| Route | U42 → KIDA → U42 |
| Total Legs | 2 |
| Passengers | Scott & Alina |
Fresh off earning my Instrument Rating in late July 2021, my brother Scott offered to buy me birthday breakfast at Smitty’s Pancake & Steak House in Idaho Falls. Joined by his girlfriend Alina, we set out on an early-morning 200-mile cross-country adventure.
Getting an IFR departure clearance off the ground at South Valley Regional (U42) at 4:30 AM takes patience due to the Class Bravo shelf and heavy arrival traffic into Salt Lake International overhead. After a brief ground delay, we launched into the calm morning sky.
As we arrived in Idaho Falls (KIDA), a thin layer of ground fog hung over the field. Putting my new rating to work right out of the gate felt incredible—we flew through the layer without a second thought. The fog patch was brief enough that I didn’t log it as actual IMC, but exercising the privilege of the ticket made the flight well worth it.
The only technical hiccup was an intermittent radio transmission issue. To work around it, I plugged my headset into the co-pilot jacks in the right seat and used the right-yoke PTT button—a foreshadowing moment for a few days later when that radio completely failed on another IFR flight!
After an amazing breakfast at Smitty’s, we launched south on a scenic VFR return flight. As we approached the Salt Lake Class Bravo airspace, we requested a Bravo transition to fly directly home rather than skirting around to the west.
Just as we passed north of Ogden-Hinckley Airport, Salt Lake Approach gave us a unique directive: hug the mountain ridge to our left. A flight of F-35 Lightning II fighters was coming in to land at nearby Hill Air Force Base.
While I held a tight pattern staring directly at the rock face out my left window, Scott and Alina got a front-row seat to military jets tearing up the pattern below us.
We cleared the Bravo, touched down smoothly back at U42, and wrapped up an unforgettable 400-mile round-trip breakfast run before noon.