Vacation days

I took Monday and Tuesday of this week off from work. I was going to do so regardless of the weather but it turned out to be absolutely gorgeous both days. So, I did what you would expect if you're reading this and I went flying both days.

Monday's flight was a planned cross-country to Orcas Island. As with my flight to Friday Harbor the previous weekend, I wanted to scout out the route, so to speak, because I'd like to fly there with my wife someday soon for a visit. The airport is located in the town of Eastsound. It doesn't appear that there any hotels there, so it might be difficult to stay overnight without a car. If nothing else, however, we could fly out in the morning and spend the day there walking through town and enjoying the shops and restaurants.

After activating my flight plan, I took off and climbed to my cruise altitude of 4500 feet. My route stayed over the mainland until I reached Chuckanut, at which point I turned east and headed toward Lummi Island. I flew over Lummi, and headed on to Orcas Island. As I approached the island, I started my descent. I had been listening to the CTAF frequency, but there was no traffic at or near Orcas Island airport. Most of the airports in the San Juan Islands use the same CTAF frequency, so I could hear traffic at other airports, such as Friday Harbor. Based on what I heard, and also based on the apparent drift in my track vs. my heading, it appeared the wind was from the south, so I figured I'd land on runway 16.

Orcas Island has two large "lobes" connected at the north end by a relatively narrow bit of land. It would probably qualify as an isthmus. The airport is located on that isthmus and there is higher ground to the east and west. In particular, Mount Constitution is located on the eastern side of the island. I'd looked up the airport while planning the flight and, while there are custom procedures for departure, I didn't see any for approach. Since runway 16 has left traffic, I approached over the hill to the east, and entered the 45 while descending to pattern altitude.

The landing was relatively uneventful, but I discovered that the surface wind was blowing from the northeast. I landed in a mild crosswind, with a small tailwind component, but the wind speed wasn't high enough to present an issue. I was easily able to exit at the taxiway about two thirds down the runway. Due to the wind direction, I taxied to runway 34 and took off to the north. That runway has a noise abatement procedure where you are to remain on runway heading until reaching 1100 feet MSL. I did so, then turned to the east. There are a couple small islands that are wildlife preserves that I maneuvered to avoid, and then I climbed up to 5500' for the flight back. The route back to Harvey was the reverse of the route to Orcas Island, and it was a nice, uneventful flight.

In total, it was about 1.8 hours there and back. Driving there, with the required ferry ride, would take over three hours. I'm enjoying becoming re-acquainted with how much faster you can get somewhere by plane, even if you don't take a direct route. A possibility I've been considering since then is that my approach to the Orcas Island airport wasn't optimal. Coming down over the hill like I did was probably okay, especially since there wasn't any other traffic at the time, but I think next time I'm going to try it differently. I'm thinking I'll overfly the airport first to be sure of the wind direction, then approach from the north or south depending on the result. I'll do a bit more research as well to see if I can find a recommended procedure.

On the flight out to Orcas Island, I contacted Whidbey approach and got flight following. On the way back, the controller seemed really busy so I left him alone. I do need to try again at some point to see if I have the same issue as I did on my flight back from Friday Harbor where it seemed Whidbey wasn't receiving me. Given how well my comm system has been behaving of late, I still think it's most likely that, for some reason, my transmission isn't quite strong enough to reach them at that distance if they're off to starboard.

Yesterday morning I took my car in for an oil change. After I returned, I had lunch, then headed out to the airport. I wasn't sure if I was going to fly, but there were a few things I wanted to check, and I also wanted to chat with the folks at Snohomish Flying Service about some stuff. I wanted to take a look at the area they've set aside for washing aircraft. They have a concrete pad with a water supply and hose. I'd have to bring my own soap, and any cloths or other implements for washing. I will probably do that at some point this summer; my plane's getting kinda dusty.

I decided that it was so nice I couldn't stay on the ground, so I put some fuel in the plane and then took off. I made a trip around the pattern and landed, then took off again. This time I headed out to the south. I didn't go anywhere in particular; I basically tooled around the sky for a while. After about an hour and a half, I noticed that my iPad wasn't connected to my Stratux ADS-B receiver anymore. It turns out the battery on the Stratux had run out. Since I hadn't charged it after the previous day's flight, I now know that I can get between 3.5 and 4 hours out of it. I should take a charging cable out there and keep it in the plane so I can charge the battery, or just power the unit directly, should it be needed.

I was relatively close to Harvey at that point so I just headed back and entered the pattern for runway 15. The wind was somewhat squirrelly as I approached touchdown. I didn't like how it was going so I opened the throttle and went around. My next attempt was considerably more successful and I headed back to the hangar.

On the taxi back, as I was passing other rows of hangars, I noticed that one of the planes I was looking at is a Musketeer. After I finished putting Ariel away, I got in my car and drove over there. I took a wrong turn and went down the wrong taxiway, but I saw yet another Musketeer when I did. I looked both planes up afterward. One is a 1970 C23 Musketeer. It's a bit different from my plane, having only one door on the passenger side. The other is a 1979 C23 Sundowner. It's more like my plane than the first one. Both are C23 models, with Beechcraft changing the model name to Sundowner in 1972. Both have Lycoming O-360 engines rated at 180 hp and both have the same 2,450-lb. gross weight as my plane. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ariel isn't the only Mouse at Harvey Field. Hopefully I'll be able meet their owners someday.

Here are some pictures I took on the flight to Orcas Island and back. I didn't take any photos yesterday because I wanted to concentrate on enjoying the flight.