Spring showers bring May flying. Memorial Day weekend has arrived and the spring showers have been hovering around. They clear up just in time for Memorial Day. Its a Blue bird day and we have a friend in town so we must go flying.
We decided to go to the San Juan Islands, specifically Orcas Island. The East Sound Airport is located in the middle of the island and is walking distance from the small town. The airport has a notorious antique style Mercedes and on airport camping.
We last visited the Eastsound Airport in 2014, you can read that post here.
That was only our 3rd trip in the plane, now were up to more than 80 adventures. We see things different then we did then. We look for safe walking paths for the kids before we go and decided our hiking pack was the best for the stroll to the town.
The flight over was magical. Every time we take some one up you get the feeling of joy and excitement all over again. Our friend hasn’t been to the San Juans and it’s fun to show her around.
We land at the airport and the transient parking is packed. We waited for a spot, but there was plenty of grass parking on the south side or grass parking by the campers mid-field. Upon exiting the airport we walked along Mt. Baker Rd to N Beach road for lunch. The roads had nice wide gravel sidewalks, not the easiest for The Little Dude on the scooter though.
We settled on the Madrona Bar and Grill for lunch. Once inside it felt so familiar. It was the same place we had chosen to eat 5 years ago. Our lunch took a little longer than Plane Girl had patience for so we went outside to literally smell the roses and enjoy the sound.
After lunch we strolled along main street: walked the outdoor labyrinth at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church, enjoyed tide pooling by the water, then ice cream at the Clever cow creamery.
By the time we walked back to the airport 3 hours had disappeared – we were sure on island time! Plane Girl took a snooze in the hiking pack on the way back to the plane. We tankered fuel in so all we needed was to pre-flight and head back.
We had such a successful fly-out camping trip we want to do it again and Eastsound is on the list. We ran out of time to visit some shops but when we go back and camp we want to visit:
Stanley steamer tour of the Island
Whale tour
Printshop Northwest (awesome graphic tees)
The playground The Little Dude noticed on the walk
We headed to the airplane to finish a wax and decided to go for a flight. It was a nice day and we needed to get lunch anyways! We loaded up one car seat for plane girl and decided to go to KPWT.
I asked on a Facebook group a while back about airports that had playgrounds, I crossed checked it with airports that had restaurants and the choice was easy.
KPWT is only a 20 minute flight from S50. I quick skirt around the Seattle B and we were landing in no time.
The transient parking is on the west side of the field and the playground and restaurant are right next to each other. The Plane Kids LOVED the playground. It has 3 slides, lots to climb on , 2 rockers and an airplane. They could have played for hours.
The Airport Diner was also a hit. It is a typical greasy spoon but known for their fish and chips, so of course we ordered them and they we quite good.
This was definitely a home run lunch spot close to home; we’ll be back!
Its a cold winter day, but is it clear and we head to Bend for the weekend. We head out a little later than we want, but are still planning to land before sunset. We spend the weekend visiting Gramie on the farm, Skiing at Hoodoo. We have been to Bend so many times and love each and every visit. The flight is so quick and we landed and departed our usual FBO at the Redmond Airport, Leading Edge.
Its time for Thanksgiving and the weather has given us the opportunity to fly. We didn’t have any plans, but the weather has invited us to go south to visit family.
Papa Pilot and The Little Dude start the adventure in the Bonanza a few days before Mama Pilot and Plane Girl can join. The guys fly to Moab and explore for a day before arriving in Sedona. In Moab they are able to rent a truck and drive around the stunning red rock trails and rocks.
Mama Pilot and Plane Girl catch a ride on southwest from Seattle to Phoenix where we are picked up at the airport and we drive to Sedona. The plan is to all fly home together in a few days .
The weather in Sedona is cool, but warm in the sun. We enjoy our traditional american thanksgiving with Grandpa and Kami and planned to visit a few local attractions.
First stop: Out of Africa wildlife park. The park is about 40 minutes from Sedona in Camp Verde. The park is medium size and perfect for a few hours with the kids. We started by walking around a visiting a few animals. There was a tram that could take you around the park and there is also an African Bush Safari. We took the tram to the encounter pavilion where we met a snake and a few reptiles. Then we rode the safari bus where we saw zebras, antelope and giraffes. They provide you with lettuce to feed the giraffes so they come right up to the open window bus, it was very cool and the highlight of the experience.
Our second stop was dinner at the Blazin’ M Ranch. The ranch is about 30 minutes from Sedona and offers a chuck wagon supper and dinner show. We went after Thanksgiving so they were performing their holiday show. The ranch has a small old west town and wagon ride to enjoy before the show. In the museum are carvings by Jack Britt, He showcased many scenes of early life in america by mechanicalized wood carvings.
It was a short trip and we woke early to head back to Seattle. The forecast showed weather moving in the northern California area so we had a goal. 6 hours of flying with 2 kids and only 1 stop. We did arrive at the airport early; but we didn’t take off for an additional hour because of the delay for the fuel truck to arrive. Our half way point was Reno, NV. We were just in Reno in August and didn’t have the best experience at Atlantic Aviation but decided to give them another try. Well, our second experience was worst then the first. Its like we weren’t even there or recognized as customers even though they weren’t that busy. Our goal was a quick fuel and go. We knew we weren’t going to have time to go out for food so we tried Grubhub delivered to the airport. Huge Success. We were able to get lunch delivered all packaged in togo containers to eat in the plane. Once we finally were fueled we had our food and 3 hours till Seattle.
We made it. The kids were anxious during the 2nd leg of the flight and somehow we all ended up up front at one point. Its hard to ask small kids to sit still for so long.
We landed in auburn before the fog rolled in and we had a new record 5 hours and 42 minutes of flying with 1 stop as a family of 4.
It’s November, it’s Sunday and its sunny. This has to be the mildest winter we have seen in the Seattle area in years. In even more rare form is the Washington Coast is also clear today. There is only one thing to do: Go to the Beach.
It’s taken me (Mama Pilot) some time to adjust to the “beach” of the Pacific Northwest. The first time we took the little dude to the beach was Cannon Beach in Oregon. This Florida girl was ready: swim suit, flip flops, sunblock, it was summer, and of course I was going in the ocean. Well, if you aren’t from the area I will tell you now, you need none of those.
The Pacific Northwest beaches are known for being overcast with low fog and/ or cold and windy.
At home, we started to prepare for our day adventure. First step was to decide what airport to go into. Papa Pilot suggested Ocean Shores. So naturally I put HQM in the internet browser looked at photos, searched Airnav and put HQM in our local FATPNW search to see what people are saying about it. One comment mentions “it’s only a 5 minute walk into town.”
Then we get the real things we need for the PNW beach:
Baby Bag (bottle, milk in Hydro Flask, diapers, wipes, emergency kit)
Extra Bag (Change of clothes and extra shoes for both kids, water bottles)
Tula baby carrier
Bag of winter clothes (hats, mittens, coats)
Bag of simple sand toys and waterproof beach blanket
We get to the airport and load up our gear for the short adventure. Papa pilot asks me to load W04 in the Nav. Pause. What? I thought we were going to HQM? A little bit of a miscommunication there. But it’s fine, we have never been there and he has already looked it up, so we just go there and decide to play the ground logistics by ear.
I try to get some cell service to figure out the logistics before we get there, but being so close to the Olympics the area is mostly rural and the service is limited.
Once we land, I discover it is in fact a 40 minute walk to the beach. We don’t have the scooter or bike for Little Dude and his walking limits are about 15 minutes. We decided to do it. We find the best walking route:
walk out of the gate towards the golf course (walking along side of quite road on gravel) Albatross St NE
turn right at the golf course (walking through parking lot and on grass)
then turn left to go over the small boardwalk
turn right to walk down Point Browne Ave Ne ( there is a sidewalk or a large grass area to walk all the way to E Chance A La Mer NE or you can turn left right before the windjammer and walk on Minard Ave NW. to E Chance A La Mer NE
that takes you to the beach, and Murphys ice cream
I think there is a shorter way to just the beach, but the ice cream stop was motivation for The Little Dude to just keep going.
The beach was beautiful, sunny, not to windy, but cold! The kids had a blast playing in the hard wet sand amongst the waves. The Little Dude dug a huge hole and of course plane girl wanted to play in it!
While everyone had a great time at the beach, until it was time to leave and Plane Girl was wet and had to be changed in the cold. The Little Dude’s hands were cold and he didn’t want to walk back to the plane and whining ensured.
Not surprising though; our walk was purposefully the direction of the grocery store, so we could get more milk for Plane Girl and snacks for The Little Dude on the way back. The snacks did the trick and the walk wasn’t too bad.
The Pilots Shack and bathroom were both clean and maintained. The code to the bathroom was the first 3 numbers in the AWOS and once in the bathroom you could use the key to access the small lounge. In the lounge there were a few chairs, WIFI, guest book, and a bulletin board.
The board did have the number to a taxi and there were Uber and Lyft drivers available, but it is always so difficult to do that with the car seats. What do you do with 2 large car seats when you get where you are going?
We went to Bend in November, thats super rare. It was just a beautiful weekend and we literally dropped everything to have a 3 day weekend. Its Veterans Day on Sunday and we are excited to go see family too.
The flight starts as most with a pre-flight and small planning. We are pros at the leg from Auburn to Bend.
We spent the weekend with Family and we got to see the National Christmas tree roll through Bend!
It’s fall and were into marginal flying days. Luckily, this October has been nice and warm. Mama Pilot’s Great Aunt passed away on August 1st, 2018 and her celebration of life was October 20th, 2018. We’re planning on going to celebrate and Grandma Mary will be joining us.
Since it is October we instinctively bought airline tickets from Southwest for our trip. We knew the chances of being able to fly ourselves would be very slim, however, this year we were wrong. The crystal-clear days of Seattle summer linger and we have a window to fly each direction. The flight on southwest is 2 hours 30 minutes and to fly ourselves is 4 hours 30 minutes with a gentle headwind. But the time we save by not going to the major airport and dealing with security with two kids puts us about even on flight time with far less headache. The hardest part about flying on the airline is gear, as it’s simply not easy to get 2 car seats, bags and potentially a stroller from the car, to the bag check and then herd the family though security.
The Bonanza has spoiled us. Driving up to the plane with a car on both sides and not being restricted by time is the ultimate luxury when flying with small kids.
We leave our house and the weather is 10 miles of visibility and clear. However, as we get closer to the airport we notice the fog. The Auburn airport sits in a river valley and has similar weather to the Renton and Seattle Airports. We checked the WSDOT camera at the airport and saw the fog and took our time getting to the plane. It was so socked in, with less that 1/8 of a mile visibility, that one couldn’t even see the runway from our hangar. No big deal though. Even though we would be legal to pick up an IFR off the ground and take off zero visibility we decided to give it a bit of time to burn off. Papa pilot and The Little Dude taxi the plane down to the fuel farm to get fuel and when they return 20 minutes later you can see the whole runway. We do pick up an IFR just to pop though the layer which is less than 300 feet thick. We cancel our IFR clearance and head south with flight following.
The weather was so clear on the way down that we did a few turns around Crater Lake. The Lake is just beautiful. It was formed when Mount Mazama erupted. It is the 9th deepest lake in the world and the deepest in North America. There are no rivers coming in our out of the lake. There is an old hemlock tree “the old man of the lake” that has been bobbing up and down for over a century.
With the 5 of us there is no way we will make it straight to San Jose without stopping for food and the bathroom. Moving the car seats to a crew car and then back to the plane is just a time consuming and daunting task. We need to find an airport about half way with a restaurant or within very short walking distance. We find Klamath Falls! The Upper Deck was open until 2pm. It wasn’t very busy when we arrived and the food was fresh and fast.
KLMT: is a military base that is open to the public. It is the training base for the F-15’s in the Airforce. There is a terminal and and the FBO. We got a new sticker installed at the FBO and some gas.
After our lunch stop we finished our last leg to San Jose. We are going to Sunnyvale, so it made more sense to fly into KSJC, then any of the local satellite airports. There was a steady steam of jets into the airport and as we got closer to the airport we were told to make a 360 degree turn on downwind to sequence with the airlines.
After we land we taxi to Signature. Signature is one of our least favorite places to park because they provide very poor service to small general aviation aircraft. We did get parked and after about 20 minutes they brought over our car. We ordered a car from AVIS at the terminal and had it brought over since the cost was significantly less than Hertz offered from signature.
We stayed close to Aunt Helen’s home at the Embassy Suites. As you have probably heard me tout how much we love this hotel chain for connivence of multiple rooms with the kids.
After we arrive in a new place we always make a market run for milk and snacks to have in the room. We always pack some for the flight, but it’s always a good idea to have plenty of snacks with the kids. There is a Whole Foods and short walk from the hotel which also makes a super easy dinner option too.
The next day we take the kids to the park to let some energy out before the celebration. We find Central Park in Santa Clara. The park is wonderful to let out some energy. It has wide open spaces, 2 play grounds and a small lake with ducks and geese. The Little Dude loved climbing on the older wooden structure with the metal slide.
In the afternoon we Celebrate with family and friends and the next morning we go to wonderful brunch at The Table with our local friends. The weather is a bit foggy and brunch lasts the perfect amount of time to let the fog burn off. It is still foggy at home and we hope that it will burn off there before we arrive.
We decide to break up the flight with a stop in KBDN for lunch. Grammie has agreed to bring us sandwiches from Mama Pilots favorite, Jeresy Mikes and meet us at the airport. We have to get back home before the fog settles back in the valley.
Another wonderful trip is in the books as we land back home and beat the fog- barely!
A quick over night in Bend and we are back at the airport loading up to go to Tahoe. The plan is to fly into Reno and rent a car to get to Lake Tahoe. We’re staying in Incline Village and it is about a 45 minute drive from the airport. From Bend to Reno is a 2 hour flight, but the visibility is low due to smoke. We picked Tahoe since the air quality was good there; but new wildfires have started in the past few days and the air quality isn’t looking great.
After taking off from Bend it is obvious the smoke is thicker than we anticipated and we pick up an IFR clearance. We get closer to Reno and start setting up to execute the ILS approach. The area is very mountainous and the controller is quite busy. We end up high on the approach and have to be vectored back around. At this point in the plane the kids are done, Plane Girl’s nap is over and The Little Dudes iPad has died, we are low to the ground and it is hot in the cabin. This adds an increased workload to the approach. We get turned in back on the ILS and get the runway insight and land.
It is HOT on the ground. The heat of the tarmac and the smoke makes getting out of the plane gross. Our car is ready and we load up. We have a surprise for The Little Dude. Since we weren’t able to bring his bike (and probably won’t in the future) we’re planning on going to get a scooter for him. We stop at a local store and load up on snacks and drinks for the room and get a scooter.
We head to the Hyatt Regency Tahoe and still have time to go to the lake for a bit. We load up the wagon and play in Lake Tahoe before heading back to change into dry clothes for dinner.
Papa pilot has a unexpected work project and now has to fly back to Seattle early in the morning. We wake up the next day and mama pilot and the kids lay low playing at the pool and beach and enjoying the Hyatt kids activities. Hyatt always does a great job of keeping the kids active in their resorts.
Papa pilot returns from work in Seattle and is back in time for dinner. He has lived in the Reno area before and knows many places around the lake, plus it’s his birthday so he gets to pick dinner. We drive around the lake to the Bridgetender, a casual riverside restaurant with an expansive outdoor patio.
We wanted to do a few hikes on the trip, but are limited due to the air quality. We decide to take the Heavenly Gondola to the top. We find the forest trail and learn about the animals on the trail. There is also a kids club that the kids can do crafts, get water and learn about the area.
We head to Sushi Pier for lunch. The Little Dude loves “fish and rice” so its an easy go. When we walk in we see something; a sticker wall! We just ordered “A Plane Family” stickers and haven’t put up our first one yet. Upon leaving we place our first sticker!
The next day is all business. We are going to fly home, but not without a stop for a hike on the way to the airport. The Mount Rose trail head on the way. We plan to do the lower meadow hike, but decided to continue on to the middle meadow hike as well. It was probably a bit much for the kids as they got tired and didn’t want to continue. We were over half way and had no choice but to listen to the whines and finish the hike. We post photos of the kids happy on the internet, but no adventure is 100% happy all the time. Our hope is the good memories are better than the tough moments making them.
We stop for a quick lunch at our favorite fast food in and out before returning to the airport. We did call the FBO and request the mains topped off for a quick departure, but that didn’t happen. We were a bit delayed leaving, but it was fine. The kids were happy for the first 1:30 (that seems like their max these days) then they wanted out. We let Plane Girl out, then The Little Dude wanted out of his seat too. It was musical chairs trying to keep them happy for the last bit of the flight. The coolest thing was Plane Girl crawling into Papa Pilot’s lap, grabbing the controls and thinking she was flying the plane at 15 months. We finally got them back into their carseats and landed in Auburn. We have a few more days of vacation, but after 2 weekends of flying were going to take a break from the plane and take the car.
A week of summer vacation is upon us and we finally have a plan in place. We debated on where to go all week. Based on the wildfires in the pacific northwest most places we wanted to visit were undesirable because of the air quality.
We decided our first stop would be Salem, OR to take the kids to the Enchanted Forest theme park. We love the cute little theme parks that the kids can enjoy now when they are full of wonder. From there we the smoke forecast pushed us off to Tahoe for a few days where we could be outside and enjoy hiking, biking and playing in the water. Sound like the perfect getaway.
An unexpected added bonus for our fist leg is that our friends The Birdies were willing to fly to Salem and meet us and the kids would have buddies to explore and share the wonder with. We called the FBO, Salem Aviation and reserved a car that would hold all 8 of us the night before.
Salem is a short hour flight for us from S50. We have quite a few things packed since we will be gone for 4 days so we decided to change the configuration of the plane. We moved both kids forward facing in the middle row for better access to A Plane Girl and easier loading because instead of a stroller we brought our folding wagon. We thought the wagon would be useful at the park and in Tahoe since we can use it to get all the things from our room to the pool or the beach.
We have a pretty uneventful flight down. We love to fly north-south through Portland. Although, Portland Approach doesn’t like this so much since that puts us in the way of traffic arriving to the airport with their east-west runways. We get a few small vectors though their airspace and go to Salem tower. We enter the 45 for downwind to runway 3-4, and get cleared to land.
The FBO does have our car ready for us, but it is 4x the normal price! Unfortunately, the rental car company is closed at 2pm on a Saturday and cannot verify if that is the price or an error. The Ramp Agent, who was also running the desk, offered us the courtesy car (van) which seats 8 people. The car has a 4 hour limit, but they close at 5pm, so he lets us know to have it back by when they open, 7am and leave the keys in the box outside. We still haven’t decided on whether we will spend the night in Salem or take the short 30 minute flight to go to Bend, so it we might use the car over night and return it in the morning
The Enchanted Forest is only a 10 minute drive from the airport. After schlepping 4 car seats out of the planes and reinstalling into the van, we arrive at the park. The Park is small with 3 main areas, the story book village, the western and european towns, and the rides. We start the castle and follow the story book village. There are many small passages and windows with displays the kids are excited to see, each one is unique; some have secret tunnels, passages or slides. After the village we grab a snack at the Jolly Roger Inn that also offers a water show while you eat. The food is not earth shattering, but we noticed a lot of families brought their own food, which may be the way to go. After lunch and the show it’s off to the rides. The Little Dude is tall enough for everything, so we do the log ride and roller coaster. They also have some kiddie rides he can do alone. The park is literally in the forest so even though it is 90 degrees F outside, it is cool in the park. We only do about 3/4 of the park in 2.5 hours before it’s time to head back to the airport.
We unload the car seats and get the planes ready. We decide to fly to Bend for the night and the Birdies are heading back to Seattle.
We just returned from our first family camping trip and in true A Plane Family style, we flew there. Monitoring aviation forms, one location came across the websites frequently, Cavanaugh Bay, Idaho. There is good reason this is a highly praised spot with families who come back often in the summer and return year after year.
We started planning for this trip about 2 weeks out. Besides doing our standard weather and airport recon, we also have to determine what camping items are required to for our proposed 2 night stay. Mama Pilot hasn’t done a lot of camping, The Little Dude has gone on 2 small overnights, The Plane Girl has never been, so we are all relying on Papa Pilot for guidance.
We have a standard list of things we pack for our normal trips and have added another section for camping. We are pretty spoiled because Cavanaugh Bay is said to have: Toilets, Showers, Sink, Microwave, Refrigerator, Picnic Tables, Fire pits and Firewood and upon our arrival we quickly learn that this is all true. Maybe we really set out on a glamping trip?
Our plan is to meet after work at the airport and get going as soon as possible, but there is something else we need to pack which we never have had to make provisions for before- food. Even though they have courtesy cars to get to the store, and a restaurant we still need food. The restaurant only serves lunch and dinner, but we still need breakfast and at least one dinner to have at the campfire. Also, What camping trip would be complete without smore’s?
On the morning of departure, we can’t seem to get the food part together before time to leave to work for us, oh well ,slight detour back to the house after work. That will push our landing time about an hour. We don’t want to land too late going over the mountains and landing at a grass strip. We get the food, the kids and load up the plane.
The car is full with the gear and it is time to load the plane. We pull out the weight and balance and compute where to put everything based on size and weight including room to put the kids. We grab some gas and we are off. 1:30 ETA. Once off Auburn, we get flight following from Seattle Approach and fly over the cascades at 11,500ft. We were delighted to have smooth air for our evening journey across the mountains despite being 90 degrees outside.
We start to approach the Priest Lake area, load the CTAF and plan the approach. No one else is on the frequency and it is about 7pm in the evening. We fly over once above the pattern altitude then come back around at and approach runway 15 from over the lake. The runway is 3000 feet long and Papa Pilot lands so soft on the runway with plenty of room to go. We taxi back and find a parking spot.
There is parking on the right and left of the runway. The parking on the east side is usually for commuters and the parking on the west side and the horse shoe on the west side is for the campers. We really aren’t sure of the normal procedure when we first arrive and end up parking on the east side. We walk across the runway and find the campground, but not the showers and toilets. We then walk south to Cavanughs Restaurant on the north end to have dinner. We’ll figure out the setup when we get back, its past dinnertime now and everyone is hungry and tired from a full day of work, and a flight across the state.
A short 5 minute walk leads us to the lake, a beach and the restaurant. They are pretty busy and we have to wait a bit to be seated, but over all the food was very good and fresh. We head back to the plane and start getting up camp, and settle in for the night. We learn there is a dirt path through the horse shoe that leads to the showers, toilets, refrigerator and microwave. Then we head to the camp ground area to roast a few marshmallows on a fellow campers fire before calling it a night.
It’s morning and we all slept very well. The combination of the soft grass and great sleeping pads made for a far better than average sleeping arrangement. We have a 6 person tent so we brought the pack and play for Plane Girl. This is the one thing we didn’t need to bring. She woke up cold in the middle of the night in a fleece pajama and a fleece outdoor outfit, so we put her in a sleeping bag with us, and she slept just as well as the rest of us that way. It was a relatively quite morning with no one taking off early and we woke about 6am with the sun.
Time for breakfast. We packed Eggs, precooked bacon, cereal, milk, bread, ghee, jelly to make eggs and bacon and toast on the camp stove. It cooked up well, but we were happy we brought the cereal in the plastic cups for the kids. We walk over to the “kitchen” area of the campground and help ourselves to coffee and a wall outlet to charge our power pack. We clean up the breakfast dishes in the sink and call the care taker, Allen (208-659-8198), and request a courtesy car for the day.
Our plan for the day is to go for a hike, grab some groceries and ice while out and spend the afternoon back in Cavanaugh Bay to hang out by the lake and let the kids swim and play in the sand before making dinner at the campground. The plan went off without a hitch.
The town of Coolin is about a 5 minute drive, Leonard Paul Store has fresh vegetables, shelf items, cold drinks, ice, beer and wine, clothes, but no ATM. We didn’t double check our cash before the trip. But there is another store about 15 minutes away, Tamrak, has everything as well and is substantially more commercial. Tamrak also had ice cream, and the elusive ATM. We needed Cash for the Courtesy Car which rus $5 per use and $.30 cents a mile.
Dinner in the campground was so easy. We brought skewers for the hot dogs and smores, a pan for the pizzas and there was a grate to put over the fire to set the pan on. One nice gentleman, Tex, even came over with a plate of fresh cut up watermelon and cantaloupe for the kids. We hung up all of the wet towels and clothes on the plane. Everyone seemed to go to bed by 9pm on Saturday as a few of the pilots had mentioned wanted to depart at 6am.
And there is was, 6AM time for aircraft motors to light up and start rolling, and lesson learned- everything we left out to dry on the plane, was now wetter than it was the night before from the evening dew. In hindsight we should have utilized the back vestibule of the tent for evening storage. We heard 4 planes take off before 7, but The Little Dude didn’t, and he snoozed right through them. Time for a quick campstove breakfast before reloading the plane.
The environment was so relaxing and friendly with a few planes coming in and out for dinner or lunch. it seemed like most of the people who planned on camping were in by friday shortly after 5pm. We will definitely be back to Cavanaugh Bay soon!
Please keep in mind that this is technically considered a backcountry airport and requires a different knowledge base than standard airport ops. Do you due diligence and if you’re not familiar with this type of flying, mountain flying, and/or operating from an unimproved airfield, find an instructor and get the proper training. Conditions change fast, and it pays to be prepared. It is also especially important to carry an array of emergency survival gear and know how to use it when flying in remote and rugged areas. Aircraft Spruce stocks various kits and finding one to fit your mission should be easy. This is some of the most rewarding flying one can do, but it is also some of the most dangerous. Train, plan, and be prepared.
lessons learned:
We don’t need the pack and play
We need smaller folding camping chairs to fit in the plane better.
More ice needed in the cooler and frozen gel packs
Bring Cash for the car and donation box
Don’t leave things out overnight because they will be wet in the morning.
Double check power pack (ours didn’t hold a charge)
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