The morning was cold and frosty as normal but I was getting off a little later and the plane had already thawed. The sky looked a little overcast but this was at 9000ft or so which is well above
my planned 6500ft. I checked the precip radar and everything looked good. There was a little blob over Medford but I was not going that far. I started up the plane and taxied to the fuel pumps. I filled it to the tabs (36 total gallons) and started off to the runway. I called Portland tower and took off from Pearson. I was again given a mid-field crossing and I was on my way. As i passed Salem, OR I noticed that there was a lower layer of clouds below me ahead. I pressed on and found my self flying between two cloud layers for about an hour and a half. I was trying out the Mountain Scope software which has a synthetic vision component. This proved very useful as I could not see the mountains below but I knew right where they were.
When I was about 80 miles from Grants Pass I noticed that my DG began to spin at about 3RPM. Aparently there was no filter on the gyro instruments and they has sucked in some insulation from the dash. I was also growing concerned that there was no opening in the clouds to decend through. At this time I realized that I should have looked at satellite images rather than radar to see the solid cloud cover. Too late now I guess :-) I finally saw a ridge in the clouds and went to investigate it. It turned out to be an opening about 1.5 miles long and about 2000 ft wide. I passed over it to see what was below. I was so relieved to see a runway down there. It was Roseburg. I made another circle to decend through the opening and down into Roseburg. Once below the cloud layer it was totally clear. The clouds were unfortunately all the way down to the mountain tops so I was in an enclosed space. I used the Mountain Scope software to determine the best path to fly so I could stay well below the couds and well above the terain. I got stuck a few times and had to make a few canyon turns but I managed to keep going. I looked the the computer and saw there was just one ridge between me and the airport and I followed the path that I-5 made through it. It was such a relief to pop out on the other side. I could see the airport and I made straight for it. I got in the pattern and made a nice landing at the field. I taxied to the paint shop, got out and was greeted by Merl the owner. We talked for a little bit and went inside to talk about what we wanted to do with the paint.
My mom showed up, because she was taking me to the Medford airport to catch my flight home. We all sat down and worked out a color scheme for the airplane. What i thought we were going to do and what we decided on were totally different. We choose metallic forest green for the belly, metallic silver for the top and a metallic charcoal grey for the accent. I will post a drawing as soon as I get it. After all that was decided, my mom and I went to lunch at a nice sushi place and talked for a while. then we went to the Medford airport so I would have time to get through security. It turns out that there was no one there. THey have a nice new terminal though, which was exciting to see. My dad showed up which was really nice since I do not see him often either. Then I boarded my plane and flew home as a passenger.
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