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EAA Chapter 105's 11th Annual Poker Run

RVTrumpet

Active Member
Last Thursday I checked my email late in the afternoon and found a message from Mr. VanGrunsven inviting me to ride along with him and his wife for the EAA chapter 105's annual Poker Run. Being hardly able to turn down that sort of offer, I responded that I was availalbe. There were seven airports on the fly-in list this year: Dietz Airpark, Lebanon, Independance, Scappoose, Seaside, Tillamook, and Twin Oaks. Saturday morning dawned clear in the Willamette Valley with promising conditions along the coast. We arived at Dietz around 10am for breakfast and for our first gambling card.

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Our next destination was down south to Lebanon.

The stagnant atmosphere limited the visibility a bit in the morning but mostly burned off later on. Although it did nothing to take away from the beauty of the Northwest Oregon landscape.

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With two cards in our pockets and full fuel in the tanks, we hopped over to Independance.

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Next stop was a straight shot north to Scappoose.


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When we loaded back up at Scappoose, the temperatures were already pushing the eighties, and it was after 12:00. Time to fly to the coast!

Saddle Mountain provided the perfect "Granite Compass".

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The correct way to fly an RV:cool:

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Part 2

Seaside Municipal was next on the route. The visibility was exceptional for the coast, and the cooler temperatures and the delicious food (thanks to the Seaside annual airport BBQ) made it even better.

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Lunch time!

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After lunch and socializing, we launched for Tillamook to pick up our sixth playing card.

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The beatiful Tillamook Valley.

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I snapped this perspective picture just before we left Tillamook. The stark contrast between the size of the Tillamook Air Museum (a 1930s naval blimp hangar) and the RV-10 is astounding.

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Since we still had an hour left before we had to be back to Twin Oaks for dinner, we flew down the coast towards Pacific City.

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One of the prominent landmarks along the Northern Oregon coast is Cape Kiwanda just north of Pacific City. It is literally a gigantic sand dune.

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Part 3

By the time we got down to Pacific City, it was time to turn homewards.

From our altitude, the coastal mountains looked to be covered with a lush carpet of trees.

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The visibility over the valley increased by the end of the day.

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Arriving at Twin Oaks around 4:00, we were in time for dinner. After a wonderful dinner and some socializing time, the annual tradition is to have a white elephant type activity. The way it works is the person with the best hand of poker gets to go first. It then goes on down the line from there in a descending order of poker scoring, where the last gift is taken (or stolen) by the person with a very low hand of poker. The participants this year brought some pretty cool stuff, from a case of oil on down to baseball caps.

Unfortunately at this time of year, the light goes away before 8:00pm. So we left in time to return the airplane safely to its hangar in daylight.

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Great Pictures!

I went to school at Linfield College in McMinnville, and spent a lot of time at the places in your pictures. They brought back some great memories. I sure miss that area...thanks for posting!
 
Good Job!

Justin,
Great write up!
Glad you got the chance to do it!
Good luck with teen flight II
Jim Frisbie
 
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