The weekend of 8/7/20 through 8/10/20 was a nice change of pace for me. I hadn't had a long weekend in a while and wanted to make the best of it.
There was more weather to deal with than would be expected in the early part of August. We got a pretty sizeable rain system on Thursday with rainfall in the neighborhood of a quarter inch. While it is not unheard of to have measurable precipitation in August around here, it is definitely not the norm.
There was also another small system that came through on Saturday giving us a little more rain over night. Two days of rain in August, definitely not normal.
The result of this was that Friday was a day between two systems, so while it was a pretty nice partly cloudy day, there was more atmospheric activity than would normally be seen. As Carl said, it was a good soaring day, which meant turbulence for us.
We decided to go to Chehalis for lunch as there weren't many alternatives. We had intended to start with a turn around Mt. Pilchuck, but the top of the mountain was surrounded by clouds, so we just went on to Chehalis.
We wanted to be above the clouds to avoid the bumpy air under them. In order to clear the clouds we had to go to 6,500'. At Bremerton we change course enough that we have to either go up at least 1,000' or down. With where the clouds were it didn't look like down would work so we went up to 7,500'.
On the trip down, about 20 miles before Bremerton I had an Alaska Airlines 737 go over the top of me headed for SeaTac. We're skirting the edge of the Seattle Class B, so that happens with some regularity. Based on the direction he was coming from, he must have been coming from Alaska.
The big question was would we be able to get down in the vicinity of Chehalis. From that altitude it takes a while to get down, so planning ahead is important. Get it wrong and you have to back track to a point where you can get below the clouds and then proceed to the destination. The last satellite image that I looked at before departing looked like it would be breaking up. As we got past Bremerton though, it didn't look much like breaking up so I decided to head down and go below. The bases were at about 4,500' so there was plenty of room to clear the Class D at Olympia and be below the clouds. As expected, it was bumpy underneath.
The track log for the outbound leg can be seen here: https://plan.foreflight.com/s/track/6441FA75-5F71-459D-B5BE-E0397757830D
We headed back about 3:00 and it was obvious that clouds were building from the west, though they were also quite high. Once again, to get the smoothest ride we headed back at 8,500' and that was just barely enough. If we wanted to go any farther west we would have had to go higher. To do that we have to stay high for a while and go around the north end of the Class B.
This time, as I was a little past Bremerton and in the vicinity of Bangor I saw a C-17 that passed on my left about 2 miles away and 500' above me. It is odd, but there is a good bit of C-17 activity and often at relatively low altitudes.
The track log for the return leg can be seen here:https://plan.foreflight.com/s/track/303804FD-3BFC-43E9-8793-110FB5FB40D2
The video from that flight can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xotylc8U_rM
Saturday was right after the second rain even went through and the weather was really rotten for most of the day. It did clear up in the afternoon, but by then I had embarked on another project.
Since I won't be moving into a new hangar after all I decided to go ahead and clean and organize the one I have. I bought some Craftsman cabinets last year to use in the new hangar and they have been just taking up space in my Dad's hangar ever since.
This weekend I went and retrieved one and put it together. Not at all as easy as it sounds. I have one more to go and hope to have almost everything put away in cabinets. I hope to gain three things from this: 1) to make the hangar look cleaner and neater, 2) to be able to find things easier by having them all in one place, and 3) to keep them cleaner. I end up with dust, dirt and bugs on everything.
By the end of the day I was quite tired and sore and new I would regret it in the morning. I was right.
Sunday was a much better day. When I got up it was severe clear and remained that way for the day. It did get a little windy, but that is part of what kept it from being hot. Temperature in the low 70s and most everything green is definitely abnormal for August, but I'll take this over searing heat any time.
I decided that I needed a little landing practice. Now, I don't practice landings like most people. They just go round and round the pattern at the same airport and frankly, that gets a bit boring.
I went from Arlington to Eastsound on Orcas Island, then to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, then to Pt. Townsend, then back to Arlington. Maybe not the most efficient practice since I only got 4 landings in an hour and forty minutes, but it was definitely a lot more fun. Also this way I get the benefit of encountering many varied conditions rather than always the same thing.
What I learned was that I really need practice. The first one wasn't great, though the second one was pretty good. The last two got progressively worse. Well, better practice some more.
Here is the track log: https://plan.foreflight.com/s/track/1A1EC274-3614-4DA8-9A56-E20C270AE729
Here is some video I shot:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgCBaL7j2aA
Monday turned out to be another really nice day. It was supposed to be uncomfortably warm, and probably was in places, but was nice where I was.
We were planning to go to Forks for lunch, but in checking weather I noticed a NOTAM for the airport stating that it was closed. Only for a few hours, but right when we wanted to go.
We decided to go to Pt. Townsend instead. We hadn't been there for a while (like a couple of years) and were also planning to go through the museum. The lunch part worked out well, the museum part, not so much.
When we walked over to the museum it was obvious they were closed. There was a sign on the door stating that due to COVID the museum would be closed until April first. April first? Is this a joke? What year? The point was moot as they are normally closed Monday and Tuesday anyway, so they would have been closed today no matter what. I thought they might be open since the Staggerwing was out yesterday and they had the doors to one of the hangars open. Oh well.
Here's the museum web site: https://ptaeromuseum.com/
It says that they will be closed until Jefferson County enters phase 3.
After lunch we went out to Forks to see if we could discern the reason for the airport closure. In short, we couldn't. The runway markings seem to have been repainted in the recent past. There are a lot of cracks though, some with weeds growing out of them, so it could have been some kind of maintenance. The NOTAM had been taken down by the time we got there which was before it was scheduled to terminate, so whatever they did only took a few hours.
As I was departing I noticed that some people were milling about that Commonwealth mentioned in last week's post. I wish I had seen them before I mounted up, I would have liked to walk over and see if I could ascertain what transpired. They had a flat bed trailer with them, so I assumed they were going to take it apart and cart it off. As I was landing I saw the airplane on the trailer. I was hoping they would still be there after I got gas, but by the time I got back they were gone. I guess we'll never know.
Here is the outbound track log: https://plan.foreflight.com/s/track/F891E56C-13FE-4569-B15C-6FF9FCF8283D
Here is the homeward track log: https://plan.foreflight.com/s/track/5826A7EB-42A9-4C25-A285-7FF0511B1009
Check back in the future as there may be a video posted of today's adventure.
All in all, it was a really nice weekend, can't wait to do it again.
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