Finding McKinnon would have been a bit difficult without having the coordinates entered into my GPS. The sectional suggests McKinnon is 2 miles north of the lake when in fact it is adjacent to the lake. The final approach over the Sandy River, alighting on top of a cliff is one of the most interesting in the state. The way McKinnon and the nearby Auberge des Fleurs airport are set along the Sandy River reminded me of the hidden airstrips Speed Gibson, Jungle Jim et al visited in the old serials.

Fearing that the cold river and wind over the cliff might generate a strong sinker, I came in hot the first time and had to go around. The second time I was still wary of the cliff and had to slip like crazy to get down. With 3000 feet of turf there was no need to "hit the numbers".

If there were a suitable restruant at McKinnon it would be an alternative to Flying M Ranch.

The image below gives an idea of the drop-off to the east of the airstrip. Note mow much clearer the foreground is; that's because it's much closer. The river is out of sight near the bottom of the picture, but the river and the steeply rising terrain between the river and airstrip are spectacular on approach.

A portion of the river near McKinnon is shown on the left. It gives a hint of what the approach to McKinnon looks like.

Among the party favors was a 1970 Portland sectional which sold for 45 cents. I've included a portion of the 1970 sectional on the left. The picture on the right is from a recent sectional. At the party I declared the old sectional was printed with a larger scale since the information is much easier to read. Actually the 1:500,000 scale is the same - the difference is in the print quality. The two pictures were taken with the same scanner, same procedure and settings.

The modern sectional shows McKinnon located about two miles north of Lake Roslyn. As one can see in the pictures, they are adjacent, as depicted on the 1970 sectional.

Some airports are easy to spot from miles away. Some are so inconspicuous they are hard to spot even when flying over them, let alone miles away. Accurate, easy to read maps help helmsmen, drivers and pilots find things.

Oh well, who needs good maps when we have GPS?

Wednesday the lunch crowd decided that good looking instructors should not be allowed to quit until they have found a worthy replacement. Gary at Eagle Flight Center said he was working on it but would make no promises.

My next planned stop was Clackamas Heights, but a large X and cattle on the runway suggested otherwise.

I tried to add Probst and McKinnon to my "Oregon Tour" flight plan, but Flitesoft wouldn't let me. Forget 32 bit computing with 256 megabytes RAM. It just wouldn't take 100 airports. Admittedly, most flights have nowhere near 100 stops, but the capability would be nice for a pictorial log of one's flights.

The annual Rose Festival Airshow requires aircraft parked at the west tiedowns to be moved across the airport to temporary tiedowns. In years past one of the line personnel would give me a lift back to where my car was parked. Monday evening I called on Unicom and asked for a lift. A half hour later I called again to ask for an ETA on the ride. I was told they couldn't accomodate me because cases of oil left no room in the truck. Or in any of their other vehicles including a FOLLOW ME vehicle used for the jet set. I had to walk across the airport back to my car. At least the Tower was gracious enough to give me clearance to cross the runway.

Later that week I inquired about which hours the airport would be open on Sunday. Nobody at the Tower knew. They suggested the airshow organizers would know. I walked to the airshow oddice and was told the airport would be open until 1 in the afternoon. Sunday morning about 9 I brought up the computer to check weather and NOTAMS (Notices To AirMen). Imagine my surprise (and disgust) when the DUATS briefing advised the airport would close within the hour, not in the afternoon as promised!

HIO 06/022 HIO AP CLSD/AIRSHOW ACFT 15000/BLW 5 NMR HIO AVOIDANCE
     ADZD WEF 0107011700-0107012359

ATC cleared me for the localizer approach but the temporary Arlington tower redirected me to Green Valley for the visual approach before I reached the outer marker. Good thing I had entered Green Valley (WA25) into the GPS as UPS Aviation doesn't know what a private airstrip is. At least this year Green Valley was green and not brown. The lunch gang is starting to call WA25 Green Acres.

At Green Valley I was directed to follow the river past the town of Arlington and into the flight pattern at AWO. In some places trees hide the river from pilots' eyes. All part of the fun, I've flown the approach before.

In contrast to the Hillsboro Airshow, the Arlington EAA Fly-In is a friendly gathering of aviation enthusiasts to celebrate civil aviation. 1000-2000 airplanes show up for Arlington. It is one of the largest fly-ins, second only to Oshkosh and Sun'n'Fun.

The Intel and Maytag exhibits that dominated the Hillsboro Airshow were absent. Instead, the National Weather Service had a tent where they showed off their new weather display system built around cost effective off the shelf PCs.

Ultralights were in abundance, buzzing around in their own flight area. Past the ultralight exhibits, a Fly Market beckoned. I was about to buy a spool of copperweld wire until I picked it up and contemplated lugging it all the way back to my airplane.

Left: matching aircraft and fashion shirt. The owners of these beautiful antiques put an incredible amount of time, toil and money into them.

Above: This Cessna shoots back. Just the thing to discourage ramp checks.

Left: Closeup of Mixmaster nose art.
Tail of North American B-25, type used by Jimmy Dolittle for the famous Tokyo raid that set the stage for the Battle of Midway.
Below: Feissler Storch in Nazi livery. This short field aircraft was used to rescue Mussolini from the mountainside Eagle's Nest. Note the permamently deployed leading edge slats. The Storch droops the ailerons when flaps are extended for extra lift, a technique used by today's Horton STOL.

As forecast, weather for the flight back to Hillsboro was better for VFR flight, but a bit hazy.

For this trip I took my Apollo 2001 out of my Skylane and programmed two flight plans at home. When I replaced the Apollo in the airplane it couldn't figure out where it was. 20 minutes later I was wondering if it had died until I remembered to tell it where it was.

I flew back to Hillsboro with the flight plan directing the flight via the autopilot much of the way. I had carefully designed the flight plan to overfly the Bremerton naval base, but Because the autopilot was out of adjustment the plane flew to the left of course and I missed on of my favorite sightseeing spots. (Another historic picture; VFR flight not permitted in this area.)

Sunday I flew to my weekly breafast at the Flying M Ranch. The weather was fine, but the clouds apparently scared all but the usual hardcore pilots away from the Ranch.

I was cut loose for the approaches at higher than usual altitudes, causing me to approach the glidepath from above. This would not be an acceptable practice if the weather were below localizer minimums. Until I get a fail-safe or redundancy on the glide path I am not inclined to go looking for weather below localizer minimums.
The Mulino Chapter of the EAA (above, right) had their annual fly-in, barbecue and fly market. Can you believe the man leaning over this little yellow biplane is its owner and pilot?

Right: Nose art on a CJ6 (?)

Left: nose art on P61 Black Widow night fighter at the Tillamook Air Museum.

Tillamook had their fly-in and barbecue. Scuddy weather kept many pilots away.

Below: elegant wind deflectors

Shaggy Dog Trip

Approaching the Santa Maria Airport from the North I saw a low marine layer like the one below, but no airport. The top of the marine layer was about 500 feet. I started mumbling about the ILS to Santa Maria Tower but the controller insisted planes were still getting in on a visual to runway 30. Still no sign of the airport but the east side of town was still visible so I set mountain canyon flying mode and went down for a look. Under the layer visibility was adequate and I slipped in under very special VFR. I would have preferred to shoot the ILS and land with a ten knot tailwind than to fly low in an unfamiliar area.
The Cessna Pilots' Association 182 Systems and Procedures course is an intensive two day number with classroom discussion and hands on inspection of aircraft. Left: One of the instructors points out fabric tubing under the cowl (the input to the heater). Cloth tubing should be replaced with the orange stuff. The old cardboard heat baffles in evidence should be replaced with fresh silicone material (the orange or blue stuff).
Left: Over Monterey Bay, "Glory" caused by refraction and reflection of sunlight back to the source.

I filed IFR for the flight from SMX to Monterey (MRY). Most of the flight was on top, but there was no question of a visual approach to Monterey. The reported ceiling was 500 feet (more than twice the ILS minimum) and two aircraft were waiting to launch. Coming in over the bay without a wet suit I held on to a little extra energy longer than I would have on a checkride. But it was time to get down into the muck and in I went. The bright warm sun disappeared and the wind shifted. Before long the approach lights appeared in the gloom and with a little lubrication from the rain on the runway I made a gentle landing and made the desired turnoff. This was the first time I have flown an instrument approach into a completely unfamiliar airport.
The conference was productive if hard on my feet.

With Romeo topped of with $2.97 avgas I filed IFR for the return to Hillsboro. Except for a thin marine layer, the first part of the flight was in visual meterological conditions except for a brief encounter with forest fire smoke between Sonoma and Red Bluff (left).
Near the Oregon border I picked up a modest tailwind almost exactly as advertised.
A weak storm was passing through the Willamette Valley. Once past Eugene I started asking for a lower altitude. Hillsboro was reporting a 4000 foot ceiling . I wanted to get down to shoot the VOR approach, all of which would have been in VMC. But ATC kept me up for other traffic and I had to wander around Washington County setting up for an ILS approach which I couldn't log because the ceiling was too high.

It was a shaggy dog trip.

Twins and exotic singles do not frequent the Flying M Ranch, but this Twin Commander 680 was an exception.

Left: Dish antenna farm near Scappoose.
Sunday the 9th was the BCOPA Poker Run. After breakfast at the Ranch I filled up with $1.48 mogas at Landsem, and picked up cards at McMinville, Salem, Mulino, Troutdale and Scappoose before joining the crowd at Eddie's. I planned on getting a card at Kelso but excessive hangar talk threw a spanner in my schedule.

The couple running Eddie Rickenbacker's Restruant at the Hillsboro Airport terminal building have not been well connected politically with the Port of Portland. The elevator to the second floor was out of service for weeks. Other routine maintenance has been deferred. Months ago the light switches in the main entrance to the Restruant were opened up and the worker never finished the job.

The Port did finish the job, eventually, after Eddie's went out of business. They wanted the room to be presentable for the Rose Festival airshow.

          EFFECTIVE SEPTEMBER 13, 2001 AT 1500 UTC.

     ALL IFR AND VFR GENERAL AVIATION FLIGHTS ARE PROHIBITED WITHIN
     THE NATIONAL AIRSPACE SYSTEM UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

     FOR ALL OTHER OPERATIONS, NORMAL OPERATIONS ARE RESUMED WITHIN
     THE NATIONAL AIRSPACE SYSTEM. AIRPORT AND AIRCRAFT WILL BE
     OPERATING UNDER INCREASED SECURITY REQUIREMENTS. SPECIFIC 
     AIRPORTS MAY NOT HAVE RESUMED OPERATIONS BY THIS TIME FRAME.
     OPERATORS ARE REQUIRED TO ENSURE THAT THEIR  SECURITY 
     REQUIRMENTS ARE MET AND THAT THE DESTINATION AIRPORT IS 
     OPERATIONAL.

That evening the Beaverton Chapter of the Oregon Pilots' Association held their monthly meeting at a moribund Stark's Twin Oaks. We all lit candles for a minute of silence celebrated at 7pm. The airspace shutdown kept our speaker from attending, so some of the regulars filled in with hangar talk.

The Oregon Air Fair was held that weekend. Thunderstorms were forecast for Saturday, so I waited.

I filed an IFR flight plan for the flight to Albany in accordance with the restrictions on General Aviation (Part 91) flights. Hillsboro has an FAA control tower, so the IFR departure was routine. I climbed up through a thin layer of moisture that draped the landscape in sheer lingerie. I never lost contact with the horizon.

Upon landing at Albany I immediately walked to the FBO and rang up the McMinville Flight Service Station. While I was on hold waiting to check in McMinville called on another line to check on my whereabouts. These folks were a bit tense.

The flight restrictions dried up the traffic. Only a few could make the hop under the IFR rules. Some drove down from Portland, many stayed home. Last year Albany was a beehive.

Monday the 24th I went up to practice approaches in "easy IFR". Weather was 700 foot ceiling with light mist. The Approach lighting system (the "rabbit") was out of service, so the runway was hard to see from a distance. The marine layer was about a thousand feet thick, with blue sky and bright sun on top. I didn't spend much time in actual, but there were plenty of transitions between visual and instrument meterological conditions. I shot two ILS approaches with an ADF approach in between. A crosswind that had me crab 15 degrees to the right of course kept me honest.

Flying the ADF approach I didn't see the runway until I was close to it. The 1020 foot minimum descent altitude was brushing the marine layer. It would have been an interesting circling approach. I was still bright eyed and bushy tailed, and there was plenty of time for another approach before lunch, so I went missed.

The clouds broke up around noon, allowing the lunch crowd to grade student landings. Such a deal.

The picture on left was taken a few days earlier. Among a group of a dozen or so pilots, mechanics, builders and tinkerers, several will be present at Eddie's on any given weekday. The group's collective aviation knowledge and experience is formidable.