Camping in the San Juans

One of the annual club trips on the calendar is to spend a weekend in the San Juans camping at the Orcas Island Airport (KORS). There is typically a fly in sponsored by the local EAA chapter on the first full weekend of August. This year we had five airplanes make the trip with some repeat attendees and some new participants. We made the usual trek to Roche Harbor and Friday Harbor during the weekend and those destinations never get old. See previous posts here.

Hotel at Roche Harbor

Camping Area Looking North

Career 2.0

June 27, 2023 - At the time of writing this post, it's been nearly one year since the process started of applying to an airline. I have some downtime while sitting on reserve to catch up on documenting the journey.

After over two decades in the technology industry, the time was right for a career change. I've had the urge to do some professional flying and have had the flight hours and ATP experience requirements for a while and with the current hiring climate in the aviation industry, now was the time to make the switch. After doing some research on various flying jobs using airlinepilotcentral.com and individual company sites, I settled on applying to some fractional operations and a few regional airlines that either had a base near where I lived or had a short commute with a lot of flights to and from the major airport where I live to a domicile. With that criteria in mind, I started compiling my aviation resume and applying to various airlines using the airlines' respective websites or using airlineapps.com. Within a week I was getting emails for follow-up phone screens and to setup interview times/dates. For some of the airlines, the interview slots went fast so when it was all said and done the process took about a month to get all the interviews scheduled and completed. 

The interview process was straight forward and with help from sites like aviationinterviews.com preparing for the type of questions that would be asked was helpful. One of the interviews required completing a 50 question technical exam that consisted of questions similar to the FAA ATP written exam. I was fortunate to get multiple offers and have the luxury of being able to choose the company that had a domicile that would keep my commuting to work to a minimum.  For those unaware, about 50% of airplane pilots commute to work, so for example, someone living in Seattle may commute to Denver as a non-revenue passenger or ride in the cockpit jump seat in order to get to a place to start their flying day.

After accepting an offer with a regional airline, the next step was to choose a training class date. The class date is key to an airline pilot's seniority as it is the day that the starts your seniority ranking which will be used for domicile selection, trip selection, simulator schedule, etc. For me, I wanted to complete the year at my current job so I selected a class date near the end of December. This would allow me to finish out the year at my current employer, be home for Christmas and have a week or so to reset and prepare for the next career adventure ahead.

Camping at Nehalem Bay

 One of my favorite airplane camping destinations is 3S7. It was a beautiful weekend with temps in the 60's. We had the 182 filled with four occupants and a dog with room to spare. It was a busy weekend over there as all the tie downs and campsites were taken. Fortunately, we arrived early Friday afternoon and got one of the last few camp spots.  See more about previous trips to Nehalem Bay.

Left Downwind Runway 33

Portland International

Climbing SW Over KPDX

A few club members had never landed at a major airport, so we put together a club fly out to KPDX which is a fairly busy class C airport. After a briefing on the VFR arrival and departure procedures, we departed for KPDX. The weather was MVFR so we flew northbound at 2500'. We picked up flight following early from Seattle Center and after getting handed off to Portland Approach they negotiated a class D crossing for us though KUAO's airspace prior to our arrival into the Portland terminal area. Shortly after that we were handed off to Portland Tower and they requested that we make a short approach to runway 10L. After taxiing to Atlantic Aviation, we grabbed a couple of crew cars to head to Famous Daves for bbq.

Joseph/ Enterprise Oregon

Main Street, Joseph, OR.

We recently got our club 182 back from the shop for a panel upgrade, so was able to get in one more flying trip before the Pacific Northwest fall weather arrived. Three of us flew to Joseph, OR (KJSY) for some hiking around Wallowa Lake and an opportunity to ride the pedal powered rail cars at Joseph Branch Railriders. We departed VFR on Friday afternoon and with the favorable winds aloft, made the 245 mile flight in just under two hours. We made a brief stop at Enterprise (8S4) to drop off one of our party to pick up a rental car and then made the 5 minute flight to park the airplane KJSY where we were met by the member of our party that picked up the rental car.  After checking in to our respective accommodations, the Kokanee Inn and Bronze Antler B&B, we headed to downtown Joseph for food and cocktails at the Embers Brewhouse. We called it an early night as we had hiking and the rail ride planned for Saturday, 

1060 TXI, GI275, GFC 500, GTN 750/650

I was up early to walk around main street and find a coffee shop before meeting up with the rest of the crew. After walking the length of main street up and down each side of the street, I stopped at Arrowhead Chocolates for an espresso.  Turns out they serve Stump Town so this turned out to be an excellent choice. 

We continued the morning with a quick car tour of Joseph and then drove out to Wallowa Lake for a short hike. The hike was relatively short (two miles each way) and we made a vertical ascent of about 1000'. 

Above Wallowa Lake

After the hike, we headed back to town for some lunch and a short break before our afternoon rail ride. We signed up for the two hour rail trip, which is a round trip run to Enterprise and back to Joseph. There are other length trips and will have to do the four hour Minam-Wallowa River trip next time. The rail cars are pedal powered and do have electric assist for the uphill leg of the journey. Since it's downhill from Joseph to Enterprise, once we got the car rolling it was pretty much a coast down the tracks until the road crossings which require a mandatory stop. Then it's pedal-pedal-pedal and coast until the next crossing, or until you catch up with a slower car in front of you. According to the GPS telemetry of my Garmin Virb, we topped out at 17 mph.

Railriders Pedal Car

At the end of the line in Enterprise, the rider staff used a nifty carousel device to turn the cars around for the ride back to Joseph. Here's where the electric assist really came in handy, once the car gained some speed (about 3 mph), as long as the rear left seat pedals were moving, the motor accelerated to 7 mph and it was a leisurely trip back up the grade to Joseph. It had been a full day, so we returned to our respective accommodations for a short rest before dinner. As it turned out it was prime rib night at a popular place called the Stubborn Mule and Saloon. 

Hells Canyon

Sunday was fly home day, but since we were nearby Hell's Canyon we decided to fly east to get some arial views of the canyon before heading home. We flew to the canyon dam and then up the canyon a few miles before turning back west for a stop in Pendleton, OR. (KPDT) for lunch. We had planned to eat at the restaurant in the terminal but they were closed on Sunday's so the folks at Wildhorse Aviation provided us with a crew car to go grab lunch in town.

Camping in the San Juans

Camp Orcas

Every summer, on the first full weekend in August, the EAA on Orcas Island hosts a fly-in and camp out. This year the event was cancelled, so a few of us flew up over Labor Day weekend for a night of camping and island hopping.  

The weather leading up to the trip had been sunny for a week or so, but a cold front was moving in a few days prior so it was looking like the trip would be a no-go. The forecast showed the front moving through by Sunday afternoon and then nothing but sunshine for the next few days. The forecast turned out to be correct and we departed for KORS Sunday afternoon with a nice flight direct to KORS, passing over Olympia, up the Hood Canal and then across the Strait of Juan de Fuca for an arrival into Eastsound. After setting up camp we made the short walk into town and had a nice meal at the White Horse Pub. For the oyster fans, the pub serves fresh oysters from nearby Judd Cove.  The next morning, our plan was to fly to Roche Harbor and Friday Harbor before returning to Salem.  We packed up our gear and after getting breakfast at Enzo’s, (nice Italian bistro with good espresso and baked goods) departed for Roche Harbor (WA09). Roche Harbor is a popular marina and resort and is about an 8-minute flight from KORS. After securing the aircraft at WA09, we walked around the marina and admired the vast number of yachts and we walked over to the mausoleum on the north west side of the airport.  The mausoleum is a shrine to the John McMillan family, which founded the Roche Harbor lime kilns in 1886.

McMillin Mausoleum

After a few hours at Roche Harbor, we departed for Friday Harbor (KFHR) to get a bite before flying back to Salem. The town of Friday Harbor is about a 15-minute walk from the airport, so headed to the east end of town to visit Friday’s Crab House for some chowder and fish tacos. Friday’s has a couple of outdoor tiered decks which overlook the ferry terminal and marina.

The weather was perfect for the 48-hour trip and the feedback from the group was that we’ll return next year for a longer duration to visit some additional airports and do some more island exploration. If you are an airplane camper or want to be, you should add KORS to your list as camping at KORS, is pretty modern with a bathroom and showers, loaner bicycles, ice machine, and the mini-mart and restaurants are a 15-minute walk from the airport. 

Mid-field crossing Roche Harbor

Northeast tip of Orcas Island

Camping at Nehalem State Airport (3S7)

I've visited Nehalem State Airport a few times in the past, either by car or airplane, but finally had the opportunity to camp at the airport. Next to the runway there are six primitive camp sites (see photos below of each), each with a fire ring and picnic table. Each campsite has its own "charm" with varying amounts of seclusion as some sites are more exposed to the airport surroundings and others set back in the trees. There is also an outhouse and a water spigot on site. One can also make the five minute walk from the airport into Nehalem State Park and use the showers and facilities there. The airport sites are first come, first served and the fee is $11 per night. Though we brought a bundle of firewood, the camp hosts inside the park have firewood available for sale. Just hanging around the campsite is very relaxing, but the beach and Nehalem River are a short walk, as well as numerous walking trails within the state park. If you are a little more adventurous, the town of Manzanita is a thirty minute walk via the beach or residential roads. The weather each day was sunny and 70 degrees and the marine layer lingered most of the morning but cleared by noon. Keep this in mind if flying to 3S7 as you may have to wait around for the low ceilings to clear longer than you might like. In fact I've been a here a few times where the low overcast remained for several days in a row. There is no published instrument departure for this airport and rising terrain in all directions except west over the ocean, but mobile service is good so in theory you could get an IFR clearance on the ground to fly over the Nehalem River to the shoreline and then climb through the overcast over the ocean on course.