12/16/10 Evergreen Aviation Museum

Matti and I had planned to take a flight up the Columbia Gorge to Hood River (4S2) and back, but found a fogged in airport.

After an hour drinking coffee at the South End Cafe, we came to the conclusion that the fog was to going to clear, and we'd head over to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville.

Among the many airplanes at the museum is the Hughes HK-1 Hercules (Spruce Goose). A small extra fee will get access to the flight deck, and a picture of yourself at the controls. Matti and I couldn't pass that up. It was something to sit at the controls and imagine.

The flight deck had been preserved with test instruments in place as it was during HK-1's only flight, November 2, 1947. Just over one mile at an altitude of 70 feet.

The large windows in side of the flight deck were added by the Disney Company to allow viewing of the flight deck.

It's difficult to get a sense of how big this from pictures. It's not possible to get the whole thing into a single shot from inside the building, but dwarfs the DC3 and other aircraft that can be seen around it.

Wingspan: 319 feet, 11 inches 

Wing Area: 11,430 square feet 

Length: 218 feet 6 inches 

Power: Eight Pratt & Whitney R-4360, 3,000 radial engines
Propellers: 17 feet, 2 inch diameter

Empty Weight: 300,000 pounds 

Loaded Weight: 400,000 pounds
Crew: 18

After it's flight, Hughes place the HK-1 in a custom built hanger and ordered that it be kept in flight-ready condition for the next 33 years until his death, at a cost of approx $1,000,000 per year.

Also at Evergreen is the space museum that has exhibits coving the history of space exploration. There is the possibility that Evergreen will one day display one of the Space Shuttles, soon to be retired.

After nearly 5hrs at the museum, there wa still more to see for another visit.

Good time.

Requirements for Chrismas Tree Hunting

A good breakfast is as much a requirement for finding a Christmas tree as saw, gloves, and grove of trees, right?

And a great breakfast means getting up well before the sun and flying somewhere, right?

I at least think so.

Pictures of the Willamette Valley

Coast Range

Heatherle's home town of Dallas OR

Audrey, mom, my niece Sophia, and I, with our tree 

    

11/04/10

With autumn grey and rain on the way a clear day with some time to fly seems a rare opportunity.

Still, there are good days here and there to take a few friends for a mid-day flight.

Two More Years

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I have been deemed medically fit to continue to act as pilot in command!


Happy to be healthy.

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Long Lunch, But No Time To Eat

A few co-workers and I have talked about flying from time to time, and I've offered to take them up during a long lunch, or after work.

The right day arrived, with nice weather all around, my favorite plane open, and a slightly slower day at work (hard to find these days).

Only one taker. I think the others were waiting to see if he came back in one piece, or with tales of terror and survival.

Chris and I took a quick trip over to Tillamook (TMK), which was surprisingly quiet for such a nice day. Landed, taxied back, and took off. Headed out over the coast, turned north, and over the bay to return home. After announcing our position over the bay, the radio became busy with position reports from others in the area. Suddenly not as quiet as it seemed.

Chris seemed genuinely interested in what was going on, and enjoying the flight, making for a great little trip.

We've since talk more about flight training, and sources for information. 

I think he's hooked.

As a bonus, it was also two years to the day of my intro flight at Twin Oaks.

The Coast

We left for the airport with plans to fly over to Nehalem Bay (3S7), and spend some time on the Beach at the state park.

The forecast was for patchy morning fog in the valley, then clear, and clear at the coast. Same forecast as the several days before.

The blue sky with the occasional patches of fog turned to just fog as we got closer to Twin Oaks. We stopped in to let the Starks know that we were off to find some coffee and a spot to wait out the fog, and we'd be back.

We found the South Store Cafe in Scholls, about 2 miles from Twin Oaks; a great cafe located in 100+ year old general store with good coffee and pastries. After an hour and a half of reading the paper and relaxing, we decided to head back to the airport and see if the fog had begun to lift.

As we readied the plane, the fog cleared to the north, and we watched as a few made the uphill takeoff run.

Once ready to go, I and another pilot periodically walked towards the runway to get a clear view of the end to see if had cleared.

Finally, two hours after we had planned to leave, we were taxiing out.

As we climbed out we looked down the Willamette Valley, still covered in a layer of fog, and turned west towards the coast.

Other than a a layer of clouds remaining a few miles offshore, and occasional thin clouds clinging to the headlands and Cascade Range foothills, the weather at the coast was beautiful.

We overflew Nehalem Bay airport to verify the wind direction and circled to enter downwind for 15.

As we were crossing the trees on short final, I watched as the windsock indicating a nice headwind steepening our descent changed to a crosswind. Suddenly we were reaching the halfway point on the runway, and the main gear had still not touched down. No other choice but to push the throttle in and climb out.

Although always prepared for it, I had not done a true go-around since training, and transitioning the plane from a landing configuration to takeoff is exciting.

Our late start, and time due back, was going to make our stop a quick one, and decided to continue up the coast rather than make another attempt at Nehalem.

We overflew Cannon Beach, were we had spent the previous weekend with good friends who were visiting from Japan, then dropped low as we passed the west side of Tillamook Lighthouse, amazed by the number of sea lions crowding the flat top of the rock where the lighthouse is located.

From there we continued up the coast to the mouth of the Columbia river, Ft Stevens state park with the remains of it's WWII gun placements, and the town of Astoria.

Time was growing short on our block of reserved time, so we turned southeast for our return trip to Twin Oaks, over the northern Coast Range, picking out the small towns we overflew as we went along. Audrey, keeping with tradition, found it a good time to nap.

One of Heatherle's favorite trips.

Second Saturday Seminar

Each month, Willamette Aviation has a "Second Saturday Seminar", which may include anything from touring a plant such as CubCrafters, to border crossing procedures.

September's topic was "Class D Briefing" with the Troutdale (TTD) Tower Air Traffic Manager.

Since Matti will soon be leaving for U of O in Eugene, which has a towered airport, a little brushing up on class D procedures would be timely.

The primary focus of this seminar were operations at Troutdale airport, which has overlying class C airspace (PDX), but much applies to any class D.

Among the topics covered were arrival and departure procedures, land and hold short operations (LAHSO), tower services, and the change from "position and hold" to "line up and wait". Line up and wait... sounds so pedestrian.

A break in the seminar allowed time for lunch, talk with other pilots, and airplane watching.

After the seminar, cake and coffee was supplied by Willamette Aviation in the office.

A great way to learn a little something new.

Little Time to Fly, Little Time to Write

Home projects, work, life outside flying, weather, etc, have dented my flying time, which has been limited to the valley.

Matti and I took a small trip down the valley together on August 12th, seeing a number of balloons just south of Newburg, and kept to the West side of the valley due to low ceilings anywhere west of the Willamette river.

We also took mom down to Independence for breakfast. Again, clouds kept us in the valley, but fun none the less. Mom had not flown with me since a back seat trip to Salem while I was training.

Evening Flight

Matti and I departed Twin Oaks at 7:30pm, and turned north with the shadows growing long on a nice summer evening.

A quick call to Hillsboro's tower (HIO) and we were clear through their class D in route to Scappoose Industrial Airpark (SPB).

Once leaving Hillsboro's airspace and reaching the river, we were able to drop down to 1000ft agl over the farms on Sauvie Island and the occasional boat on the river.

As we neared Scappoose we turned to enter a right pattern for 33. I purposely set up high on final with only one notch of flaps (10 degrees) to practice a slip for losing altitude. Matti was a bit surprised by this maneuver, a maneuver which needs a little practice again.

A touch and go and we were continuing north down the Columbia.

We decided to check out Woodland State Airport (W27) as we continued north. Woodland's airport is located on a strip of land about 500ft wide between the I5 freeway and the Lewis River, and includes a 1953 X 25ft runway, tie downs for a few aircraft, and nothing else. I remember at one time there were a few hangers and what looked like an FBO, but sadly those were gone.

We did see one fisherman walking along near the runway to what may be a nice fishing hole, two airplanes tied down, and one pilot filling the wing tanks on his plane from a jerrycan. I have since heard that there is some good eating within a short walk, so maybe something to check out in the future.

The excitement here was clearing the trees after turning final, and dropping in through gusty wind to land on what looked very much like a sidewalk from the air.

A back taxi on the runway and 27 was at our tail as we climbed and turned back south.

We crossed over Hillsboro's airspace and Twin Oaks to spend a little time low in the Willamette Valley.

We overflew McMinnville (MMV), and decided since it was after sunset, it would be fun to turn on the lights and enter the pattern. The lights can be turned on at many, if not most, airports by keying the mic 5 times on the CTAF frequency.

Runway 22 has an approach lighting system with sequenced strobes that make it easy to imagine that you are landing a large commercial jet at a large class B airport.

Back north towards towards Twin Oaks with lights appearing below in the growing darkness.

Evening a night flight offers a whole new view of what's below. As fall comes and the days become shorter, I'll have to regain my night currency.

The Most Eggs I've Cooked

Last weekend was the 54th annual OPA Mulino Chapter Blueberry Pancake Breakfast out at Mulino Airport.

Matti and I spent a morning helping with setup, and a morning cooking eggs for nearly 700 people (= more than 1400 eggs cooked).

Along with an assortment of old and new arplanes, there were many classic cars. Matti was excited to bring dad's MG for the display.

A lot of work, a lot of soap to get rid of the smell of Pam no-stick spray, and a lot of fun.

Triple Digits 7/05/10

I took my next door neighbor Jim flying. He and I had talked flying for several years (including SIM and RC), but not flown together yet.

The weather wasn't great, preventing us from going too far, but we did get to spend just over an hour visiting McMinnville and Aurora before returning to Twin Oaks via a fly over of our neighborhood.

At the outset of this trip I made it into the triple digits for logged time. My total time logged is 101.3hrs, with 274 landings.

Hood River 7/03/10

After 5 weeks of not flying for one reason or another, I couldn't take it any longer, and Heatherle Audrey and I decided on a trip up the Columbia Gorge to Hood River.

The feeling of the wheels leaving the ground never gets old as we departed Twin Oaks and turned east.

We could have requested transition through PDX class C airspace, but decided to remain south and enter the gorge near Crown Point.

The flight up the gorge was great, with a cruse altitude of 1500ft we were able to experience the sights that draw many people to the area from a new perspective nearly all to ourselves.

As we approached Cascade Locks the sky became clear, and we began to get tossed around with some turbulence that remained with us to Hood River.

The winds at Jernstedt Airfield (Hood River 4S2) were 15 gusting to 28, but straight down the runway, making for a bumpy pattern and approach over the apple orchards, but easy landing.

We taxied around to take a look at the airport, and departed for the trip return west.

We had planned to head southwest, passing by the north side of Mt Hood, but the clouds on the west slopes of the Cascades meant a return down the gorge.

After exiting the mouth of the Columbia Gorge we turned south to follow the foothills, that is until Audrey announced that she needed a bathroom. A few minutes and we were entering the pattern for 34 at Mulino (4S9).

A quick stop and we were off to Twin Oaks.

A beautiful trip.