Washington Coast at Sunset

Yesterday was a perfect day to fly...clear skies, calm winds (at least at the surface), and dry, stable air.

I launched in 75898 at 6 pm, with three goals:  (1) have a nice scenic flight, (2) continue to work on smooth landings right on the centerline, and (3) update my night currency (three landings later than an hour after sunset...8 pm last night).  So I planned a three-leg cross country, from Olympia to Hoquiam to Astoria, and told myself that I could only move on to the next airport after being very happy with each landing...and I was shooting for absolute greasers.  Just a little smooch of rubber on pavement and right on center.

The flight to Hoquiam was easy as usual...quick climb over the Black Hills west of Olympia, and follow state route 8 all the way.  There was no traffic--surprising on such a beautiful evening--and so I just made a straight-in approach to runway 24.  Greaser landing!

I used short-field technique out of Hoquiam to gain as much altitude as possible in the shortest distance, since my route westbound took me over Grays Harbor.  In the chilly air, the ship climbed like crazy and I don't think I was ever out of gliding distance from shore.  Vx (60 knots indicated) at full power feels like a straight-up climb, and is really fun.

From Hoquiam I flew direct to Westport across the harbor, then down the coast 35 miles or so to Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River.  Just as I was crossing the river into Oregon, the sun set in my 3 o'clock over a smooth Pacific, with layers of clouds far offshore hinting at nastier weather to come this weekend.

After another good landing at Astoria, I climbed above pattern altitude (1000') and then circled back over the field to gain some altitude for the river crossing.  By then (7:20 pm or so) it was really getting dark, and there are very few ground lights in the Willapa Hills on the Washington side, north of Astoria.  There was a good five minute period when I really didn't have much of a horizon, and I was regularly using the dusky sky to the west and the lights of Portland to the far east--plus the attitude indicator--to make sure I was in level flight.  By the time I leveled off at 7500 feet, I had the I-5 corridor, Centralia, and even Olympia in sight.  The trip back from Astoria took only about 20 minutes...at one point, my groundspeed on the GPS showed 148 knots, with a true airspeed of around 110.  Nice southwest wind in my six...just as forecast!  But it was still smooth as glass.

Back at the home patch, I did my three full-stop landings, and I'm now good to carry passengers at night until December 29.  The first landing was acceptable but below my standards, but landings two and three were as good as I have ever done, so it was a nice way to finish the 2.3 hour trip.

I talked to Seattle Approach and (mostly) Seattle Center the whole way for VFR flight following.  The controllers we have here in the Pacific Northwest are just terrific--competent, friendly, and always willing to help.

Mission accomplished!

Updated to link to video on youtube.

Sunset tour

Fall is one of the best times to fly in western Washington, especially in the evenings.  A big high pressure ridge has set up over the western United States and doesn't show much sign of budging.  It's producing clear skies, dry air, and calm winds.  But the other side of Fall is that night descends earlier...3 minutes earlier every day...until December when the sun comes up at 8 and sets about 4:30...

I've blogged before that I love flying at night, and as the days get shorter it will be all the more important to be night-current.  The regulations require 3 full-stop landings between the times of an hour after sunset and an hour before sunrise, every 90 days, in order to carry passengers during that time period (i.e., at night).  So I decided yesterday to get current and also enjoy flying in the cool, smooth air.

I've really come to enjoy what I call the "sunset tour"...fly north from Olympia, over Bremerton, cross Puget Sound north of downtown Seattle, turn south at Bellevue, and then transition either over Seattle-Tacoma International or McChord Air Force Base, headed for home.

That's just what I did last night, but to log some cross-country time (which requires landing at least 50 miles from the departure airport) I went to Paine Field, where Boeing makes its big airplanes (747s, 787s).    It is always a treat going in there, with all the freshly-minted airliners on the ramp...though it was a little harder to enjoy them in the dark.

To count as a full-stop landing, it's necessary to bring the wheels to a stop.  In a situation like this, where there is no intent to get out of the airplane at the destination, we do what's called a "stop-and-go", where the pilot brings the airplane to a stop on the runway for a second (think stop sign on a deserted country road) and then takes off again.  It was interesting landing at Paine, on the huge runway 34L there, and stopping with almost 7000' left!  That's almost 2000' more than the entire runway length at Olympia!

After Paine I flew south over the Seattle eastside suburbs...Kirkland, Redmond, Bellevue, and Renton.  Seattle-Tacoma was landing north, so I was given the Mariner transition from the tower...maintain 2000', and cross westbound over the approach end of the runway.  It was much harder to do this at night than during the day...the runways are almost impossible to see until you are right up on them.  But I know KSEA pretty well and it wasn't too much of a problem.  It was cool looking out the left-side window and seeing at least six airliners, with their million-candlepower landing lights ablaze, lined up on final.

1.9 on the Hobbs, a memorable evening of sightseeing and good radio work, and 3 months of clearance to carry passengers at night.  Anyone want a ride??