It occurred to me that I had not been out to the coast since '97, so I flew direct to Florence Or. and hung a right. It took well over an hour to get to Pacific City, where I intended to spend the night, as I was playing tourist and flying slow as possible. The feeling of that thick sea level air was as I remembered, nothing like it! As one who used to live on the coast (Big Sur/Carmel area) , I just have to see it and fly it every now and then, as much as I like the mountain life.
I was a good boy and DID NOT fly too low or make any beach landings, I was unsure of the current regs on all that so I was content to just enjoy the view, besides they were simply too many people out enjoying the day, people with cell phone cameras

Once flying that 80 some mile stretch, my mission was complete, I had scratched that coast flying itch. Now I just had to find a place to crash, by that I mean a place to spend the night. After landing at PC, true to his word OregonMaule Rob, (I had sent him a totally unexpected text message a few hours earlier, a cryptic: "headed to PC, CourierGuy) met me at the strip and once he realized I was a cheap bastard, much too cheap to stay in a motel, offered to put me up in his under construction house. This was right up my alley, as one who has camped in construction sites many times. He was a great host, and like his giant camp fires at JC, the next morning while drinking coffee he fired up a propane space heater to take the chill off, the man knows how to create heat, and quickly! After breakfast at a great local place, and also hitting the local gas station I was outa there. The weather was due to change and work called, and I had spent a restless night when I heard the wind come up. All night I was sure I was screwed, and much to my surprise the first thing Rob said that morning was the east wind that was giving my fits was a good sign! Now that it was light I could see the blue sky, so I realized I was not going to need to cancel the next few crane jobs, have a neighbor feed the dog, max out the credit card etc. etc. Other then some VFR on top for 45 minutes or so it was smooth sailing back home. I cut it a bit close though on daylight, as in 10 minutes after landing on my narrow mountain strip it was DARK, the sun really sets fast this time of year, fast and early.

17.3 hrs in 2 days, all for that 1.5 hr of coast flying, makes sense to me
A fellow S-7 pilot's strip on the Snake River. He wasn't home, he was out flying!

I'm not sure what this is, but I don't believe it will ever get off the ground. If not a new kind of heavy lift rotorcraft, I guess it's a series of cooling towers, cooling WHAT is the question.....anybody? It was halfway between Creswell and Florence.

Thanks again Rob
