Flew the sunset over the Cuyamaca mountains and back country to the east of SD. Not a bump the whole hour... life is good...

This morning I had a window of family balance opportunity, so I tried to fly out to the Prospect SAR event. With ceilings at 1200', I couldn't get out of the Willamette Valley. Oh well, I flew the Willamette River back to Corvallis. I was surprised by how many folks were camping on the river bars; canoes, kayaks, and rafts.

Half way home from the airport, the sky opened up and continues to be beautiful.

tom

Sat around waiting for the clouds to clear at Camas (1W1). Watched a powered parachute demonstrate flying into IFR as he disappeared briefly into the clouds. I'm sure he has his rating. "Yeah, buddy. I got your rating right here. It's called the throttle, pull it and I float down." I declined to pull his throttle just to see, remembering what happened when grandpa told me to pull his finger.

Finally around 10, the clouds started to lift. I decided on a trip out to Ilwaco (7W1) since I hadn't been there before and, with a new mounting attachment, I thought I'd try the video mode on my camera. Video takes a lot of space. Now I need a new hard drive just to hold it all.

Since Ilwaco is a paved strip, I needed the obligatory grass strip so a quick landing at Fly For Fun (W56) was in order. Fly for fun is either great or sad depending on your point of view. It's a nice 2400 foot strip surrounded by housing developments. Too bad they'd didn't do it right and had wide, airplane legal streets leading to the runway from all the surrounding sprawl. Flying low over houses makes me wish I had a giant "bird poop" hatch I could open. Why should seagulls have all the fun?

At 90mph, it took a while to get out to the coast. Winds were out of the north at 11 knots which only served to remind me how out of practice I am with crosswinds, landing neatly to the left side of the runway.

While there I helped an RC airplane person try to find his bird that clipped a tree and tumbled into the brush. Now I'm pretty good at bashing around in the brush but I didn't bring along my bramble armor so it was difficult to cover much area. We finally gave up without luck in spite of the bird having a 6 foot wingspan. I think they went to get some old agent orange for another go at it.

A quick stop at Kelso (KLS) to refuel before heading back home. Ended up chatting with "Ed" a fellow flying a cardinal with a Horton Stol kit. Airport folks are so friendly.

Craig

Drove to Madras, Or. The hole in the M7 is patched and painted. Flew back to Troutdale.

Tomorrow morning fly to Independence, Or. to mow the grass at the oldest daughters college house. Then back to Troutdale pick up the youngest daughter and wife and fly back to Madras.

Friday fly to Sunriver for the day and back to Troutdale.

Saturday pack for OSH.

Sunday 0530 off to OSH Woo Hoo

Monday, time to pop the OSH cherry!

Cheers...Rob

Three planes got started at 8:30 am, Saturday, August 9th. A Pacer, a RV-8, and my Maule.







We took off from our home field headed to Orange County for breakfast. We went past the Delaware Water Gap and a couple of lakes on top of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The lakes are allowed to run down to a lower level lake to generate power and then are pumped back up when demand is low.





We flew along the Appalachian Trail most of the way.



We came in on 3 at Orange County.



A little breakfast at Rick's and the RV-8 headed home while the Pacer and Maule went on to Van Sants in PA. Lots of Stearmans and sailplane activity at Van Sants. Met my brother flying his sailplane.







Since the day was still young we decided on a trip to Grimes where the Golden Age of Flying museum is located. Notice the new white fence at the end of the runway to keep the ugly planes out.



Back in the planes and off to Sky Haven north west of Wilkes Barre for lunch. But first a quick stop at Northumberland for 4.93/gal fuel.



Can you tell where the glaciers stopped 11,000 years ago?



North to Sky Haven. Descending into the airport requires winding through the mountains and downwind over a river.



A nice lunch at an Italian restaurant and we are ready to go again. We followed a road north to find Husky Haven. It is owned by an instructor friend of ours and is not on the maps or in the GPS.

Still not done we headed home with a stop at Flying Dollar. An interesting grass field with one way in and one way out. The landing requires power because you have to fly uphill to land!

A short visit and home to Pegasus. We started the day at 8:30 am and finished at 6:00 pm. Had to clean the plane the next day because we were too tired to scrap the bugs off that evening!

Lets see, that was eight airports and uncounted miles over gorgeous hills! Only get days like this a couple times a year - maybe!

Decided I needed to burn more 100LL.

First to Davis near Gates OR - 6S4. No special reason. Nothing there at all.

Santiam Junction State - 8S3: I was tired of flying over this all the time going to and from Sunriver and not stopping. Surface is good.

McKenzie Bridge State - 00S: First time in here in many years and did a much better job this time. Surface is good.

Lebanon State for gas. The new FBO owners are the sort of real airplane people we all need to support. Very nice folks.

Independence State for lunch. Best fly-in food within decent distance and lunch under the tree looking at my plane is great.

Down the Willamette River and over to home @ OR41.

Sorry I don't have the cool plane-mounted camera setup yet but here are a few pics of today and last month: http://picasaweb.google.com/airprakken/ ... IB7aTB1EIk

Great stuff Airprakken!

I noticed you landed at Toketee recently. How's the surface there now?

Last time I landed at Toketee it was really rough from elk hooves. Rough enough that I haven't been back since. A bunch of surprised hunters came out of the woods after I shut down and wondered if I'd had an engine failure. They said they'd counted over 100 elk on the runway the night before.

This was 2 years ago, so I'm curious what the conditions are like now. It's a huge strip -- I think they used to fly water bomber C47's out of there.

Oregon180 wrote:I noticed you landed at Toketee recently. How's the surface there now?

It was fine on July 7th. The center third was fairly bare in places but the East end was all grassy. There were no real bumps anywhere as I recall. It was a very nice place.

Cool! I'll definitely go back in the near future then. Thanks!

Found a dandy of a private hangout yesterday. No, I didn't land- I was running late for something...

Whoever this is, I nominate him/her for BCP High Honors

-DP

Denali....It doesn't look like you are hurting for water up there??

Great photo!

Where is it???

Looks like a glaciated Alaskan river thats a bit swollen from the rains....

aktahoe1 wrote:Where is it???

...in Alaska, on a river, near some trees...

patrol guy wrote:Denali....It doesn't look like you are hurting for water up there??

Yep, we're slightly damp around these parts right now. In the original photo you can actually see the orange cones for threshold markers. Scaling out the wingspan of the plane, I figure it's about 540' at low water and 390' at present conditions. Good time for amphibs

-DP

Must be someone's fishing strip or in pretty close proximity to a cabin site. I can't imagine someone going there to hunt....too long a pack through deadfall in thick timber and quite a way to go to get out of the trees to start trying to spot game, not to mention the strip is too short to haul any meat out to speak of.....although I do remember moose hunting out of a 400' gravel bar close to Capa Yakataga with a buddy in his turbo 206 several times before I started flying myself and learned how stupid we were, especially since there was only one way in and out.

At least this strip has a wet runout on each end.....

Hot day, so I took the doors off and cruised the Willamette River.
tom

Tom, I am more than a little jealous. that looks pretty nice.

We need the green face for envy

Well did a BFR, no hold that, it's a Flight Review now, not a BFR.

Anywho flew a 172SP from Pro Air in Bend, around the patch, up to Redmond around there a couple times,out to the practice area east of Bend. Did some steep turns, slow flight, power off stalls - all under the hood. then back to Bend for a couple landings and done. 1.5 hours ground, 1.1 flight = $285.00 Yikes.

First time in a SP. Wow, more bells and whistles there. Darn thing has 13, yep 13 sumps for checking fuel, 5 in each wing and three under the belly. Fuel injected 180 hp. Not to bad, been a number of years, 11 to be exact since I've flown something with less than a O-470. Run up was strange, no carb heat, no blue knob to cycle the prop. Electric flaps - yuk.

Weather was around 7000 Broken with winds 210, 11G21. So got in a little cross wind work. Followed a 737 into Redmond

All in all it was pretty fun. Had a pretty decent instructor and would fly with the guy again if I got a chance.

C ya, Bub

Just finished my annual again, all is well with no discrepancies, Had three cyls. that wanted to blow back through the intake valves until I ran it around the patch and checked them again.

Watched a nice old Beech 18 rumble in to pick up a group of rafters and take back off. I sure like them old round motors.

Ready to do some moose spotting now and get ready for hunting.

Posted at 1400 iPhone. Wallking on South Beach, Newport, Oregon with my wife and daughter NOW!. 68 cauv
S33 airshow last night

Cheers Rob

Edited@1945

The route


At S33 Madras, Oregon Airshow
The 1st night show I have seen. Pretty darn cool. There was a glider trailing sparklers off the wing tips for 100 feet. Jet cars, and a T6 did a bomb run with BIG! pyrotechnics on the ground. M4 and my M7


Sun setting over the Cascade mountains just before the start of the air show.




Mt. Hood


Backcountry Oregon style. Headed west to Newport. Over the Cascade Range.


Headed north from Newport. Passing Depoe Bay, Oregon



Back home at TTD

It wasn't Austin, but it wasn't half bad.

Cheers...Rob

Truckee to Nervino, picked up whatever would not fit in my buddies Citabria,Guns,Bullets, cases of really old soda and 30 packs of Bud (REALLY old or we would have drank it instead of shot it)Gave them a head start,watched them take off down the runway,,,,,,,,-across the runway, across the ditch into the field,power back HOLY Shit what the After that was all sorted out we were off to the lakebed for some good times with guns @ my favorite blasting zone.Glad he kept the wings outta the dirt and only bent a gear leg a bit (Was going to go to Austin for the party but other stuff came up) Annual on Monday,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, off to Ohio to right seat the Albatross for River Fest I believe its called....OOOOHHHH YYYYYEEEEaaaaaaa Oh yea........My friends friend was doing the take off and only had about 4 hours in the Tailwheel...Must have been quit a ride from the backseat