My Own Private Idaho

The weather forecast was for severe clear, light winds, and warm temperatures across the Pacific Northwest, so I decided to take a day trip to Cavanaugh Bay in Idaho. Cavanaugh Bay is located on Priest Lake, which is nestled in the mountains of Idaho's panhandle. The airport (S66) is a grass strip with on-airport camping, and it's across the street from a marina with a restaurant. It's a little far for the proverbial $100 hamburger, but I was alone and I like to fly.


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It was sweltering on the ground during the preflight, and I was happy to get in the air and up to altitude. At 7500 ft. it was a nice 60 deg. I followed I90 East through Snoqualmie pass, and it was smooth as glass. Passing over Bandera State airport I noticed several gliders parked on the field and there was a lot of radio chatter from the glider pilots. I'll have to get a glider rating some day. It looks like a lot of fun, and as I discovered on this trip, a pretty popular sport in Washington. After crossing the cascades I flew over the big windfarm near Ellensberg. There are hundreds of windmills on a ridge here that take advantage of the winds blowing out across the palouse. After that I crossed the Columbia River and headed out over the flatlands of Eastern Washington. Density altitudes were pretty high, so I decided to forgo fuel on the flight to S66 in order to keep things as light as possible on the return departure. As I passed South of Ephrata (KEPH)airport I heard more gliders talking on the radio, and then still more passing Deer Park (KDEW).

I turned North at Priest Lake (67S) and headed up the valley to Cavanaugh Bay. The normal way to land at S66 is to fly a right-hand pattern over the lake for runway 15 on the way in, and then head back out the way you came in on runway 34. The runway is hidden by trees, and you can't actually see it until turning final. The winds were calm so this procedure worked well. Runway 15 is an uphill landing, so you have to make sure to keep the yoke way back before touchdown. I'm not sure if 66S qualifies as a soft landing strip since, despite being covered in grass, it is packed HARD and it's a fairly rough rollout.

There were about four other airplanes at the tiedowns, each with a tent pitched by it. I parked and walked down the strip to the marina to get lunch. The lake is beautiful, and the BBQ was going, so I sat outside on the deck and ordered a diet Pepsi and a prime rib sandwich. There were a few people there, and a couple of boats pulled in while I was there as well. The food was good and after I finished eating I went back to the plane and got her ready for the flight back.

The first leg would be a short hop to Deer Park to refuel. Since I only had about 15 gallons in the tanks, 62H leaped off the runway quickly despite the fact that density altitude was over 4000'. There was a lot of glider activity at Deer Park, but they use runway 4/22, while regular GA traffic uses 16/34. I crossed midfield and set up for a left downwind on runway 34. The runway is 6400' long, so you've got a lot of room! I put her down and pumped about 25 gallons into her. Deer Park is sort of in the middle of nowhere, but I think there is an aerial firefighting outfit that bases out of there. On one end of the field was a PBY Catalina air attack plane. I believe this is the only one still in use for this role in the US, though she looks like she's seen better days. On the other end of the airport was a big Canadair CL-215 "scooper." There were a crew of guys sitting around, and I think they were prepping her to go to California to help fight the fires there.

After taking a few pictures I hopped back in to 62H and headed back home. The late afternoon air was smooth and cool at 8500'. I headed back through the pass, and since the winds were so light I dropped down to about 4000' to get a better look at the mountains. Unfortunately at 4000' the heat was up to 80 deg. so I opened the window to let more air in. Eventually I spotted Seattle in the distance, and I wrapped up the flight with a great landing on runway 34 at S50.

Overall a fun day and some great flying. I've posted a lot more pictures from the trip here.

Total time: 6.3 hours.

Father's Day Flight

On Father's Day I loaded up the family in 95H and headed out to Ocean Shores (W04) for lunch and some kite flying. This was my five-year-old daughter's first time in a small plane and, aside from the pressure changes causing her ears some discomfort, she really enjoyed the trip. My 14-year-old boy also had fun. Up until know he's never really showed any interest in flying at all, but he thought this trip was cool.

Unfortunately things weren't as wonderful for my wife. She suffers from severe motion sickness, and about halfway to W04 we had to descend to 1500' to get under the marine layer and it got bumpy. By the time we touched down she was ready to take a bus home. After lunch at the Shilo Inn she started feeling better, and she picked up some dramamine at the pharmacy in Ocean Shores.

After lunch we went to the beach to fly a kite and watch all the other kites. It seems there was a kite festival going on, and the sky was filled with them. I think some of them were bigger than 95H!

By the time we left at 3:00 PM, the sky had started to clear. A couple of miles out from W04 we were able to climb to 3500' and stayed at that altitude until passing Tacoma Narrows. The dramamine helped a lot. Not only did my wife not get sick, but she slept half the flight! Touchdown was without incident.

Total time: 2.2 hours.


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Wash Day

I went to the airport this morning for the Spring airplane wash and barbecue. About 15 club members attended and we washed all four airplanes, cleaned up the hangar, and repainted the parking guidelines. We finished off the day with some awesome smoked brisket that Bryan, the club treasurer, made. It was delicious. Pictures will be posted soon.

Update - not a Jaguar?

After doing some research, I think the airplane I thought was a SEPECAT Jaguar may in fact have been an Alpha Jet. There's a company called Abbatare Inc., located at Arlington Airpark, that sells Alpha Jets. Both aircraft share a similar profile, especially when viewed from above.

Almost Friday Harbor

The plan today was for my friend Tony and I to fly up to Friday Harbor for dinner. The weather forecast all week had been for partly cloudy skies with a chance of showers, so there was a chance the weather would prevent us from going. I kept an eye on things all day, and the ceilings were holding at about 2500 - 3000' along our route, so we headed for the airport at around 2:30 PM.

We got to the airport and I checked the forecast again, and things were still holding up and forecast to be VFR into the evening, so we started getting the plane ready. We taxied out to runway 34 and headed North.

Once in the air, visibility was greater than 10 miles, and the ceiling was generally between 2000' and 3500'. There were a few spots of lower hanging virga, but otherwise things looked good for the trip. In case the ceilings did start to come down, the skies looked fairly clear on the west side of Puget Sound. As this was Tony's first flight in a small airplane, I let him take the controls for a bit and make a few turns. He did pretty good for a first-timer!

We proceeded North to Arlington, and as we approached the field Tony spotted a camouflaged jet taking off below. I called up Whidbey approach to get clearance to transition their Class C airspace, and they asked me if I could identify the "fast-mover." I told them it appeared to be a SEPECAT Jaguar. We heard nothing on the Arlington CTAF from him.

Whidbey cleared us to transition, and so we headed West direct to Friday Harbor. As we neared Whidbey NAS, approach warned us not to fly directly over the airfield, so we slid a little North to avoid an overflight. A T-34 Mentor was up orbiting over the airfield. Heading out over the water toward FHR, the weather started improving greatly. We climbed up to 3500' and could see Friday Harbor just ahead.

The FHR ASOS was reporting 10 kt. winds gusting to 16 kts. directly across the runway. I set up for runway 16 and as I cleared the trees off the end of the runway on final things started getting squirrelly. There was a lot of turbulence bouncing us around, and as I approached the runway the gusty crosswind was making it hard to stay lined up on the centerline. The left wheel kissed the runway, but then a big gust picked us up and tossed us to the left, so I pushed in the throttle and went around for another try. I added a few knots on the approach and only put in 10 deg. of flaps, but the second approach was no better than the first. As discretion is the better part of valor, I opted to give it up and head back to Auburn. They have restaurants there, too. :)

We followed a reciprocal route home, and as we approached Arlington again, we say the same Jaguar we saw on the way up taxiing for takeoff. We didn't hear anything on the CTAF, and so I radioed asking for the Jaguar taking off to say his intentions and let him know we were above him. No repsonse. I don't know if he was NORDO (no radio), was on the wrong frequency, or just wasn't paying attention. In any event, he took off below, and I rocked the wings back and forth to make us a more visible target. He eventually turned off to the West.

We hit some more virga as we headed south, but then the ceilings went back up to about 3000'. It was a smooth flight the rest of the way, with an uneventful landing in Auburn, where the winds were calm. I filled up the tanks and we put the plane away. We drove to my house and stopped off for Chinese along the way.

Time: 2.7 hrs.

Thanks to Tony for all the pictures!