John & Anne Wiley

Our grand North by Northwest Adventure ended just before 9pm last night as we glided down over the familiar hills of home toward the twinkling lights of Santa Barbara. Too bad we couldn’t get a photo of that to share, but it would be very difficult to do technically and couldn’t begin to capture what we saw much less what we felt!

What I can offer though, are a few of the least smoky pix of our passage from Medford. ATC kindly cleared us for left departure over town, so I snapped Medford Air where the plane that landed as we took off was parking right where we’d just been.

0777 Medford Air Services

The old four-engine tanker on public display lower-left is where we stood in the dark waiting for a taxi to our hotel Saturday night. To the right of the tail is a yellow X and just above that is the dark-colored plane parking where we’d been. There are several other interesting planes at M.Air, including a jet with the tail blown off during an experimental fuel test. The FBO owner had been climbing through 3kAGL on takeoff when the aft section of the engine and part of the tail exploded. Somehow he’d managed to turn and make a safe landing. The jet is now inside the hangar with tail section and wings removed and a replacement engine waiting nearby. Pretty amazing to look at the remains of the old engine and contemplate what that was like for the pilot!

Climbing over the ridge past Ashland we spotted Shasta, but the smoke in that direction (and for nearly the entire remainder of our flight) was so thick the pix are horrible. Close by though was this rock outcrop I call the Cowboy Hat.

0786 Pilot Rock

Seems like gMaps calls it Pilot Rock but I still like Cowboy Hat better from this angle. 🙂

Turning away from I-5 toward the coast our ride got smoky and lumpy for a while. Well out into the Marble Mountain/Six Rivers area something fascinated me about this settlement on a bend in the Salmon River.

0787 Salmon River

I like to imagine people standing on those shores hauling a Winter supply of fish ashore for smoking. Think there’s any chance that salmon still make it up this river, or is the name a sad reminder of the era before “progress” came to the CA/OR border area?

The second-least smoky area we flew that day was Shelter Cove. We’d thought about stopping there for lunch, but had left Medford later than planned and the weather was iffy. The strong wind blowing us South was smooth up here, but promised an interesting landing if we tried that. The low clouds zipping South a mile or so offshore could also rush in to prevent our continued flight as they were already doing for countless pilots we heard on the radio around Arcata.

0802 Shelter Cove

Trying to imagine how a place so very exposed to the ravages of the deep Pacific could provide “shelter,” I finally spotted the nook with a small breakwater near the center-bottom of this pic (click to enlarge). Notice how the current is running North along the shoreline into the distance while the prevailing wind typically blows strongly to the South. Interesting place to operate boats and planes. We were up at probably 8-9000 feet to provide ample landing alternatives for the forest crossing, so even the relatively light haze here is pretty noticeable. A few miles away toward the South the smoke hung in an orange pall.

It was nice to see so many large vineyards welcoming us home to CA, and this one on a hillside East of Healdsburg offers some interesting shapes as rows of different grape varieties follow the contours.

0815 Hillside Shapes

After deciding not to stop at Santa Rosa as we had on a previous flight, we tried something new by nipping into the little “Skypark” at Sonoma. With the pickup loaned us by the airport manager we took a very short tour into town and parked at the picturesque main square.

0819 Sonoma City Hall

Across the street behind me is the Basque Cafe & bakery where we not only found a very good sandwich, but a variety of exceptional cookies at $1 each. My fav is the chewy chocolate. Anne bought a loaf of their bread to share with Nancy (unless we eat it all today!).

0822 Basque Cafe

That’s it on the right, and behind is an arcada with lots more shops. Now if you’ve never tasted Basque food I hope you get the chance. The best meal we ever had was at La Taverna Basque in St. Jean de Luz, France. This bakery has kindled my desire for more actively seeking out Basque eateries!

Takeoff with nearly full fuel on the short runway with strong crosswind and trees at both ends was interesting. We put considerable trust in Tripp to make it relatively effortless, and she did. It would have been impossible with Flash, even at a comparable portion of gross weight (which would have been hundreds of pounds less). Listening on frequency and announcing our position before and during takeoff but hearing no other calls, my hope was that no other aircraft were operating near the airport. Imagine our surprise then to see a WWII era P-40 doing loops half a mile from the airport at 2kAGL! Never did manage to get a response from it, and once it looked as if we were a mock target. I assured Anne that the pilot surely must notice us, and was both highly skilled and motivated to take good care of what is probably a million dollar airplane. Needless to say, I climbed at full power until well away from Sonoma.

This brings us to the last decent photo of our trip, passing the Vallejo area. Since childhood I’ve always found it intriguing to look at the rows of mothballed ships moored just out of view at the top-left of this photo.

0825 Vallejo Area

The entire bay off to the right was covered with low clouds, so we climbed high and to the East. This put us somewhat in the way of airlines descending into the Bay Area, so we added some entertainment for ATC. One jet was ordered to descend below our path but did it too gently, so ATC told them to hold 500′ above us and warned us of possible wake turbulence. Though he told us where to look for each other for extra safety, neither plane could spot the other until I heard the annoyed airline pilot remark to ATC that he had an “RA” (presumably the “A” has to do with Avoidance). I tilted up our wing in time to finally spot him 500′ higher initiating an abrupt turn and climb. It was reassuring that all of us were taking the proper precautions, and that we also had benefit of the “Required Avoidance” computer in the airliner. In a few years we’ll also have the new GPS-based “next gen” system being implemented by the FAA. I hope flying can always be this safe, and still be so much fun for VFR flyers like us. Every time I hear some pour soul following strictly-defined IFR lines in the sky, I’m glad again to have chosen to use the funds required to earn that IFR license – flying freely around the continent VFR instead. It will also be nice when playful P-40s like our Sonoma companion have automatic GPS next gen info on our location and vice versa.

So today we’re resting, beginning to clean and unpack, and already casually talking about where we might go next. When fires abate and weather looks good, we’re eager to visit CO and get back up to OR & WA. Later in the Fall we hope to visit the other remaining continental U.S. state we haven’t seen: Arkansas. Further in the future is probably renting a plane in HI, and maybe somehow finding a way for Tripp to see Europe (maybe across the Aleutians?). For now, we have another trip to remember and dream about and an updated map of states & provinces we’ve landed in.

States & Provinces Flown