Spruce Goose, Arlington Fly-In and Johnson Creek with Friends and Family - July 2009

ScottSchmidt · #1 08-05-2009, 02:10 PM

I received a call from my friend Wayne in early June concerning a trip he was considering with a few friends.
The plan was to to leave early Thursday morning and visit the Spruce Goose the first day, Arlington Fly-In the second day, Johnson Creek the third and breakfast at Smiley Creek and fly home the fourth day. That sounded like too much fun not to go. Unfortunately, RaNae (wife) had to go out of town so I decided to ask my dad and brother if they could go which they accepted.

We all decided to camp this trip so we threw in the sleeping bags, tents and some chairs early Thursday morning before departing.
Since I was coming out of Salt Lake City, Wayne (F1 Rocket) and Gene (RV-7A) from St. George and Lance (RV-8A) from Oregon, we decided to meet at McMinnville, OR around 11:00am. Ron (Harmon Rocket) also came from Salt Lake but he did not have to leave as early with his speed.

My brother David ready to go with the gear.

We left around 6:45am and decided to make our first stop at Winnemucca, NV for a break and fuel which was a 1 hour 50 minute flight.
I have never seen Crater Lake so we departed Winnemucca direct to Crater Lake.
Crater Lake was very blue. There were some low clouds that made it extra beautiful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_Lake

Approaching Crater Lake

McMinnville was reporting 2000 ft. ceilings but as we got closer it broke up and gave us a very nice flight.

There were some good looking fields below us as we approached McMinnville.

ScottSchmidt · #2 08-05-2009, 02:12 PM

We landed and topped off the fuel tanks before we tied down. All of us landed with an hour of each other which worked out perfectly. We actually were able to talk with each other the last two hours on 123.45 even though we were spread across the Northwest.

A shuttle from the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum came over the airport to pick us up. It was awesome to see the Spuce Goose through the window as we drove by the front of it.
http://www.sprucegoose.org/

The museum has an IMAX, and two large museums. We spent the day in the aircraft side of the museum where we had lunch too. They have a wine tasting bar that looked great but didn't have time for it.

Evergreen Museum
Mr. Wayne Handley's Raven

As we approached the Spruce Goose we found that you could pay $20 to go see the flight deck. Wayne was able to talk them into taking all of us up.
This was one of the highlights of the trip.
There were two large engines on the flight deck which we assumed were for starting the big motors.
We each took a turn wearing Howard's hat and sitting in the pilots seat.

This is a shot towards the back of the plane. They have some of the original beach balls that Howard stuffed in the plane to keep it from sinking.

ScottSchmidt · #3 08-05-2009, 02:12 PM

Lance

Wayne

David

Paul (dad)

Me

Gene

Ron

Group picture in the flight deck of the Spruce Goose

ScottSchmidt · #4 08-05-2009, 02:13 PM

The people at the McMinnville airport are super nice. They have a courtesy cop car that made a few sounds when you turned but it worked out perfectly.
We went from the largest Experimental aircraft ever built to our Experimental aircraft and moved them down to the camping area. McMinnville has a camping area on the south end of the taxi way. It is basically just a grassy area with a tree. Watch out for the holes if you ever use it. We hand pulled the planes out after we spotted them.
There are no showers here just bathrooms back at the FBO but it worked out great.
We set up our tents and headed into town where we ate a great place. It was an old hotel where you could enjoy a beverage on the roof.

We woke up at the crack of dawn to get an early start to Arlington. It was a great day to be flying!

We all departed a few minutes apart and I called up Portland approach as I flew over the top of the airport. As we saw Mount St. Helens come into view I cancelled flight following so we could go check it out a little closer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_St._Helens

It has been over 29 years and it still looks like it was only last year in some areas. The way the trees are laying down is very impressive.

ScottSchmidt · #5 08-05-2009, 02:14 PM

We flew my Mt. Rainier on the east side of Seattle's Class B airspace before making our decent into Arlington.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rainier

Things don't always go to plan!
The NOTAM at Arlington was in effect for Friday and Saturday which required you to fly over a small airport south east of Arlington much like the Ripon/Fiske approach at Oshkosh. As we approached the Arlington the ATIS was saying something different and the tower was saying they were having technical difficulties. No big deal, we headed for the city of Arlington and entered our downwind leg.

They really went out of their way for the approach by planting all the nice flowers for us!

We landed runway 34 and headed to the camping area.
The grass was pretty brown. They said they have not had much rain that spring. I was really expecting some nice green grass being so close to one of the rainiest cities in the nation.

ScottSchmidt · #6 08-05-2009, 02:14 PM

We had a great day just walking around and looking at the other planes. There were not many vendors there. I was surprised how small that section was. They did have a great display of WWII motorcycles and vehicles though as well as an ultralight area that was pretty active. The airshow was pretty good too. There were a couple of RV's that I thought were beautiful. I'm sure there were more there but I did not have time to look at all of them. RV's dominated the airport that day.

We woke up the next morning and began to pack it up again to keep this adventure on the move. The plan was to fly to McCall, ID for gas and food and then get to Johnson Creek. We wanted to get going because the winds can start to pick up at Johnson Creek in the afternoon which can make it a little more tricky. Since we were doing all our flying early I don't think we ever had one bump. Every flight was a smooth as flying your living room chair. The flight over the Cascade Mountain range was beautiful but not friendly for landing.

We landed in McCall, topped off the tanks and purchased some hot dogs, beverages, s'more ingredients (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%27more), snacks and ice and headed to Johnson Creek. We flew out with Wayne and Gene was already there. Two of our five planes headed back home from Arlington so we were down to three at Johnson Creek.

Wayne and his F1 leaving McCall (he had to pull his throttle back to idle to fly in formation with me as I was climbing over the mountains)

ScottSchmidt · #7 08-05-2009, 02:15 PM

The winds were pretty calm and had no problems landing there. I was surprised not to see too many planes there this weekend. It was such a great weather weekend. The only group there was a QB group. (Quiet Birdmen)
We set up our camp, played Frisbee and enjoyed the night.

As we were sitting there watching the planes and talking about how lucky we were to be there we thought the only thing that could make it better would be some ice cream. POOF! Out of nowhere the Schwan man comes driving into camp.

The morning came early and again we were breaking down camp and getting ready to head to our final destination before heading home. The plan was to fly down the Middle Fork of the Salmon and then onto Smiley Creek for breakfast.

Breakfast was great at the Smiley Creek Lodge and we all departed to head home.

What a great trip we had. In less then four days it was amazing what we were able to see. As Wayne said one night, "These planes really are magic carpets." They really are.

Paul, David, Scott, Gene, Wayne

the_other_dougreeves · #8 08-05-2009, 02:58 PM

Inspirational as always; thank you.

TODR

tommylewis · #9 08-05-2009, 07:45 PM

Scott, the reason that you found those four tiedown stops open was our group of three RVs and one C182 left that morning after spending the week at Johnson Creek. We had flown in on Monday morning. The QBs arrived on Friday and we left on Sat morning. The following picture shows the group consisting of the Lewis's, Sutter's, Shemo's, and Moore's one evening. A great time was had by our group.

ScottSchmidt · #10 08-05-2009, 08:40 PM

I really appreciate you guys holding those spots for us but I'm sorry we missed you. It would have been great to hang out with you.

My wife and I were there in June with the fly rod trying to catch some fish. I had zero luck. I tried the top, the bottom and got skunked.
How did you guys do?

Just so you guys all know. The town at Yellowpine at Johnson Creek sells fishing licenses.