Arty's Ultimate Ultralight Adventure

For those of you who are scratching your heads over the title of this post...
Randy and I are scheduled to leave tomorrow, Sunday, March 29. (I had hoped leave today, Saturday, but he's still putting the finishing touches on his Carrera and won't be able to test fly it until today.)

I was in my hangar Thursday getting packed, when another pilot stopped by and pointed out that the weather forecast was for rain starting Friday night and continuing non-stop until next Tuesday or Wednesday. That's what I was afraid of when I first began planning this flight - not being able to get out of northwestern Oregon during March or even early April.

I looked out at the perfect blue sky and thought: "Right now is great flying weather." I'm a great believer in taking advantage of the moment. So I called Norm and asked: "Honey, could you skip your meeting tonight and drive down to Lebanon and pick me up?" When he asked what the heck I was talking about, I explained that if I left right away and flew south to Lebanon - about 70 miles - I'd be pretty much out of the forecast rain storms. Since I had a work commitment on Friday that I absolutely couldn't walk away from, I figured that I'd leave the Drifter at the Lebanon State Airport, come home, work on Friday, and then he could drive me back to Lebanon on Sunday so I could get on with the flight. Norm, bless his heart, is used to my shenanigans. He said he'd meet me down there.

So - I had a great flight Thursday. Lots of cloud build-up by the time I was actually in the air, but a high ceiling so not to worry. More than 20 miles visibility. Calm air. It's really peaceful flying by myself, and I enjoyed loafing along at 50-55 mph. My engine sounds absolutely wonderful, all my instruments are working. Life just doesn't get any better.

I decided to fly strictly by pilotage instead of using my GPS, just to brush up on my ability to follow a sectional. It was great fun, but not a real test since I'm so very familiar with the area. I also turned on my SPOT tracker so that when I got home I could look up my track during the flight. It works perfectly! I've now got a link to my SPOT tracking on my blog, so you can see my route and time from Sandy to Lebanon.

The FBO owners at Lebanon State Airport, Larry and Dana, are absolutely wonderful. They live right there at the FBO and the entire FBO looks more like a home than a business office. They have the first-ever S-LSA Hornet, which they want to use for flight instruction.

So Norm met me in Lebanon, we came home, I worked Friday and am using today to finish packing and do miscellaneous other things at home. (Good thing I left on Thursday - it's pouring here.) I'll begin the 2nd leg of my flight on Sunday!!!

Tomorrow begins the realization of a major dream. I can hardly wait.