Pancake Fly-in at Desert Aire

Flew over this morning for the annual pancake breakfast hosted by the folks at Desert Aire (M94, near Mattawa, WA.). Desert Aire is a retirement/fly-in community with their own golf course and bordered by Priest Rapids Lake. Seattle was cool and overcast with 50 degrees while the temps over in Eastern Washington were a balmy 80 and nothing but sun. The flight over was spectacular and once climbing on top of the overcast layer, all of the Washington (and some Oregon) peaks were visible. It was interesting how the cloud layer just ended about 50 miles East of Seattle. The second photo shows the border of the cloud deck as I was heading West back to Seattle at 8000'.

Breakfast for Dinner

I was just itching to go fly the 182 from the left seat, since the last two flights were from the right as a CFI. The ceilings finally lifted around 3:00 pm so we loaded up the car seats (and the kids) and headed North to Harvey Field (S43). The Buzz-Inn is located on the field and there are several Buzz's located around the Seattle area. The menu is quite extensive and they serve breakfast all day long. Usually when we fly someplace for breakfast we arrive after breakfast is no longer served, so it was a treat to see that the breakfast menu at the Buzz was fair game. We both ordered the Denny's equivilent of a Grand Slam and got mac-n-cheese for the kids.

While doing the pre-flight for the return one of the jump planes from the skydive operation at Harvey departed, and soon after there were three canopies descending for the airport. The ceilings were around 3500', and these jumpers looked like they knew what they were doing, so my guess is that it was the staff getting in a last jump of the day.

Angel Flight Mission #6

I had another opportunity to use the airplane for charitable giving by flying some coolers of blood from Lopez Island (S31) to Boeing Field (KBFI). Once again I forgot my camera, so for the second Angel Flight in a row, I don't have any photos to document the trip.

Angel Flight Mission #5

Today was my fifth Angel Flight Mission and for this flight I was to pick up some coolers of blood from the Elma airport (4W8) and deliver the coolers to Boeing Field. I ended up taking one of the 182 partners along, so I assumed CFI duties and let him fly all three legs since he wanted some short field practice into Elma and to get some experience flying into Boeing Field.

First Flight Review as a CFI

Today I started the flight review process for one of the partners in the 182. He hadn't flown in the 182 for about six months so we started off with him getting re-acquainted with the airplane. After a few touch and goes, we headed North for some simulated emergencies and some air work. We still need to do the ground portion of the review and we're planning on at least one more flight before I sign him off.

Trip to the Oregon Zoo

The nice weather finally arrived for the Memorial Weekend so we loaded up the airplane and flew down to Portland (KHIO). From there we hopped on the Max for the 25-minute ride to Washington Park. The plan was to spend the day at the zoo and see how much energy everyone had at the end of the day, before deciding on whether or not to fly back or spend the night. We ended up staying until the Zoo closed so I called the local Holiday Inn Express and booked a room. The Hotel is just two train exits from the airport, so it is really convenient. I would have rather stayed downtown, but for $89/night you can't beat it.

First 1.8 Hours Dual Given

Yesterday I had the opportunity to fly for the first time as a CFI for hire. One of my friends was adding an additional pilot to his C172 insurance and he asked me to fly with the new pilot. My student was a newly minted private pilot and my task was to evaluate short/soft/normal takeoffs/landings, simulated engine failures and teach prop/throttle operation. It was nice to be sitting in the right seat and getting paid (and being able to log the time) as well as watching my student go through the ups and downs of learning the operation of an unfamiliar airplane. I witnessed pilot overload, reaching a learning plateau, and some of the other things that are called out in the FAA's fundamentals of instruction text.