Flying - Orcas Island - August 5th, 2006

I've been able to do a bit more flying in the past few weeks. I'm sure I'll be paying for it for awhile but decided that since the weather was so nice that I would try to get alot of flying in this summer. My mom wanted to go flying with me so I decided to take her up to Orcas Island to East Sound for lunch. My friend Jason went with my mother and I. We took off from Paine Field out of Regal Air. Paine Field is in Everett, Washington. This is where the Everett Boeing plant is. They manufacture the 777 and the 747 in this facility. I'm not sure which other aircraft they also manufacture here. So this can be a very busy place.

I've also flown out of Boeing Field in Seattle where the Seattle Boeing plant is. Mostly flight testing and the Military Aircraft division (developmental center)is. So I preflighted the 172 and we got under way. The picture to the left is a little old for this airplane. the stripes are now a couple different shades of blue instead of brown.

The weather was flawless, clear and 80 degrees. I requested a North departure and was cleared for take off from runway Three-Four Right (34R). Because of the flight restriction over the Everett naval shipyard I actually departed to the North East until I was over I-5 and north of Everett and then turned to a heading on a direct route into East Sound on Orcas Island.

I maintained a 500 ft per minute ascent up to 5000 feet. Contacted Whidbey approach control at the Naval Air Station and requested Flight Following. I was at 5000 feet and thier Class "C" airspace only goes up to 4000 feet so I did not need a clearance to fly over thier airspace. But requesting flight following let's them track me while I'm flying over thier airspace and at the same time I benefit the safety features of thier radar. Basically they are able to advise me of other aircraft traffic in the area. They inform me of othe heading, altitude and type of other aircraft in close Proximity. Every communcation they make have to I respond with an acknowledgement. After I am beyond thier 20 mile radius airspace they can either hand me off to a different controlling agency or cancel my flight following. I usually cancel when I'm over Anecortes and pitch down for a 300-500 foot per minute decent into East Sound. It is a really nice decent. It increases my airspeed about 15-20 kts. I level off about 1500 feet as we start passing over the island and East Sound and then determine which runway is in use.

On this particular day they were landing Runway one-six (16). This meant that I had to actually cross over the island to the north side and land from the north over the water which is a really fun approach.

What I did not know was that here was an Experimental Aircraft Association Fly-in that weekend. So once I landed, it was very busy. East Sound airport is usually a very quiet relaxed airport and is very fun to fly into. There was a temporary ground frequency so I contacted the volunteers on the ground frequency and they asked if I was staying the night or short term. We were only staying for lunch so they directed me on to the grass and I shut down.

Once we were out of the airplane we walked around a little and looked at some of the airplanes. But we were mainly up there to eat lunch and meet some friends of mine. When we walked up to the small terminal building at the East Sound Airport my friend Greg and His mother, sister and girlfriend were waiting there for us. I've known Greg since I was 5 years old. Not to mention his sister and mother. They are like family to me. Greg's mom, Teri, has property on Orcas Island. She is currently staying on the Island several weeks at a time. As a Kid we use to go up there and camp and stay on thier property in the summer. There are a lot of memories on Orcas Island.

So we had a nice lunch, sat outside and just relaxed. There was a lot of airplane activity which was really cool for me. After we finished lunch we walked a bit in town and had a coffee and some dessert at a small coffee shop. My mother had been wanting me to take her flying for several weeks. But the weather had not been cooperating. We were finally able to get a nice day which makes flying all that much more fun. Hopefully the rest of the summer will be liket hat and I'll be able to get up there several more times.