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Even the big boys have fun once in a while

I'm still waiting for my engine to be re-installed on my plane so, in the meantime, I rented a 172 this past Saturday to keep my hand in and make sure I didn't get too rusty. Because it had been long enough since I'd rented a plane from Snohomish Flying Service, I had to take an instructor with me. While the FAA has no problem with me hopping in a 172 and taking it up, SFS has their own currency requirements driven, I suspect, mostly by insurance requirements. Other than the added cost, though, I didn't mind as it gave me someone to talk to and share stories with as we were flying around.

While we were up there, something pretty cool happened. After we took off we headed southeast toward Snoqualmie Falls at about 3000 feet. We flew past the falls then turned around and headed back. This plane, N734LQ, is equipped with a Garmin GTN 650 GPS navigator with ADS-B In, so it can display nearby traffic. Ross, the instructor, noticed an interesting-looking plane heading in our general direction. It turned out to be a Boeing 737 MAX 10 and it was flying just above our altitude, a couple miles off to our left, heading the opposite direction. Neither of us had ever seen an airliner flying around that low unless it had just taken off or was about to land. It did a loop over the Snoqualmie area, then headed off to the north.

At the time, we assumed it was performing some sort of test flight. However, after I got home and posted about it to the Flights Above the Pacific Northwest group on Facebook, other group members responded with the answer. It was doing a fly-by over The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge where the 2022 Boeing Classic golf tournament was being held. If I'd known it was going to be doing that, I probably would have remained clear of the area. As it was, I don't think we interfered with their flight plan. At least I hope not.

Here's the track of their flight from FlightAware. You can see where they were flying a holding pattern before heading in for the fly-by.



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