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)

FL 330

While on a recent business trip back from San Diego I turned on the iPad and loaded the Washington IFR chart. I can report that the on board GPS of the iPad works just as well at 33,000' as it does at 1,000' feet.

Challenge Air 2012

This was my second time volunteering the 182 and myself to fly kids with special needs for the Challenge Air event at KPAE. The event was hosted by Historic Flight Foundation and their hangar and ramp was transformed from museum to a carnival experience. The event attracted 100's of families who came out for aviation related crafts, education, and of course a scenic flight in a GA aircraft. I flew six flights today and nothing but smiles from the children and parents on board.  

Midwest T-Storms

I was recently in Missouri and summer thunder storms were common daily occurrences. We don't get that many thunder storms in the Pacific Northwest so thought I'd post a screen shot of what the mid-western pilot would typically see on their iPad weather display. This snap-shot was taken one late afternoon in June and from the ground the clouds looked pretty ominous in the distance, but the Nexrad screen shows the danger of what's actually in those clouds.

  

Pancakes at Desert Aire

Today I flew over to Mattawa, WA for pancakes at Desert Aire (M94). The local airport community hosts a pancake breakfast at the airport every Fathers Day weekend to raise money for airport improvements. The weather was typical  for a June day, with a low overcast around Puget Sound and sunny and clear East of the cascades. I filed IFR and climbed through the clouds to a glorious view of Mount Rainier sitting above the cloud deck.

Low and Slow

While visiting family in Florida, my mother-in-law arranged for a friend of hers to take me flying. We headed out to KZPH early this morning with the plan being to practice some formation flying with a couple of other pilots from my mother-in-law's friends flying club. The forecast called for morning fog, with clearing after 9:00 am. The clearing part of the forecast turned out to be about six hours off, so to kill some time, we headed to a local Cuban breakfast spot (Flaco's) for a bite to eat, where I had one of the best cafe con leche that I've ever had. After breakfast, the fog still hadn't cleared so one of the pilots had to leave and after another hour the other pilot for the formation practice also had to leave. It was nearing Noon and the ceilings were slowly lifting and by 1:00 pm the ceilings were beginning to exceed 1000'. For the Bellanca, 800' is a prime cruising altitude so we launched and headed West for a bit and then North up to a private grass strip for some landings. This was my first time at the controls of a tail-dragger and was able to log a few tenths and performed an assisted takeoff from FL43.

Watch Landing at FL43.

Washington to Florida Final Day

With 600 miles remaining, we departed KBWG and pointed the airplane South East towards the Florida coast. The weather was clear all the way and winds aloft were 32 knots so that meant a 170+ knot speed over the ground. Our flight path took us right through the middle of Atlanta Hartsfield so we may have had to deviate around, increasing our enroute time. But the contollers were accomodating, and we were able to fly right over the top of the country's busiest airport at 6000 feet. With Atlanta behind us, we headed for Jacksonville and then South down the coast past Daytona, Kennedy Space Center, and into Melbourne.    

Hartsfield Int'l