Back in the Saddle

Finally, our plane is done with it's annual check and Bruce is done at the office for the weekend (it's Sunday) until Tues. morning. Our plane was down for 92 days, 21hours, 10 minutes and 15 seconds (but who was paying attention...I was!). It had even been two months longer for Bruce since he had flown so we gratefully shared this flight.

The weather was not clear but it was beautiful for flying as we flew away from our home airport.

We just did a short jaunt north to Scapoose (KSPB), "threading the needle" over Cornelius Pass. That means we shot between the small area between Hillsboro and Portland airspace, which allowed us to not have to communicate with either tower. We always monitor PDX's though in order to stay out of the way of departing jet traffic. For anyone who might recognize Portland from the air, this is looking east at the west side of the West Hills with the "antenna farm" (that's what the airliners call it when they call Portland approach) on the top. Downtown Portland would be just on the other side of the hills.

All in all, it was great to shake the rust off (pilot talk for getting rusty from not flying for awhile).

I am really appreciative of the fact that I have the freedom to fly and do it safely. I will never take a good trip with a good landing for granted. One week ago, yesterday, a small plane went down at Portland International. We have a radio in our hangar that we use to listen to local aircraft traffic, including Portland approach. I was listening while reading news online. I listened as Portland was talking to a pilot of a small plane (towers identify you on radar by your aircraft type and your "N number", usually on the tail of the plane), so I actually heard a couple of this pilot's calls. Then I started hearing Portland (PDX) telling the big airliners, that were approaching to land, to divert to the Newberg VOR at 10,000 feet MSL, instead of giving them permission to land. One airliner pilot asked what was going on down there and approach said that they had lost a small plane (and he said the type, so I knew who he was talking about) on radar and were waiting for it to show back up on final or taxing on the ground. My heart stopped. Granted, the fog was thick and PDX was giving RVR's ("runway visual range" - how far down the runway you can see) to approaching traffic. One airliner that was taxing responded to PDX telling him where to turn off the runway, with "I would if I could see it". All in all this poor pilot was trying to land in category 3 IFR conditions, with 600 ft. visibility on the ground. Vertical visibilty was 100 ft. and this plane and pilot required a 200 ft. vertical visibility in order to see the runway before touchdown. The tower couldn't see that the small private plane coming in on final, on a missed approach, had stalled at about 500 ft. and hit the ground and burst into flames. There was nothing, I mean nothing left of the plane. The airport was shut down until emergency vehicles could locate the dust of the debris. A sad, sad loss. Without being disrespectful to the pilot, because I don't know what was going on in the cockpit or his head, there are so many other things that could have been done, outwardly, to avoid this tragedy. I know the pilot's name and where he lived and I heard his final words before he crashed and my heart aches for the wife and family he left behind. Rest in peace Richard, and may God comfort those you left behind.