I decided it would be nice to take a fly to picnic with Cheryl to the San Juan Islands. She was really excited about this, so we packed a lunch and set off. I choose a cruise altitude of 9500ft and we set off north. We passed by Mt. St. Helens and I thought that I should divert to see that on the way back.
We continued northward over Seattle, which is beautiful from the air, where we saw several aircraft carriers parked in Bremerton. Further north we passed the Olympic Mountains which are magnificent! After about two hours in the air we reached the San Juan Archipelago.
Descending toward Orcas island, we could see that the water was particularly clear this time of year. We landed and walked to the north end of the runway. The view was amazing so we laid down my coat as a blanket and setup our picnic. We just sat there eating food, watching airplanes fly overhead and holding each other. The sun felt nice after such a long winter.
When we were done, we packed up our picnic and headed back south. When we were about 30 minutes from home I diverted to Mt. St. Helens and took a little tour around the volcano. It was so beautiful that day. I will not soon forget it.
This flight was on June 20th, but I love the pics and I thought I should post them. Cheryl and I flew down to Medford to see my parents and on the way back, took a little detour to see Crater Lake. It is beautiful from the rim, but it is stunning from the air. I had fantastic company and a fabulous view. That is what aviation is all about.
It was another great year for the Arlington fly-in. This year my friend Justus came along for the event. We tried to leave Thursday but the weather was IFR both in Arlington and at Pearson field so we had to call off the trip for the day. The next day It was VFR, but barely. The clouds were 2500ft, which is enough to take off, but they were a fairly solid layer. We packed up the plane and took off looking for that hole in the sky that would let us get above them. About half way to Mt. St. Helens the opening we were looking for appeared. I requested an altitude change and climbed up above the clouds. From there it was smooth flying the whole way. The view below was solid clouds but we were on our way. Once we were in the Seattle area, we began our descent into Arlington. I had to request several adjustments to the vectors that Seattle was giving me to avoid the clouds, but it all worked out. My landing was a solid 8 and perhaps a 9 from a generous judge :-)
The folks at the Cherokee Pilots Association were fantastic as always. They setup a trip to the Whidbey Island Naval air station so we could check out the tower and fly the P3 Orion simulator. This is a military, full motion simulator. It was amazing. They also managed to get Karl Bergey (The man who designed the Cherokee) to give a talk. I got to meet him and ask questions about the aircraft that I love.
