Up High

[Bartfrncs]

If you could fly over your hunting area in a small plane do you think you could get anthing from it?

[Swede]

It is probably not worth the time and expense. I can fly my hunting area on Google Earth or Flash Earth at any time. Almost all of the area can be seen by driving around, and walking out a short distance to a good vantage point. Also I have hunted it for over 20 years, and have been there so long that the squirrels mostly ignore me. I am afraid to ask one if they think I am one of them. We both spend too much time perched in a tree for them not to see the similarity.
If my area was new then I would certainly appreciate a flight or better yet to get my son to go for the ride. Personally I don't care to fly in those little two seater planes.

[CrazyElkHunter]

I can get all the info I need from Google Earth. Before all this was available by computers, I lost a friend and his young son in Oregon in a small plane crash while they were doing just that. Scouting areas of the John Day wilderness looking for elk. Something went wrong, and they crashed and set fire to the area they were going to hunt the next season. Knowing Billy, he probably convinced the pilot to fly lower, and caught a few tree tops. So sad for his wife, loosing her husband and only son so tragically. Thanks to him I was able to hunt the Eagle Caps in the mid 80's. a few times. We flew into Red's Horse Ranch, landed in a grassy field and packed out from there. The only way to get to the ranch was by horse back or small plane because. It was in the middle of wilderness with no roads.

[otcWill]

wierd question, but yes, definitely. I have a buddy in Wyo who shoots an average of 520 coyotes a year out of his paraplane. He flys right up on 'em and pops 'em with triple/0 buck! As for elk, I'd have no interest in flying around my area as I've seen it all and there are no questions as to where the elk are.

[ElkNut1]

Absolutely! You'd be surprised what an aerial view can expose in short order!

ElkNut1

[Indian Summer]

Depends on when you fly and what you're trying to learn. If you want to learn the lay of the land yes it can help. But it's not always easy to know what you're looking at from a plane so you have to really study maps etc and plan your route before you go. Is it worth the expense? Probably not but hey... it's fun too right and like every scouting trip or hunt if you can learn one thing then it's a step in the right direction. Google Earth is good enough for me for that though.

If you want to see and learn about elk that's different. The best time to see them is when there's snow on the ground. Looking at wintering elk does you no good though really. Flying in summer or fall it isn't easy to see enough in the cover to make it worthwhile. I'd rather hike then. So to me a good time to fly would be early November for a couple reasons. First there is snow, but not enough to have moved the bulls down. Snow helps define the lay of the land better too so you know what the heck you're looking at. Second is that depending on where you are gun season could likely still be open, or recently ended. At that point I'm looking for one priceless piece of information. The places where the bachelor bulls group up and call home. The spot they consider prime safe real estate when the heat is on, or, just the spot where they like to stage until they have no choice but to migrate down some. When bulls bunch up like that there may be no other good bulls, or any bulls for miles so it makes them like a needle in the haystack. Those perches are worth an X on my maps. They are good places to look for bulls during late archery early to mid October when they walk away from the rut to recuperate too. Plus there is usually at least one good 6 point in the bunch to think about the following September.

That is my one and only goal when I fly other than fun. No, I don't like the risk factor of flying in the mountain thermals.