Passion for Flight

Denny Creek Trail at Brown's Pass It is in late August. My wife Ute and I stand on one of the many 12,000+ ft peaks of the Continental Divide in Colorado. Looking almost straight down, we see the Cottonwood Pass 300 ft below, where we just started a day hike along the Continental Divide Trail. The sound of an airplane makes us look up. A dot west of us quickly turns into a single-engine low-wing plane approaching the Cottonwood Pass. In fact, it will fly very near to us since it is just a bit higher than us. To line up with the road crossing the pass, the plane banks 30 deg to the left. We see fuselage, wings, tail feathers; it sure looks like an RV8. As the plane completes the turn and flies level again, right over the pass and no more than 600 ft away from us, we see the pilot in the cockpit. We raise our arms and wave wildly. The pilot waves back just as enthusiastically, clearly pleased by our greeting. And then, the pilot does a barrel roll, just for us. How nice! Wing...