21 December, 2002
Before the trip I filed my first flight plan ever, which made me just a lettle nervous about talking to the briefers. The task was made much easier with a form that helped me remember what to say. It also helped that I was doing it over the phone, on the ground, and only had to do one thing at once. We preflighted and I found a little water in the sumps- we drained that out and topped the tanks off. Oil was good, for a change. We took off as normal and headed southwest, opening the flight plan after takeoff. We tracked the radio beacon towards Astoria until we had to go around clouds- that made us miss our first checkpoint. The second one appeared on schedule. The day was cloudy with a high overcast layer so we stayed at 3,000 feet instead of the proposed 4,500.
It was really pretty, flying over the hills and green forests among wispy clouds. There was a bit of snow in the hills. No other planes that I could see and precious little radio traffic. Nice smooth air too. It was kind of hard keeping the plane on course and looking at the chart and looking for checkpoints and writing things on the clip board... after a while the attitude indicator began giving false readings. This wasn't a big problem though. Flying between layers of cloud, we crossed some low mountains and made it to the mouth of the Columbia river. It sparkled like the ocean- so wide! I also got my first good look at the Pacific Ocean from a plane. I announced my position on the radio and flew to the small, untowered airport wich had an elevation of about fifteen feet above sea level. We looked for a windsock but it was so small and well camouflaged we didn't find it till we landed. We made a fairly normal? approach and landed, taxiing to the combination flight school and restaurant.
I saw a plane that looked eerily like Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra parked nearby. We found out later that it was a twin Beech, but it felt like my spiritual mentor was welcoming me. The sun came out and the ocean was sparkling in the distance- a high arched bridge graced a quiet town nearby. Not a soul was on the tarmac. I don't even remember hearing birds. We shared the airport with only one other craft, a helicopter. The place seemed almost frozen in time. We secured the plane and went to the tiny building by the parking area.
Walking in, we saw a couple of people about to leave and one guy behind the counter. He was friendly and asked our names. I asked if he took debit and he said that he took "cash, check, and IOUs." He was serious about the IOUs. We ordered clam chowder and juice, and were served the homemade food on real plates with real silverware, by the owner no less. We ate while looking out the window, watching the sky with a pair of binoculars thoughtfully provided. The lunch counter was attached to what appeared to be a flight school with one lonely shirt scrap on the wall... along with aviation photos, a propeller, and some model biplanes. After lunch we commandeered the office and filed a flight plan for the return trip.
I checked the plane for trouble and we went to the runway... I announced us to Traffic at large and we left. There were some clouds in our way so we decided to climb over them. We went to 6,500 feet. Boy, do I ever love it over those clouds. Beeg puffy white ones that were a landscape in their own right. We had the radio beacon to guide us and I could see occasional bits of land, so I didn't worry about getting lost. Maybe I should have worried- I could feel my instructor getting a bit tense- but right about the time we needed one, we came upon a big hole that we could drop through. That was when I learned the proper use of the forward slip. I'd been wanting to learn that trick anyway! We dropped about four thousand feet in a scant few minutes and my ears were NOT happy. I had a cold that day, and the high altitude had taken it away- going down again made it come back. Ow.
We made a normal approach to Olympia airport, did the usual calls, and elected to close the flight plan by phone after landing. I'd had enough of the radio. My pattern wasn't the best but I know why and resolve to do better next time. My taxiing was not stellar either- and at one point I got my responses mixed up and added power when I should have reduced it. When I parked I ran over the tiedown rope too- but my landing, at least, was smooth and good, almost a full stall. That I can be proud of. We closed the flight plan and the rest is history.
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