1 to 8 hour drive haha
I’m planning on coming to this from MT - just a short 5.5 hour drive.
That’s a Sunday afternoon drive around here!
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Have the dates blocked off, if this gets off the ground I’ll be flying into Seattle on Thursday.
Chambers Bay definitely on the table
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Is anybody thinking about staying at The Resort? It’s about £200 a night per room. Not exactly cheap but not exactly terrible either. Especially if you get a twin and share.
Bozeman is where I play.
Been on a quarantine golf break this spring though.
Would love to get out to CDA for this event but not in the cards this year. Hope a refuge event comes near down the road.
Is there anywhere else nearby worth staying?
If not I would stay on resort!
Yeah, there’s a thousand places in Coeur d’Alene. The big industry these days is tourism and hi end tech, so just look up hotels in town. There’s everything from the Resort to motels to B&Bs.
The Main Street is called Sherman. Here are a few places on there at different values:
And there are a few B&Bs in the streets off Sherman like Wallace. This one, for example:
If you rent a car there are the usual Holiday Inns, Doubletrees, Marriotts etc up by I90. You can’t walk to the centre of town though. The best ones are in the Riverstone development as it’s a nice area and you can walk down to the riverside for breakfast at Le Pipe Cafe and I can pick you up from there on the boat.
The Resort is genuinely lovely though. It’s the heart of the town and we’ll be hanging out there for cocktails anyway.
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Just realised that weekend is Car d’Alene! Which is weekend long classic car gathering. Might have to get the E-type out…
And, just to get you all in the mood:
The Resort course is the opposite of golden age woke golf. And I just don’t care, because now and again it’s fine to treat yourself. It’s $200 a round but that comes with a cart and a caddie between each 2ball, unlimited floating range balls to hit into the lake and a head, back and shoulder massage before you start to play!
It’s immaculate. Always. And although beautiful and full of fun holes like the floating green it’s not very hard. It’s actually designed so an 8 handicap will come home having shot 2over and so happy he spends $300 in the bar. This is why the owner is a billionaire!
And here’s our friend EAL hipstering round Circling Raven, where we’re playing Sunday:
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WeLikeThat.gif!!!
It’s awesome. The first 3 holes are the best three holes in golf. Not because they’re amazing. But because you’re floating down them.
And when the massage is wearing off you hit the lakeside for some wow.
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And we’re pencilled in for lunch on the terrace after playing, so we can sit and watch other people play the floating green.
Then after lunch we’ll head off down the lake to spend the afternoon swimming at Beauty Bay.
It’ll be … mediocre.
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