We’re off on a day trip! We throw the dart at the map and Pacific City airport comes up! It looks like a great day trip location due to its proximity to the beach and restaurants. The runway is 1860 feet and knowing the weight and balance for our new plane it seems like it should work. We fly down in a little over an hour but we got a later start and we land after noon. If we want to get back before dark we don’t have too long to eat and play. We walk to the Grateful Bread Bakery and grab a quick bite before heading to the sand to play. The sand dunes are very soft and it is difficult for the little dude to walk. We load back up and take off. This is only the little dudes 3rd flight so he is sitting behind us in the 2nd row. 2 things surprised us about this trip.

1. We are now setting our personal runway minimums to 2500′. (Yes, all flight planning, weight/balance and take off data were calculated, and there was enough calculated runway, but one cough with the engine would not have a pleasant result to the takeoff roll.)

2. Little Dude is totally capable of flicking the emergency exit window and making it pop open in flight. Number 2 was terrifying! We are only about 10 minutes north of the airport, climbing through 7,000′ when a loud whoosh went though the cockpit. Mama and Papa pilot both looked backwards and to our surprise the window opened to the ventilation stop! Mama pilot tired to pull it closed but that wasn’t going to happen. We looked at the GPS and landed at the next airport KTMK. Thankfully the window did not pop all the way open! Aviate, Navigate, Communicate, and we landed safely.  Once on the ground we were able to close the window. We asked the line man for duck tape to secure the latch to the window so curious little fingers could no longer wonder near the latch.  We have since installed the inboard 3rd row seat to further prevent this situation from arising again. The high point of the unplanned landing was that we learned Tillamook has a nice airport with fenced off camping on site for pilots. We may go back there, but never again to KPFC.