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My 180K on amphibious floats. Flying B Ranch (12ID) airport terminal, signage and runway.
Ranch and airstrip a mile below on downwind.
Announce whether you are landing upstream or downstream.
convert it from a cattle ranch to a fly- in guest ranch. After several owner- ship changes, a group of Idaho hunt- ers and outdoorsmen acquired it and formed an association. In addition, the group owns the Root Ranch, also located in the Frank Church Wilder- ness, once owned by Hollywood actor Wallace Beery. Both are now oper- ated for the members by Flying Resort Ranches (flyingresortranches.com) out of Salmon, Idaho.
So, I asked my son Kenneth, a for- mer professional Beaver f loat plane
really should fly into the Flying B Ranch (12ID). He told me his two sons, Chad and Kelly, and a group of grandkids would be staying there for a week in August, and we could join them as their guests. He added that the Flying B Ranch has a dedicated chef, horse wranglers, cabins with indoor plumbing, and electricity from a private hydroelectric plant to make the invitation more attractive. But, with no cell phone or internet ser- vice and no road access, everything has to be flown in. Now, that kind of ‘backcountry’ airport is precisely
what I had in mind, but I couldn’t fully admit it. How could I turn the offer down?
After reading Gil’s email, I looked up 12ID and discovered the “Flying B” is about 50 NM east of McCall, Idaho, in the Frank Church wilderness. It has a 2,100-foot grass airstrip at an eleva- tion of 3,647 feet, running alongside the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. The place was settled in the late 1800s as a cattle ranch named after a lo- cally famous Idaho backcountry pilot, A.A. Bennett, who bought it in 1946 to
September 2023 / TWIN & TURBINE • 19