Looks like a real nice evening!

Landed there the first time in a Citation in 1983.
Precambrian C-500... Old School Non-EFIS stuff.
Life on the Edge!
It was an old road back then.
Returned numerous times later in an Old Cheyenne III.
Took off one evening right through the 4th of July fireworks headed to Vancouver, BC.
As close to combat I've ever been... in a plane
Pretty cool place
I recall, the Booze flowed freely
Vague memories of a drink called "Fluffy Duck".

I love the San Juans. What great weather.

swixtt wrote:i think i've been there although i wasn't flying.
how on earth are you keeping that camera SOOO stable??

Stabilization is the key followed by low air speeds. Still working with a variety of mounts, still some shake in this video. Key is not to hard mount the camera to the air frame while still providing enough support to avoid having the camera come off. This video was flown between 55 and 60 mph with RPM's around 1900.

Beautiful. 23 days a year the Sound has to be one of the prettiest areas in the world.
And not bad the rest of the year.

Wow, that is pretty! I've never seen anything like it before, which is odd, because I've squeaked into Roche Harbor a couple of times. Check your lens filter, it's making the 500ft ceiling look blue.

kevbert wrote:Wow, that is pretty! I've never seen anything like it before, which is odd, because I've squeaked into Roche Harbor a couple of times. Check your lens filter, it's making the 500ft ceiling look blue.

Ha. Even in the dead of summer the islands can be cold and nasty.

The San Juans are in the rain shadow of the Olympics, which just means that the often-present clouds don't usually have any rain left in them. Even the famous "blue hole" of Sequim in the same rain shadow is not always so blue. Moving here from So Calif took some getting used to, but I like the varied weather now. In Cal, a sunny day was just another day-- up here, it's something to appreciate, esp this time of year.

The islands are our favorite vacation spot, although we've always boated or ferried in. Roche is a real party spot, especially around holidays. Their evening "retreat" is always memorable, with the anthems and cannon fire.

One warning: The "parking" area for airplanes is sloped, and yet not so much that everyone realizes how much of a slope it is. While I was there the first time, staying in the harbor, I walked up to the airstrip to look it over. Someone had parked and tied down downhill from another airplane which was farther up the hill. The next day I walked up there again--and the uphill airplane hadn't been tied down and was now making love to the downhill airplane, a real melding of aluminum. So be careful where you park, most certainly not downhill from an airplane which isn't tied and chocked, and make sure you adequately tie down your own airplane.

Cary

Not just sloped....If you watch closely, at about 1:45 into the video you'll see the grass parking area off to the left of the runway (before the displaced runway 7 threshold) and also that it is barricaded off. First time I went up there in the wet season, I taxi'd around it & quickly found out that the barricade was to prevent dumb-asses like myself from getting bogged down in & tearing up the soft soft ground of the parking area.
Besides the resort & marina, there's a pretty cool outdoor sculpture garden. You can see it off to the right at about the same point in the video-- what looks like a white corral fence goes around it's parking lot. The pond there across from the parking area is part of it.

Parking area is currently closed at Roche but should be open soon. It is firm enough for a tail dragger but not a King Air or similar larger airplane. I think the signs are basically there to say park at your own risk. I will post here when it opens.

Also Roche Harbor Airport has an excellent HD web camera. Live weather on the field here.