I have been trying to fly over to Bend this winter, but the weather hasn't cooperated on the days that I'm free to fly. A clear day finally arrived and we loaded up the club's 182 and departed for KBDN. As
we climbed to 7,500, we pointed the airplane between Mt. Washington and Three-Fingered
Jack, which kept us clear of two wilderness areas and offered one of the lower eastbound
mountain crossing altitudes. As we got closer to the pass, we climbed briefly
to 8,500 to increase our margin for terrain clearance and looked for our
crossing point, which was the junction of highway 22 and highway 20. There is
also a state airport (8S3) at that junction that makes for an ideal landmark.
 |
| Over Santiam Junction (8S3) |
After crossing the pass, we started our descent into Bend
and dialed up the AWOS and started monitoring the KBDN CTAF frequency. At about
15 miles, the airport was visible and we setup for a right pattern entry to
runway 16. Though the sectional and third party airport information websites
sites list the pattern flow as left traffic, there is a permanent NOTAM in
place that calls for right traffic to runway 16 for fixed wing aircraft as
there is a high volume of helicopter training at the airport and rotorcraft fly
left traffic for the same runway.
After landing, we fueled the plane and walked across the
tarmac to the Pickled Pig Restaurant. The restaurant is located on the second
floor of one of the FBO’s and has nice views of the airport both inside and
from the outside deck. They serve breakfast all day and tout their award
winning barbecue on the menu.
The flight back was slightly bumpy as the winds had picked
up and the temperature had warmed since our arrival. The forecast called for a broken
layer forming at 5:00 pm, but was starting to form a little earlier than
expected, so we had to pick our way in between and sometimes over the cloud
layer. We opted in most cases to climb above the deck instead of going under in
order to keep a safer altitude above terrain to avoid turbulence and other
mountain phenomena that occur when wind blows across a ridge.
 |
|
Mt. Jefferson and Three-Fingered Jack
|
Overall, I’d recommend the Pickled Pig as a breakfast or lunch
destination if looking for a fun flying outing and mountain crossing. Though, I’d
recommend going early in the morning and returning before the afternoon winds
and temperatures rise as the ride could be quite bumpy (especially in the
Summer).
