Ranger Creek

White River Leading to Mt. Rainier

Had a chance this weekend to take the 182 into 21W (topo) with one of the other airplane owners. I'd been to this mountain airport a few  times by car and have camped nearby, but always wanted to experience flying into the airport. It was a calm and fairly sunny day, so I loaded up my survival pack and filed a VFR round robin flight plan; KRNT-21W-KRNT just in case. The flight plan had a two hour time in route so that was plenty of time to get into the canyon and make a few landings with some up close flying near Mount Rainier and return to Renton. After departure we activated the flight plan and headed South East towards Enumclaw to pickup highway 410 which leads right up the canyon along the White River and eventually going to the Sunrise entrance to Mount Rainier National Park.

Approaching Runway 15

The skies were a little hazy due to fires in Eastern Washington, but we found the highway and radome that marks the entry up the mountain pass. The plan was to fly up the pass at 5500' and then drop down to 1500' AGL or so over the runway and get a look for animals, campers, and wind direction. Winds were calm and the runway was clear, so we continued South through the canyon to make a 180 to fly back over the airfield. The canyon is about .7 miles wide at the base and 1.5 miles near the ridge line, so slowing the airplane down for a tight turn is required. With flaps at 20 and 75 kts the 182 negotiated the 180 degree turn in the narrow canyon nicely. After another pass Northbound over the airport, we set up for a landing and went straight in for runway 15. Landing South requires you to make a slight dog-leg as you pass through a quarter mile wide part of the canyon and then picking up the airport as you turn the corner.

The parking off of the runway looked a little dicey with so many rocks, so we shutdown on the runway and took a few minutes to explore and snap some photos. Then it was back in the air for a trip South through the canyon to get some closeups of Mt. Rainier and then back North to setup for one more landing.Following a textbook landing and a long roll to the departure end of runway 33, we turned around and departed to the North and back to KRNT.

Newport Oregon

With the Labor Day holiday comes a 3-day weekend, so I took an additional vacation day to make it a 4-day weekend. We loaded up the 182 and headed Southwest to Newport, Oregon. We were under no time constraint so filed for a leisurely flight down the scenic Oregon Coast via AST-V27-ONP. Lately I've been filing using an origination point outside the Seattle area in order to avoid the added 15-30 minutes of getting out of the KSEA terminal area before being allowed to proceed en-route. So this time I filed from KPLU and flew VFR until over KPLU and then picked up my clearance to KONP. Got an immediate climb to cruise altitude and then direct AST.

South bound along the Oregon Coast. The prop blades in
the photo are an annoying side effect of HD cameras.

Flying along the coast offers spectacular sites and the chance to see some marine wildlife. It also affords a nice off airport landing site if necessary, namely the beach. I'll take the beach in an emergency over the heavily forested areas a few miles inland down the coast of Oregon and Washington.

After landing at KONP, I had arranged for Enterprise to drop off some 4-wheel transportation so that we could explore the area from the ground. The main attractions are the Oregon Aquarium, Nye Beach, The Historic district and numerous nearby light houses.

One of the goals this weekend was to venture into California by taking a day drip on Saturday or Sunday, but dense fog from Crescent City and South prevented that. I settled on the hour flight to Gold Beach (4S1) to check out the river jet boats and to see what nuggets this tiny inlet city had to offer. Besides the jet boat office, the 50's diner, a steak house, and a few gift shops. Not much happening in Gold Beach. The exciting part of the flight to 4S1 was negotiating the high winds at the airport. Just prior to landing the automated weather was reporting 20 KTS with gusts to 30 KTS. Though the wind was almost right down the runway, it made for a wild ride coming in over the beach. Reminded me of watching some of the landings on Flying Wild Alaska minus the snow.

On Final Runway 34 (4S1)