On the way down I decided to fly down the Sacramento valley with a stop at the old Castle Air Base in Atwater (Merced). I filed IFR for the trip down but the weather was VFR or VFR on top except for a few minutes climbing out of Hillsboro.

Left: Mountain obscurement

Below: Near Sacramento
Below: Air pollution trapped by an air inversion near the south end of the Sacremento Valley.

I turned eastward for the rest of the flight to Tucson. A tailwind boosted my ground speed to more 163 knots (187 mph). Try that in your Bentley.

Below: Aircraft in storage at Southern California Logistics, Victorville (VCV). About half the aircraft at this facility are seen in this picture.

I returned to Hillsboro after calling on a customer and reviewing investments with my stockbroker. In business, some things are best done face to face.

It is said Tucson has only two days of instrument weather a year, and I missed both of them. The issue was weather further north.

Left: Pleasant Lake(?) northwest of Phoenix.

Left:: There is water near Lost Wages, at least in winter.
I planned a refueling stop at O43, Yerington Nevada. Yerington lies just beyond the mountains west of Walker Lake, Hawthorne Nevada (left). The cold front that doused California was coming my way. A direct shot over the mountains was out of the question. (Compare this with the same scene two years earlier.) For a while I thought I might have to fly 20 miles north to circumnavigate the mountains between me and Yerington. I found a hole just off the right side of this picture and avoided the detour. I landed in light rain with an hour's fuel remaining. The long range tanks in my Skylane come in handy when there's a headwind.

This time the gas pump's card lock computer worked properly.

I could see blue sky on the horizon to the northeast. I threaded a path between the hills north of Yerington and the military areas near the Fallon Naval Air Station. After a while blue appeared in the sky and I went upstairs.

At 10500 feet I picked up a nice 20 kt tailwind, quite an improvement over the earlier headwind.

The Oregon Cascades were out in all their glory that afternoon. Mt. Bachelor is in the foreground, with Broken Top behind and to the right. The Three Sisters are on the left. Mt. Washington, Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Hood are in the background. The Three Sisters dominate the second picture.

Below: Temperature inversion and winds aloft take smoke plumes in different directions near Eugene.

Friday was nice all day at Hillsboro. I landed before sunset.

As you can see in the picture above, there isn't much room between the two RVs. After some experimentation, I developed a portable mini-ramp (left) for the nosewheel. As the Skylane is pulled forward, the nosewheel goes up on the ramp and the tail feathers magically dive below the RVs' wings.

I will miss being able to taxi into my tiedown spot without having to shove my Skylane back into place. Opening and closing those massive doors will improve my muscle tone.

Saturday I went up with "Sky King" Ron, a recently minted pilot. We flew to the Flying M Ranch for lunch. The runway had quite a bit of water, similar to an old picture on the Flying M page. I decided washing all the mud off would be just too much work. We went hungry. On the way back I shot two approaches and a holding pattern in light to moderate turbulence. The turbulence, working a transponder problem, and discussing the festivities with Ron provided a realistic, if benign, cockpit environment for IFR. By the time I broke out on the NDB approach we were hungry and the clouds were starting to lift.

Sunday the 20th weather was down over Hillsboro until well after noon. Too late for breakfast at the Flying M even if it did clear. The day before I took these pictures of the Ranch. Note the water flow in the Yamhill River as it passes the lodge.

There was still water standing on the runway, but not as much as a week before. A Skylane about to take off assured me he had a hose at Sweet Home to wash the mud off his plane.

By Sunday the 11th the sun had been out enough to dry up the worst of the puddles. If you have DSL, click on the picture at left to see a large 2.6MB version.

Above: Panaorma taken Feb 15 from the Restaurant.

Kevin and the Port did not see eye to eye on what the restaurant should be, and now Kevin has left. The space appears empty.

According to one account, the Port was unaware of the departure until after the fact.

It's been a long downhill ride from the glory days of the Red Baron.

Sunday the fog hung around all morning, so I didn't get to the Flying M until Monday.

Above: A typical burning permit day near Gaston - when you can hardly get anything to burn. A rain shower a few miles east of the Flying M.

Below: A dusting of snow on the mountains west of the Ranch Feb 24.

Pictures taken Feb 27. Left: Flying M Ranch viewed from crosswind. Click on picture for larger. Note the Yamhill River flowing past the lodge. The "rapids" are visible on the blow-up.

Below: Final approach. I'm aiming for a point just after the intersecting driveway.

Mt. Hood from the Forest Grove area.
Just about to touch down on Hillsboro Runway 30.

Below: An Akro Duster with Lycoming IO-540 pays a visit to the Ranch. Note "This Side Up" sign on the fuselage. A front cockpit is hidden under a removable cover. We were treated to a mini airshow when he left.

This picture was taken into the sun and does not do the paint job justice.

In the background is an Ercoupe which made an interesting touchdown and recovery from a bounced landing.