On Wednesday, I said goodbye to Lee and flew the leg from Greeley, CO to Ogden UT (379 nm, 2.6 hrs).
Before I left while fueling a pilot in a Varieze stopped by to get some fuel with the most audacious EZ I have every seen. It was definitely a pimp mobile with blue fur material everywhere!


Flying IFR, one definitely needs O2 as the IFR airways MEA is 16,000 ft. The trip to SLC was definitely better than when I flew Pat’s plane to LA and was almost had an accident due to icing. The scenery was just beautiful!

All was good until I landed and found I had lost over 1200 psi in the cylinder because of a broken 0 ring on the fitting… shit I am now down to less than 500 psi.
The flight was over desolate land, with very sparse towns. I have to hand it to the cowboys of old as it would been quite a haul to travel between towns on a horse over dry land with sage brush without water for very great distances. Overall, it was VFR conditions, with almost no head wind.
After meeting Rick Irwin at the FBO I taxied over to his hanger to check out his bird and put mine up for the night. Rick and I spent about an hour hitting local shops to find a tiny O ring for my O2 system (which we finally found) and his A&P buddy Stewart filled my bottle for me. He used a “Oxygen Intensifier”…?? It is an O2 pump which pumps low pressure O2 up to 2,200 psi using an air compressor to power it. I never heard of such a thing, and after checking it out on the net I want to build one.
Rick’s cozy 4 is MOST unusual. Its 4” wider, with infinity gear, forward opening canopy, blended winglets, impeccable workmanship, he is going to make a one of a kind strake design with a 300 hp rotary engine. Talk about taking on a development project! Two other cozy 4 builders stopped by to check my bird out and head over to Rick’s house for dinner. I guess they are rotary crazy in UT as the two other builders are both going to the rotary route.

Diner was hosted by Rick at his house with a bunch of local builders and it was back to the hanger to give a ride to a local Longez builder (Chris) who has been building and never seen or flown in an EZ.

We went up just a the sun was setting, the air was smooth, I put on some nice music and he just loved the flight. What a motivator for him to complete his project.

What a beautiful sunset over the Great Salt Lake….

After landing and a very long taxi my brakes failed. Shit whats up now? I have experienced brake fade, but this was different. Both peddle went to the floor and I had nothing. Hum that was strange. The wheel pants were VERY hot and were removed to check damage and to let everything cool. I have SS lines from the master cylinder to the slave, and the only thing I could determine is that possibly the lines got hot enough to boil the fluid because after cooling, the brakes worked normally. With brake fade, you apply pressure, the brakes act normally but you don’t stop. This time, the was no stopping and I could pump away at the brakes and the peddles went to the floor like I had no fluid. Strange. After I took the wheel pants off and everything cooled off the breaks worked perfectly.

Had a great sleep and goodbyes it is off to Boise. Thanks Rick for your help and hospitality!

When I did some planning today I put together a map of the trip…. roughly 7,500 NM with about 280 gal fuel. It turns out to be quite a tour of the country.

This morning started off early with a walk/run in the park a block from Lee’s house. I ran down hill and huffed and puffed up hill. This high altitude is a bit tough for a week or so as one’s body adjusts to the higher altitude.

I saw this weird plant pod and brought one back to the house for Lee to identify. It is a yucka plant. I just loved getting up in the morning to 64 f temps and crisp cool air with wonderful new smells.

On the way up the mountain to the visitor center, we stopped for lunch in Estes at Lee’s favorite indian resturant. While it is good, I still think the Charleston has the best indian resturant I have ever eaten at…”The Bomba Bazar”on Rivers Ave.

The town is primarily a summer tourest destination. It has the renoun for being the first city in the world to have an all electric hotel built by Mr Stanley (of the stanley steamer fame). The Fall River flows though the center of town an there were 6 power plants (small hydro-electric) to tap the rivers power. The river is now beautifully landscaped with shops and restaurants in the center of town. .

This is a raptor sculpture right in the center of town. I guess I saw about 15 or so sculptures scattered around the town and park today mostly hidden away to be discovered by a intrepid visitors.

After leaving Estes, we proceed to a decommissioned early 1900s power generation plant (historic site) which displays the old generators which originally made this all electric town possible.

A 200 MW water generator….

The sights on the way up to the visitor center were stunning.

The visitor center is at 11,796 ft. Wow. In my plane I would be on O2 at this point as I like to stay focused flying and I find O2 helps. If I walked to fast or tried to do any climbing one gets quickly out of breath. The sight were stunning at the top and on the way back down the mountain.

Overall, I think I would like to visit Estes again. It is terrific little resort town that would warrant a return trip to spend days just driving around the park and hiking. There is so much to explore here. I have only shown a few of the 100 or so pictures and the sights were spectacular