Warning Ladies! This post is for guy pilot readers.
With 8 working days left to go, a co-worker asked to take me to lunch. Since she loves to fly, I suggested a 45 minute round trip flight out to Hoquiam (HQM). It lies along Grays Harbor which opens out to the Pacific Ocean. That is one of the things I love about Washington. When the sun manages to come out I can fly about 25 minutes to either the ocean or the Cascade mountain range. The ground I cover en route is foothills, farms, rivers and forests. While I complain about being “trapped” during most of the year between ocean and mountains, at least the scenery is, well scenic.
At HQM, the landing offered some challenges with a 17 knot gusty wind just off heading and the usual bounces coming in over the sewage treatment plant. Mess up at this field, and you’re really in the sh…!
At Lana’s Diner we’re eating some great burgers, with seasoned curly fries and made-with-real-ice- cream milkshakes – chocolate of course. For a Friday afternoon, the pattern was fairly busy. A couple 172’s, a 152, Van’s RV, a 182 and then…
a warbird chirped onto the runway. Passing by the diner, I thought it was doing a taxi-back for immediate take-off, but the pilot picked a spot and shut her down. Needless to say, I took advantage of the photo op, abandoning my lunch and dashing out camera in hand. Here is a beautifully restored A-26. Those props are chromed. The entire plane is spotless.
And now, a little "Aviation Porn".
Back at lunch another passing vessel appeared. This huge cargo ship passed by, sight angle making it appear to be cruising down the runway. I’ve been to Hoquiam many times, but never before has a ship landed!
Heading back home to CLS, I snapped these pictures of the ship heading into dock in Aberdeen.
Twenty-three minutes later I landed back home and tucked Path into his hangar. A great lunch flight with some unexpected bonuses.
When pilots go flying to an airport that has a restaurant on the field we call it going for the $100 hamburger. Of course with fuel costs what they are I’ve started calling it the $200 hamburger!
Saturday a local Meet-Up group, out of Auburn (S50) had a breakfast fly-out planned for Jefferson County International (0S9) in Port Townsend. This has long been a favorite destination of mine – a beautiful flight, good airport, delicious food at the Spruce Goose Café.
My lady-pilot friend, Judy, is grounded as she needs to take her bi-annual flight review and cannot legally fly until she has done so. This is a mini-version of the Check Ride we take to earn our pilots license and actually re-certifies that we have not acquired any bad habits, forgotten rules or procedures, and are safe pilots. I called Judy at 6:45 am. Yes, that early. I knew she would not mind being drug out of bed - “Hey, if a certain pilot were to land at your field, would you like to go to breakfast?” Her response was quick and affirmative. An hour later I fired up Path and we headed north. Twenty minutes later I touched down at 3B8 – landing a bit longer than I like but smoothly. I’d spotted Judy standing near her hangar, so taxied back, amused to see her sticking her thumb out! She loaded in as planned, without my even shutting down.
My usual route to Jefferson County is straight north. Now I was heading from the SE and enjoyed flying over an area that lays directly under the approach to Seattle-Tac, where I had to carefully remain below incoming jets. Passing Tacoma and over Commencement Bay I asked Judy to fly and took some pictures.
Industrial area and Tacoma Dome, where the next day I would go with my son to see the German band, Rammstein.
This is the Tacoma Narrows bridge and part of Puget Sound. 
Here is Tacoma's downtown.
We flew NW, then North, carefully avoiding two No-Fly areas (called TFR’s). One over the Bremerton shipyard, where aircraft carriers are parked and the second Bangor, a submarine base.
Here is a photo of Hood Canal and the Olympic range. Judy said it looks just like Norway.
Air Traffic was light. We saw no heavies near Sea-Tac, heard no small planes as we passed Bremerton (PWT) but as we neared our goal, two other planes were coming in – one of them Dave, the leader of the Meet-Up group. Time for some good food, good friends, and tales of flying.
I’d used my Android phone to check fuel prices, and learned that Pierce County (PLU) had the lowest in the area. Imagine being happy paying $5.80 a gallon. Here I am filling up.
Returning Judy to Shady Acres was not pretty. I made a poor approach, but pulled it out with a go-around. (That is a maneuver where instead of landing the pilot re-applies power and gains altitude, turning back to try again.) The second approach was spot on as was the landing. Pride restored.
Heading home, the day was so beautiful that I wanted to just keep going, but must economize and put money away for my big eastern trip in September when I’ll be adding 16 states to the map on Path’s fuselage. That will be worth waiting for.
Ended the time with Path back at Chehalis with 2.6 in the logbook and memories of good times with good friends.
It could be said that many of my flights have a common thread – mountains. There are a couple reasons for this. One. I love mountains. Always have, even when I drove up to be among them. Two. There is a spine of mountains that runs right down the middle of Washington, and another system along the northwest coast. If you’re flying in Washington, mountains appear in front of you.
Sunday’s flight was to introduce a Dad and his two sons to aviation. I’d offered to pick them up at the airport in Olympia – a 15 minute flight. They were eagerly waiting when I taxied up to the FBO. (Fixed Base Operator, which is similar to a gas station, but with more services).
I like to provide more than just a “ride”, especially when taking young people. It is my hope that the hands-on experience will inspire them to become pilots themselves.
So I took them through pre-flight procedures, explained the function of control surfaces and what makes a plane fly. Some kids are just anxious to get on with the ride, but these two soaked up knowledge without fidgeting. We talked about where we could go, but unfortunately their home (everyone wants to fly over their house) is within OLM’s airspace. I probably could have asked the tower for permission to do some low maneuvering in the area, but hate to do so on a day with a lot of air traffic. We settled on visiting Mt Rainier. Next the discussion as to seating plan.
“Who wants to sit up front and fly the plane?” This one always results in big eyes and excited faces. Dad (Spencer) generously took the back seat with oldest son and young son scampered up into the right seat. We spent some time talking about dials and knobs and their function. I explained communication protocols, safety and the role of passengers.
As we lifted off from Runway 17 and turned out to the East, our view was filled with Mt Rainier.
As we gained altitude I explained the artificial horizon and how to turn the plane. Drew, at 10 couldn’t see over the panel but he watched out the side window and while not comfortable, seemed to take pride in the fact that he was flying an airplane.
The mountain was welcoming and we moved in close, hoping for a view of shimmering blue-green glaciers, but they were all buried in snow. The façade was none the less a treat for all on board. Spencer (Dad) took videos and I snapped a few photos. We spotted some climbers making their way up through the snow, but I didn’t get photos of them.
Here is one of Paradise, the visitor center and hub of ground based visits to Rainier. I was surprised to see the road open, and so many cars in the lot.
In order to introduce my friends to Rainier, I’d climbed to 10,500 feet. Now I needed to lose 9,000 of those feet in under 30 miles. Mindful of ear discomfort in sudden changes of altitude, I kept the descent to 500 feet per minute and circled down to our planned stop at Pierce County airport.
At PLU there was plenty of action on such lovely day. We walked past the lines of tied down planes and talked about makes, models and of course made time for photo ops. Here are happy fliers, and the two boys with a beautifully restored DC-3.
As we headed back to Olympia, it was Skyler’s turn to try the controls. I don’t know if it was his time spent practicing with Flight Simulator or my theory that youngsters seem to have a natural feel for flying, but either way, this kid was flying the heck out of the plane. We started with straight and level, added turns (I handled rudder since his 13 year old legs couldn’t reach) then maintaining heading and altitude. He instinctively divided his time between instruments and eyes outside the cockpit and in spite of light chop almost perfectly maintained position in the sky. Skyler ‘s concentration was complete, yet he remained relaxed at the controls. He reluctantly handed over when it was time for me to negotiate our approach back into Olympia. I think he would have flown for hours. Such a joy to watch his face and imagine his conversation with friends at school.
I keep balsa wood planes on hand, so back on the ground, Spencer and I watched the boys burn off energy flying while we talked with a local instructor about the costs and joys of flying.
SoapBox
The instructor and I bemoaned the fact that due to the litigious society we now live in, young people can no longer hang around airports, washing planes and doing other tasks to earn flight time and instruction. That is a loss to aviation and our youth. Guess it makes more sense to sit them in front of game consoles or have them roaming the streets getting into trouble.
