The other day I had one of those dream scenarios again. They don't happen often. My presence was requested in Baker City, OR (!) for work and the producer asked me if she should reserve a ticket to Boise or Portland for me, which would I prefer? Baker City is a small town on the border of Oregon and Idaho and the drive from Boise would be 2hrs. And from Portland a whopping 5hrs!
My options were:
1. LAX to either Phoenix or Salt Lake City. Wait 2 hrs, connect, then fly to Boise, then drive for 2 hrs. Total door to door travel time: about
10hrs
2. LAX direct to Portland, then drive for 5hrs. Total door to door:
10hrs
I took a quick glance at the map and sure enough; Baker City Municipal Airport with its 3 long rwy's was a mere three miles outside of town. "I'll get myself up there", I heard myself say. On the day, I comfortably cruised up there in perfect VFR in 3hrs 20mins with my second unit cameraman in tow, saving production even more money as they now didn't have to fly him either. Not only that, we brought our foldable bikes and could cycle in from airport ourselves. Door to door time was less than
5hrs.
Having your own plane sometimes - priceless.
