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.