Back in the Sky (at last!)

I had a great flight this evening. The weather has cleared out leaving blue skies and very little wind. The sun doesn’t set until after 8, so there’s plenty of time at the end of the day to make a plan and go for a flight.

Today I left Boeing Field (KBFI) around 6 and did a little airwork over Vashon Island before making a landing at Wax Orchards (WA69)– a lovely grass runway surrounded by pasture and lined with fruit trees. This is my favorite place to practice landings. There’s a nice image on GoogleEarth, but it was taken before the orchard was planted. You’ll just have to imagine the trees lining the runway.

From Wax I was off to Tacoma Narrows (KTIW), located just to the west of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The bridge is visible in the airport photo but what’s missing is the brand new suspension bridge being built right next to it. They’ve completed the caissons and are now in the process of stringing the cables between them. It’s a massive project – an obvious checkpoint on the downwind for landing. The view of the jobsite from the sky provides a sense of scale that the project webcams can only hint at from the surface (you can find them at wsdot.wa.gov/projects).

The other fun thing about KTIW is that it’s perched on a cliff nearly 300’ above the water. Landing to the north goes like this: call the tower from the south end of Vashon Island and enter a right-pattern downwind, cross over the suspension bridges and keep going to turn base out over the water, then turn in on final to land at the top of the cliff. (Taking off to the south is even better as the land drops out from under the plane as you soar into the sky!!)

As I headed back north from KTIW I waggled my wings for my niece and nephew who were keeping an eye out for a yellow plane just before bedtime. Then back to Boeing Field where the heavies were heading out for the night shift. I landed after a UPS 767 took off (leaving plenty of room for wake turbulence) and just before a DHL 767 took the runway. Those planes are absolutely mammoth compared to the J3 Cub!

In all, it was a really great flight. It feels good to be back up in the sky after so many gloomy days and way too much navel-gazing. And I find myself really glad, once again, that the Flying Fish thought up the Big Adventure that convinced me to get my pilot’s license.