This is long but I thought it might help others visit Lake Chelan and keep it open for Floatplanes.

A friend invited me to go waterskiing on Lake Chelan August 1-2, 2015. Since I had to work on Friday, I thought this might be a good excuse to fly the floatplane over from Seattle. 1 hour of flying beats 3 hours driving over the passes any day.
The usual club cross country itinerary and scheduling were routine after checking with a couple of instructors for local knowledge. The long range weather forecast was good. The only hitch was where to park the plane. There was some question as to whether it would be OK to park it at the condo in which I would be staying, even though they have a bevy of ski boats and jet skies tied up out front and several more on their dock. Just in case I started calling around for a Plan B. After many calls, it seems nobody has been to Lake Chelan lately in any seaplane except the Lake Chelan Airways commercial beaver. Lake Chelan Airways was very nice on the phone and said they could sell fuel in an emergency but could not provide overnight parking. The Chelan city parks said no floatplanes. The National Forest Service did not say no, but could not say yes either. The National Park service was nice but all their facilities are at the north half of the lake. In the end, the condo HOA came back with a firm yes to parking so I went with that.
The trip over Friday evening was highlighted with a great view of a huge plume of smoke from the Wolverine Fire burning near Lucerne. Fortunately there was no smoke at the south end of the lake. That would change.
For the next 2 days we had hoped to do some flight seeing and even found a winery (http://riovistawines.com/the-facilities/the-river/) that allows flyins, as wells as boatins. Yes, it would mean the pilot flying not tasting but that is ok by me. Unfortunately, the smoke from the Wolverine Fire was blowing directly down the lake and was quite heavy. We opted to take the boat down to the river and check out the Rio Vista that way. At the winery they said they have a pretty steady stream of flyin visitors provided by Chelan airways but also private flights. They said just last week they had a flight of 4 home built floatplanes visit from Yakima. We also saw several good places along the river to beach a floatplane. Caution, the current is stronger than it looks and wind is always a factor in that area.
The plan for coming home was set for early Monday morning to get back in time for work. Again the 1 hour flight made that possible. But the smoke did provide a challenge. The satellite view was not much help because the latest image was taken before daylight. Plan A was to hope the smoke was light enough to just come back directly once we were high enough to clear the ridge. Plan B was to fly down the Chelan river to the Columbia and turn south until clear of the smoke then proceed westbound. Plan C was to follow the river all the way to Ellensburg and join Victor 2 to come back IFR.
In the end, the smoke was a bit lighter with about 5 miles visibility at the south end of the lake. As I climbed south, the mountains were shrouded in smoke to the west but the way south allowed a good view of the river. Once reaching the Wenatchee river valley, the smoke had thinned enough to provide a clear path over Blewett Pass and then a nice flight back to Renton. A perfect 3 knot wind was drifting from the south at Renton which allowed a soft kiss of “alighting” on the water at the Renton seaplane base.

What kind of airplane? Straight or amphibs?

Judging from previous fires in the area the smoke can lay in the valley where the lake is and make viability really miserable. The visibility depends on wind direction and velocity.

Check out the map here: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-new ... wolverine/

The plane was a 172XP on straight edo floats.

Yes the wind was out of the north west and blowing the smoke right down the lake.

That sounds like a fun little trip, aside from the smoke.

Every so often, someone posts something that makes me wish we would retire to Washington when Marilyn stops working. Between float planes and trawler yachts, it is SOOOOO tempting! I don't know what it would cost to put floats under my airplane, but if we lived in the PNW, I'd look into it for sure.

Cary

Cary wrote:Every so often, someone posts something that makes me wish we would retire to Washington when Marilyn stops working. Between float planes and trawler yachts, it is SOOOOO tempting! I don't know what it would cost to put floats under my airplane, but if we lived in the PNW, I'd look into it for sure.

Cary

We would love to have you.

Cary wrote:Every so often, someone posts something that makes me wish we would retire to Washington .... I don't know what it would cost to put floats under my airplane, but if we lived in the PNW, I'd look into it for sure.

In western WA, you need to be willing to put your airplane into the salt water, otherwise your available water landing spots are limited quite a bit. It would be a bummer to be restricted to fresh water ops only when there's miles & miles of salt water / beaches much closer to home.

hotrod180 wrote:

Cary wrote:Every so often, someone posts something that makes me wish we would retire to Washington .... I don't know what it would cost to put floats under my airplane, but if we lived in the PNW, I'd look into it for sure.

In western WA, you need to be willing to put your airplane into the salt water, otherwise your available water landing spots are limited quite a bit. It would be a bummer to be restricted to fresh water ops only when there's miles & miles of salt water / beaches much closer to home.

I permanently damaged my bearings flying in saltwater this Summer, PNW. It was definitely my fault, didn't grease them enough. The rest of the Scout is in great condition, 99% conrrosion free. All new bearings and races installed, looking good now. Next time I will grease after each flight!

Salt water's rough on equipment, for sure.
Maybe straight floats are a better choice for salt op's?
Maybe composite is better yet. Including fuselage. But there's still gonna be parts & pieces made of metal that will suffer.

Great link to the winery! That's a place to visit

For anyone interested in fly-in wineries, Walla Walla has about a dozen tasting rooms on the field within blocks of the transient tie downs at the resturant. For the passengers only, of course.

8GCBC wrote:I permanently damaged my bearings flying in saltwater this Summer, PNW. It was definitely my fault, didn't grease them enough. The rest of the Scout is in great condition, 99% conrrosion free. All new bearings and races installed, looking good now. Next time I will grease after each flight!

I've operated amphibs in salt water on pretty much a daily basis. Maintaining these things isn't rocket science, but it takes some specific anti corrosion strategies. Good quality grease, and lots of LPS-3. Wheel bearings don't go bad after just a few dips in salt water, though. Ours were serviced and re-packed at 100 hour intervals, and often replaced then. But, that often included 50 or so dips in salt.

Keep a close eye on the tail on that Scout. Don't know what year yours is, but for several years, they didn't corrosion proof the tail structure.

MTV

mtv wrote:

8GCBC wrote:I permanently damaged my bearings flying in saltwater this Summer, PNW. It was definitely my fault, didn't grease them enough. The rest of the Scout is in great condition, 99% conrrosion free. All new bearings and races installed, looking good now. Next time I will grease after each flight!

I've operated amphibs in salt water on pretty much a daily basis. Maintaining these things isn't rocket science, but it takes some specific anti corrosion strategies. Good quality grease, and lots of LPS-3. Wheel bearings don't go bad after just a few dips in salt water, though. Ours were serviced and re-packed at 100 hour intervals, and often replaced then. But, that often included 50 or so dips in salt.

Keep a close eye on the tail on that Scout. Don't know what year yours is, but for several years, they didn't corrosion proof the tail structure.

MTV

Yep. I agree. I learned a lesson.

The tail is doing OK. Small area of superficial corrosion from chipped paint during assembly but, it never got any larger. I spray AC50 on suspect areas. Mine is well built, very lucky. I did not know too much when I bought her. The more I learn the happier I am.

Any input about Champ/Scout aircraft is welcome.

When I took my very first seaplane lesson in BC 3 summers ago, part of the post flight protocol was a total washdown of the airplane and floats. Here's my instructor, Chris, doing that:



It must mostly work, because the 172 didn't show hardly any saltwater damage, and they run it in saltwater almost exclusively. Of course, straight floats help, and I'm sure that at annual time, it's necessary to look harder for corrosion.

Cary