I recently relocated from the Seattle area to another region of the Pacific Northwest (near Portland, OR.) for a new job and new adventures. Along with moving, getting settled in a new area and Winter weather a day finally opened up for a day of flying. I had joined a local flying club back in September, but my schedule and nice weather days never seemed to line up. I managed to get airplane checkout flights in the club planes out of the way but today was my first time to be able to take a plane out and explore some new territory.
The morning started out foggy but the forecast called for clearing and warming by Noon and the coastal areas were forecast to be clear all day. After getting a weather briefing for the area, I opted to head West and do some sightseeing and get in a couple of landings at
KONP and
S45. The main goal of the flight was to get familiar with a different cockpit layout than what I was used to and to learn some of the landmarks around my new home airport. I also wanted to take in any nuances of the
KSLE tower controllers and how they did things relative to other towers that I've been to. Obviously, phraseology is consistent with all things FAA, but every ATC has it's own "personality".
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| Glass to the Max |
After a thorough pre-flight, I departed KSLE and headed West toward KONP. The C172 that I was flying is equipped with a full Garmin glass panel, not just a simple upgrade but full-on glass PFD/MFD and dual GTN's. But, I wasn't distracted by the eye-candy and kept to the task at hand and navigated by what I saw out the windows. Soon enough KONP was in site and after getting the automated weather decided the best runway was 02. After a landing and taxi-back, I headed North and pointed the nose up the coast for Siletz Bay. The airport was easy to find and after a flyover checking the windsock, I entered the pattern and landed on 17. I understand that there is a nice eatery across the highway from the airport called the
Side Door Cafe, so I'll make a trip back over to S45 and take in a meal. And besides, I don't have any favorite spots yet for Oregon so will write about this destination in a future blog entry.
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| Arriving S45 |
After snapping a few photos on the ground at S45, I launched East and headed for KSLE. This time though, the sky had turned quite hazy and there were pockets of fog that made identifying ground landmarks difficult. So, I punched in my route on the GTN and tracked the CDI until I could at least make out the Salem area. From there it was easy to identify Independence and then the KSLE terminal area. After contacting the tower I requested some touch and goes and made a few before calling it a day. Overall, put 2.1 hours on the hobbs and am ready to get flying again on a regular basis.
