ScottSchmidt

ScottSchmidt

Well Known Member
Hello all, just wanted to get any advice for flying in the San Juan Islands.
I'm leaving tomorrow and will be staying at a cabin we rented for the weekend.

My plan is to visit Friday Harbor for food and if we want to eat out but other than that we don't have too many plans.

Are there other islands that are fun to fly to and visit?
Any suggestions would be appreciated. We will be staying there

So far the weather is looking amazing up there for the whole weekend and not so good here in SLC. Hopefully we can make it out of here tomorrow.

Thanks in advance and I'll get a good trip report typed up.

Not sure how this place is going to turn out but I found it on vrbo.com in the back of Pilot Getaway magazine.
She even has a golf cart that she will leave at the airport. May want to bookmark it for a future trip.

http://www.vrbo.com/128243

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
Eastsound on Orcas Island shouldn't be missed. You can walk into town for whatever. Rent a car from an outfit inside the terminal bldg. I think Orcas is more attractive and pleasant than SJI.

John Siebold
 
Thanks John

Thanks, that looks really nice. I have been checking it out and I will make that our first stop then.

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The approach to landing looks like it will be beautiful as well.

-Scott
 
Roche Harbor

Go into Friday Harbor and rent mopeds and drive around the perimeter of the island and have lunch at Roche Harbor. Lots of fun, great way to see the island. Don?t miss the grass strips on various farms around the island and if you are lucky you may see whales breaching on the West side of the island. You can also fly into Roche Harbor. Have fun.
 
Comments on San Juan Islands

We have enjoyed many weeks of visiting the San Juan Islands over the last 10 years. Something about being on an island I guess. I prefer to stay on Orcas Island, and do a daytrip over to Friday Harbor or Roche Harbor. It is short walk into downtown East Sound for food, however to really see the island you do need to rent a car at the airport terminal. A drive SE to Mount Constitution is worth it with stops at various places along the way for hiking makes for a good day. If the biplane guy, Rod, is out at the East Sound Airport, stop and say hi and checkout his hangar. Not sure what restaurants are open this time of year, but Vern's in downtown East Sound is on the water.

If you fly into Roche Harbor, be aware it is a private airport that does charge a $10 landing fee. They will track you down, at least they did me, via bill in the mail. I still go back, just pay the fee at the collection box at the nw end of airport next to tie down area.

Frequently, the flying weather will be better in the islands than Seattle. We have gone VFR on top because islands were reporting clear, and they were.

We will be back up on Orcas Island in August when we have a house rented. Have a good trip.
 
The whole Puget Sound area is amazing beautiful. Anywhere you go you'll enjoy.
Consider taking a ferry somewhere. You could ferry into Canada, other islands or the mainland.
 
tommylewis said:
We have enjoyed many weeks of visiting the San Juan Islands over the last 10 years. Something about being on an island I guess. I prefer to stay on Orcas Island, and do a daytrip over to Friday Harbor or Roche Harbor. It is short walk into downtown East Sound for food, however to really see the island you do need to rent a car at the airport terminal. A drive SE to Mount Constitution is worth it with stops at various places along the way for hiking makes for a good day. If the biplane guy, Rod, is out at the East Sound Airport, stop and say hi and checkout his hangar. Not sure what restaurants are open this time of year, but Vern's in downtown East Sound is on the water.

If you fly into Roche Harbor, be aware it is a private airport that does charge a $10 landing fee. They will track you down, at least they did me, via bill in the mail. I still go back, just pay the fee at the collection box at the nw end of airport next to tie down area.

Frequently, the flying weather will be better in the islands than Seattle. We have gone VFR on top because islands were reporting clear, and they were.

We will be back up on Orcas Island in August when we have a house rented. Have a good trip.
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I have been to Victoria island many times but never the San Juan's. $10, that is only 1.7 gallons of fuel, no problem. (pretty sad isn't it)

Thanks for the information, a car would work great for us to see the sights since we will be leaving Monday for home and will only have Saturday and Sunday to sight see on different islands.

I'll give them a call today and see if I need to reserve one.
Thanks again.
 
Mount Constitution

Another great stop to add. I'm sure glad I asked the question. I may have missed half of this stuff.

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Do it at sunset

Scott-
Would definitely encourage you to do a scenic flight an hour or two before sunset (probably 7:00-8:00pm) if the weather is nice. If the sun is out, it leaves Seattle and the Sound with a pinkish-orange-purple hue that is fantastically beautiful from the air.
Enjoy your visit.
 
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Consider a hike on Stuart Island. It's got a great runway, anchorages and a park with a path to a promanent lighthouse on the craggy north end.
The San Juans are very popular, so don't take a car on the ferry, you could end up waiting hours to get on one. Walking aboard means you can catch the first available boat. But you have an RV, so that's probably no big deal.
 
Well if you are that close...

Bring your passport and fly over to Victoria. Its a lot of fun and really easy to do. Its just across the bay from Friday Harbor. You need to file a flight plan as usual, and the you get handed off the Victoria Approach. They do one thing a little unusual where they have an inner and outer tower frequency at Victoria airport so you will be told to switch to the inner tower after talking to the outer guys for a bit. Really easy and they help you along the way without fuss. Victoria is a city onto itself and many times larger anything in San Juans, and well worth the trip. You also get to say you flew your RV internationally...:) Coming back, you need to call US customs 24 hrs ahead of time to get someone to meet you at Friday Harbor when you land back there, but thats about it.

As for the San Juans. Orcas Island is more beautiful that SJI and has more shops, bars etc. Also, if you play golf, Lopez Island has a golf course (9 hole) right off the runway there which is cool.

Enjoy.
 
Orcas is a great fly in desination

Here's a link to a report from our last trip:
http://www.brown-web.net/kayak/recent-trips/trips.htm

There is a lot in there about kayaking, which is what we went there to do, but a little about where we stayed, etc + a few pictures.

One potential problem with ORS is no IFR approach. The locals use the approach at Friday to get under the clouds, then run VFR to ORS. Seems like an ok plan as long as visibility under the clouds is good and the ceiling not too low.

Anyway, Orcas is a great fly-in trip IMO
 
Fuel

You may want to consider buying your fuel off the islands as it is usually more expensive there. (Must be trucked/ferried in). Anacortes (74S) is probably the closest, but also price Burlington (BVS), Bellingham (BLI), and Arlington (AWO). Besides flying around the islands whether it be for fuel, lunch, or whatever is visually spectacular!
 
Try eating at the Bowling Ally, Friday Harbor

believe it or not, they have great food at very reasonable prices.
 
Maybe you need some Sisters advice.

Scott -

I saw your plane at our strip. I am assuming this was not a planned stop. Let me know if I can be of any assistance (other than changing the weather).

541-549-8549
 
OR/WA weather....

Mike Macon said:
Scott -

I saw your plane at our strip. I am assuming this was not a planned stop. Let me know if I can be of any assistance (other than changing the weather).

541-549-8549
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It is not very good flying around here this weekend. As soon as some of this rain/low ceilings moves out we are expecting Thunderstorms.:eek:

The San Juan's often have better weather so maybe you could just keep moving north and then go over the Cascade range around the Seattle area.

A couple of friend are trying to get out of the PDX area and head to Sadona today. I don't think that that is going to happen.

At least we didn't have tornado's like they did in SoCal.:p

Kent
 
hughfi said:
Bring your passport and fly over to Victoria. Its a lot of fun and really easy to do. Its just across the bay from Friday Harbor. You need to file a flight plan as usual, and the you get handed off the Victoria Approach.
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On my FAA paperwork, restrictions listed include "No flight outside the United States permitted".

Does anyone else have this?
 
We made it!!

Hi all, we made it and had an incredible flight today. We did land at Sisters OR. last night and stayed at The Best Western there. The weather along the coast wasn't the best so I decided to stop in Sisters. It is a very cool town. I have been through on a motorcycle before. The manager even dropped by to pick us up. Unfortunately Sisters weather wasn't great today and we had to wait until about 1pm to leave. After we departed Sisters we had 4000-6000 ft. ceilings the whole way. Today may be one of the most fun flights we ever have had.

We flew north from Redmond today,past Columbia Gorge Airport, and took a left at Ellensberg WA over Stampede Pass. The have an ASOS on 135.275 to check the weather over the pass. We dodged some rain but the flight up and over the pass was incredible. It was then clear all the way to Decatur Shores.
We dropped off our bags and sister and brother-in-law and RaNae and I headed over to Friday Harbor for groceries. These islands are made for pilots although like someone mentioned before the CTAF gets pretty busy.

We are now back in Decatur with enough food for an army so drop by if your hungry.

We are going to travel to as many of the suggestions as we can.
Thank you for the recommendations. This is a beautiful place.

Thanks Mike for the offer. You have an awesome airport.

Have a safe Memorial Weekend!
 
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