The Flight Guide entry for WA39 mentions "Own Risk Mtns srrnd. Hill W." I approached Morton from the west at 3000 feet. A canyon connects Mossyrock, Riffe Lake and points west to Morton. Three planes in formation passed in front of me on their way to the east. Hills towered on either side. Flatlanders would call them mountains but anything below the timberline seems just a hill when snow capped mountains are in view.

Sometimes I fly too tight a pattern because a narrow airstrip creates an illusion that makes me fly closer than normal. In this case I crowded the pattern to stay clear of a towering hill to the south. The west end of this hill is visible in the picture above. To the east of WA39 the valley widens, permitting a comfortable turn to base and final approach to runway 25.

The runway at Morton is 1800 feet long and 35 feet wide, one foot 2 inches narrower than my Skylane's wing span. The 2 inches were of no interest. To keep pilots honest, there's an active road just off the approach end of runway 25. With some help from a headwind I bagged a comfortable landing with my still imperfect short field technique. That made up for Woodland State in April.

Some strips are rough or uneven, and the resulting bumpy rollout makes me wonder if something is wrong with the undercarriage. I remember the sensation well from the flat nosewheel caper at Skydive Oregon and driving or riding on flat tires.

I parked on the grass near the west end of the strip. When I got out I noticed my wings were close to the taxiway, so I moved the plane out of the way in case someone else should need to use the taxiway.

I didn't put on my Lightspeed 20K noise canceling headset just to move the plane a short distance on the grass. Now and then it's fun to power up Romeo's 470 cubic inch Continental without wearing an acoustical condom, just to revel in all that power. Some of that raw power was needed to move about in the grass.

The culinary aspect of this trip was a bust. Saturday was graduation day at the local high school. A nearby pizza/deli and Spiffy's restruant were both closed. A convenience store and gas station were the only nearby food sources.

The picture above shows some of the takeoff issues. The orange dots visible over Romeo's right wing mark a powerline; a tower is visible just above Romeo's fuselage. With powerlines, trees and a hill to the west of the 1800 foot runway it was time to get serious about takeoff parameters. The windsock showed approximately ten knots headwind and a slight crosswind. The headwind approximately canceled out the performance degradation of the 1000 msl altitude and temperature slightly above standard conditions. Takeoff performance is one of the good points in the Skylane design, and Romeo cleared all the obstacles with plenty of room.

I had to back taxi on the runway before takeoff. This is one situation where I would have appreciated a bubble canopy to improve visibility checking for unannounced traffic in the pattern.

This was one the neatest flights so far. My other "maximally cool flights" to date were, in no particular order of coolness, night pattern work in rain and deteriorating weather, the "scud running" trek to Corvallis, and the trek to Bellingham and Boeing Field.

On the way back I flew within a mile of Toledo. Toledo's 219 kHz beacon signal was still dead. Once again my altitude was too low for flight following, so I stayed VFR and listened to the local Common Traffic Frequencies. Several miles north of Scappoose I saw a four engine Air Force cargo jet zip by at a fraction of my 3000 foot altitude.

Tuesday June 9 I decided to check out some Oregon strips west of the Cascade Mountains. First on the itinerary was a 1940' turf strip at Gates (6S4), 40 nm northeast of Corvallis. This strip has clear approaches but it wasn't sufficiently isolated for my needs. I didn't try landing there.

Next was Oakridge State, a 3600' paved strip some 38 nm southeast of Eugene Oregon. 5S0 is perched on a 1420' plateau a few hundred feet above the river valley and the towns of Oakridge and Willamette City. The picture above was taken looking west, what you'd see on left base to Oakridge runway 27. The strip is surrounded by interesting geographical features which can generate dangerous downdrafts and turbulence.

As I flew up the river valley leading to Oakridge, I called on the unicom frequency for an airport advisory. Silence. As the airstrip came into view I decided it would be prudent to overfly the strip at pattern altitude to check for nasty winds. Not finding anything serious I circled back for landing. A wind change set me down firmly on the runway, but it wasn't a bone jarring drop-in like that landing at Eugene. If you want a smooth landing here do it in the early morning or just before dark when the winds die down. With a headwind reducing the landing roll I was able to turn around at midfield with just a touch of brakes. I parked next to a Cessna 152 "restoration project". A mercury vapor lamp adjacent to the hangar suggested this would not be an ideal location for star gazing. I took some pictures and cleaned the windshield for the return flight into the sun.

As the picture suggests, takeoff and climbout were interesting. Normally I reduce power after climbing a few hundred feet by lowering the RPMs to 2450 with the prop pitch. Normally I climb out at about 100 mph, 20 mph faster than the best rate of climb speed, to improve engine cooling. This time I maintained full power and nearly maximum rate of climb speed for the first thousand feet, and delayed transition to cruise climb until I was a couple thousand feet higher.

I stopped at Salem on the way back for a late afternoon lunch at Roscoe's Landing. The crosswind component landing at Salem was about 8 knots. Nothing serious, but it was the most I'd encountered to date in a Skylane. It's more interesting in a lightly loaded Skylane because I can't let up on the back pressure just to deal with the crosswind, lest I wheelbarrow it in.

June 9 was not a good day for general aviation in Portland. A news crew approached as I locked up the airplane. Unknown to me, a pressurized 210 had crashed a half mile short of the runway early that afternoon, and the reporterette wanted my opinion about small plane safety. Needing a few moments to organize some thoughts, I asked her to attach the tail chain to my airplane. I considered my answer while she was bent over attaching the chain. The cameraman's comment about the excellence of the view did not help my concentration.

The interview lasted several minutes. 14 seconds of it aired on KATU's 11pm news. Click on the picture to watch the segment. The reporterette's father was a pilot, but he was not interviewed.

During the interview I mentioned that the most common accident cause is continued flight into instrument conditions by VFR pilots and IFR pilots not on an instrument plan. I pointed out the fatal scud running accident last October in which an 18000 hour airline pilot flew a Skywagon into a hill near Damascus. I stated the next most common accident cause is "stupid pilot tricks". As an example, I pointed out the buzz job that killed three youths near Clackamas Town Center last July. I mentioned that poor maintenance causes many accidents. How did this analysis fare on the tube?

Forsberg says "the majority of accidents are caused by non instrument rated pilots flying into tumultuous weather, or engine failure."

I was disappointed Channel 2 skipped most of what I told them about general aviation safety. Considering the airlines that advertise on TV it's no wonder they deleted my example of the scud running airline pilot.

After listening to the story several times, I decided KATU did get the essential message: The skies are not raining Cessnas, and with prudence the risks of flying can be minimized.

At least they spelled my name correctly.

Since then some (unverified!) details of the P210 crash have come down the grapevine. The pilot had reported an engine fire. (The prelim NTSB report does not mention a pre-crash fire.) He thought he was north of the airport, but was actually southeast of it. He was aiming for a field but turned at the last moment to avoid hitting someone on the ground. He clipped some trees, hit power lines and exploded, then impacted the ground. Intense flames prevented rescuers from immediately pulling the bodies from the wreckage. An in-flight fire presents a time-critical life and death situation. The chances for a successful outcome diminish each second one remains aloft. As Chuck Yeager reportedly said, "Sometimes you get a pooch that can't be screwed."

Friday June 12 one of the Air Force Thunderbirds performing at the Rose Festival Airshow had a hard landing, bounced, and blew a tire. Sometimes 6600 feet isn't such a long runway.

Saturday I visited the Airshow as one of Dirk's guests. Dirk threw a party for family and friends in his hangar. There was more than enough food, not to mention birthday cake afterwards.

Tuesday I flew a GPS-free flight to Independence (7S5) and Albany (S12) Oregon and back. The ride down was bumpy enough I decided to reduce speed to 130 mph to reduce the load on my buns. I used KWIP 880 to navigate to 7S5 using the ADF. This was the first flight after installing a carb temp gauge. Possibly as a side effect of the carb temp gauge installation, the EGT became erratic. Back to the shop for Romeo.

Above: Crater Lake, southern Oregon.
Below:: interesting geological formations in southern Oregon.

Crescent Lake is shown at right. I computer streched the shadows to enhance detail; what looks like snow is an artifact of the enhancement. The tall trees next to the south end of the runway are not artifiacts. The Flight Guide warned about poor conditions on the runway, so I didn't land. Getting down is one thing, losing a wheel in a pothole is another.

Christmas Valley sports a 5200 foot long runway. The windsock looks to be a white feed sack attached to a coffee can, hard to find if you're looking for an orange windsock. The amenities are located at the west end of the runway. This posed a quandry as I landed to the west; should I land long rather than taxi a long way? As I thought this over, I held the plane off the runway but not vigorously enough. I didn't have the "stick in the gut" yet, and touched down on the nosewheel. After a modest crow-hop or two I got serious about landing and pulled the yoke back. I taxiied the rest of the way to the parking area near the end of the runway.

Many of the fields I've visited have an eclectic collection of aircraft. Gliders at Horth Plains. A MIG at Aurora. A Milkstool at Independence. Wrecks at Bend and Christmas Valley. A canard resting on its nose at Prospect State. Long term restoration projects at Oakridge, Morton-Strom, and elsewhere. A plastic hoot owl guarding a open ended hanger at Salem.

On the way back I stopped for a sandwich at Salem.

Since the Carb temp gauge was installed Romeo has acted strangely. The EGT gauge still wobbles and drops out, even with a replacemnt probe. Oil temp gets warmer than before, but still well within the green. Cylinder Head Temerature (CHT) still behaves normally. Oil pressure was a bit low while taxiing back at Hillsboro, and there may be an oil leak or overflow on the nosewheel strut. Back to Dirk's.

Friday morning Dirk refolded a heat baffle. Now Romeo's oil temperature and EGT are back to normal, the way I'm used to seeing them. Even the carb temp readings looked reasonable, behind the INOP label. That afternoon I flew to Nehalem Bay at Manzanita (3S7) by overflying Sunset Highway to Seaside, then down the coast to 3S7. Ceilings were lower than expected, and I wasn't sure how long the weather would hold. After a few minutes I took off for Astoria (minus the Mighty Mo). The day after a lady from Troutdale was taking off from Manzanita when the wind shifted. She aborted the takeoff but lost control and bumped into nearby trees. She was not injured.

The famous Haystack Rock at Cannon beach is visible at right. In Astoria the local FBO staff also answer the phone for Harbor Air. After some pleasant hangar talk on the tarmac, I flew up the Columbia in search of higher ceilings. About 10 miles west of Longview the ceiling was high enough to allow me to fly directly to Hillsboro. When I was on short final for runway 02 the wind changed and succeeding arrivals used runway 30. I thought of changing runway too, but landed with lilt on the runway I was cleared for. It's a male pilot thing.

Saturday started out with low clouds which burned off about noon. I decided this would be a reasonable time for my "Ranger Creek Grand Tour". This consisted of stops at Woodland State (WA71), Shady Acres (3B8), Pierce County (1S0), and Ranger Creek (6WA8).

Readers of this tome will recognize Woodland State as the airport I had trouble finding and didn't feel competent to land on back in April. This time I knew it was just east of the freeway and I had no problem finding it. It's still 25 feet wide. Saturday there was a refreshing breeze which wasn't present in April. This time the landing was no problem except for one fly in the proverbial ointment. While taxiing the last few hundred feet of the runway to the parking area, I overdid the "brutal leaning for taxiing" routine and killed the engine with my tail still hanging over the runway.

After restarting and moving Romeo into a grass parking area I had a nice conversation with an Ercoupe owner. The Ercoupe was designed in the late 30's as an unstallable, unspinnable, easy to drive airplane with no rudder pedals Without rudder pedals crosswind landings were made by crabbing all the way to the ground, at which point the landing gear would straighten things out for the driver.

The next stop was Shady Acres in Spanaway WA. But first I used flight following to keep the flight kosher. As I approached Spanaway I was handed over to McChord AFB tower, who allowed me into Shady Acres. For once Microsoft Flight Simulator was reasonably accurate in their description of the airstrip essentials; it is only 20 feet wide and only 1800 feet long, minus a 200 foot displaced threshold. Most taxiways are larger. Now that I'm reasonably comfortable with my Skylane, landing was no problem. The 20 foot wide paved portion is surrounded by a nicely trimmed grass runway.

What MSFS doesn't show is that Shady Acres is a residential airpark. Some of the homes have hangars facing the runway.

From Shady Acres it was only several miles to Pierce County Thun field. I had a Reuben sandwich and blackberry pie at the Hangar Inn Restruant. Next door was the world corporate headquarters of ARNAV, builder of Romeo's Loran receiver.

During lunch I observed vertically developed clouds caressing Mt. Rainer. I decided it would be unwise to scud run around Mt. Rainer to Ranger Creek. Since the motivation for checking out distant airstrips is to find a dark sky viewing site free from electrical interference, Ranger Creek may not be too useful if afternoon and evening thundershowers are the norm. So I flew back to Hillsboro. On the way I briefly listened to KUIK on the ADF to verify I was correctly receiving the Hillsboro station. I didn't expect to hear KUIK this far north because a Tacoma station usually broadcasts on the same frequency. The lightning crashes on the radio confirmed my decision not to fly around Mt. Rainier.

Again I was cleared to land on Hillsboro's runway 02, but this time the winds didn't change and I made the first turnoff. It's a male pilot thing.

Pilots approach the mundane decisions of flight differently according to their training, temprament, and flying experience. It's interesting to ride with a different pilot to appreciate how they approach things and what their priorities are. Bruce's experience included a stint as jump plane pilot in Germany, and he was familiar with Skylanes. Bruce flies with gusto.

After a brief but very serious discussion about Positive Exchange of Controls I flew the plane back to Hillsboro, including the takeoff and landing.

On the way back we orbited McMinville Airport (MMV) to get an aerial glimpse of the a WWII B-17 Flying Fortress parked there. Bruce orbited over McMinnville while took the picture below. I scanned the picture above at full resolution directly from the negative and now have a glorious piece of desktop wallpaper. There are some things you still can't do with a digital camera.

After taking the picture above, Bruce dropped some altitude and orbited the airport more steeply to get a closer look. What should have been the best pictures of the B-17 didn't turn out. Perhaps the G-forces interfered with the camera's mechanism.

The acid test of the piloting experience is the approach and landing. Every instructor has to relearn the sights and reflexes of flight from a slightly different perspective to control the plane from the right seat. Some have to learn the reflexes of holding the yoke in the right hand instead of the left. This wasn't a problem for me because I'm used to flying flight simulators with a joystick in my right hand. I wasn't used to my right elbow rubbing aginst the door instead of my left.

I didn't have much difficulty with the throttle in my left hand instead of my right. I can thank the Microsoft Sidewinder joystick with its left handed throttle for that. The big tactile difference was in the throttle lock. The throttle in single engine Cessnas is a knob that the pilot pushes forward increase power. The throttle lock is a disc around the throttle that is twisted clockwise to keep the throttle from moving, and counterclockwise to allow for easier throttle adjustments. My left hand wanted to work the throttle lock bass ackwards. It was a strange feeling.

When flying for the first time from the right seat, conscious thought is required to work some of the controls that are normally operated by "instinct". In 2469R the airspeed indicator and especially the altimeter are hard to see from the right seat. And, I knew I'd have to be careful aligning the aircraft to the direction of travel at touchdown because the nose slopes in the opposite direction from what I'm used to seeing. With this increased workload I was late making the turn to final. Even small things such as adjusting the sun visors are different enough to require more attention than usual.

I flared too high. It was the worst landing I've ever made from the right seat. It was also the best landing I've ever made from the right seat. It was better than a dozen or so of my past landings. Chances are it will be my last (from the right seat) for a while.

When I reached Cottage Grove large X's graced the runway. I couldn't land there. I was lost without a list of alternate $100 Hamburger Destinations. I didn't feel like going back to Salem because I'd been there already. Eugene, which I'd just passed, was out as well; questionable karma, and I've been there three times already. It's more of a challenge to go someplace new.

North Bend (OTH) on the coast seemed a likely choice, with runways in every which direction to take care of crosswinds. Besides, North Bend has NDB and AM stations in addition to a VOR so I wouldn't have to concern myself if the generals were playing with garage door openers again. It was a clear day at the coast and I could see the airport some distance away. When ATC asked me if I had the airport in sight, I reported I had something that looked likely in sight. I don't consider an airport in sight until I can see runway numbers, airplanes, or other unmistakeable ground features.

The wind was blowing across the bay at better than 20 knots with slight gusting. Not to worry, OTH has a crosswind runway for just such days as this. At 2300 feet it's half as long as the other two.

The wind had a significant effect on my pattern. For a moment I turned final for runway 31 instead of 34. Then I recognized the mistake. Once lined up for the correct runway I only used partial flaps. I took my jolly good time setting down, and bagged a gentle landing. The headwind allowed me to make turnoff about halfway down the 2300 foot runway. That was fortunate as the other half of the runway was occupied by sea gulls.

I had no difficulty landing and taxiing using standard procedures. I firmly tied the plane down. As I walked around the airport planes, hangar doors, and signs were clanking, moaning, and singing in the wind. An FBO was closed so the owner could attend his brother's wedding. Walking back to the airplane and getting in against the wind weren't so easy.

Cashmere is a terrific place to visit (or to live if you have a job). Cashmere reminds me of Rhinelander and Eagle River in Northern Wisconsin when I was a brat. I had a buffet lunch at Homestead Pizza. It's a joy what a perky young waitress can do to catch the male eye without the slightest use of overt sexuality.
One of the stores had this beautiful painting on its window.

I departed to the north and picked up the highway leading back to Cle Elum.

Ranger Creek (6WA8) was unknown to either the GPS or the Loran. It was not on the January 1997 sectional. The June 1997 sectional shows it as unpaved, as does Flight Guide (5/97 revision). The January 1998 sectional shows it as paved. I set the GPS and Loran to display map coordinates. The main problem was to determine which of two or three similar valleys was hiding the Ranger Creek airstrip. Once I was over the right valley the airstrip was easy to spot. Landing there should not pose much of a problem. Ranger Creek is questionable as a dark sky site. The surrounding hills appear to limit the horizon, and Mt. Rainer makes its own weather, mostly clouds.

From Ranger Creek I followed the highway down the valley, where I took this picture of avalanches on the East side of Mt. Ranier. Near Packwood (55S) the valley widened out. During that time I monitored the 122.9 common traffic frequency. I heard a Skymaster attempting to get under low clouds to land at Ocean Shores (W04) on the Washington coast.

Approaching from the North I managed to spot HIO for once, and I managed not to bust pattern altitude. About the time I was cleared for landing I noticed a plane ahead of me in the pattern. It didn't look like he was leaving the pattern. I was about to ask Tower about him when Tower amended my clearance. My landing wasn't the greatest, but I did make Alpha-6, barely.

The Skymaster pilots I heard earlier also landed at Hillsboro. They were hungry by then, but with fuel for their thirsty Skymaster at $2.25 a gallon they didn't wish to go out of their way for dinner. They settled on Eddies, where I was getting re-hydrated.

During this time we watched an older man with a camera waiting near the edge of the aircraft parking area. He was a WWII flyer awaiting the arrival of his daughter. She had recently passed her IFR checkride. As the lot of us watched a new student struggle with landings she decided that shooting IFR approaches to nice long runways was where it was at. Forget Shady Acres.