Short Hop Across the Oregon Cascades

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).