Sunday, November 9, 2008

Seattle - Tacoma - Bowerman / Cessna 182RG II (N7109V) / VFR

I “bought” a new Cessna that I've decided to base in the great Pacific Northwest (at least initially), and I took it out for a spin today with a couple of passengers. We started at Seattle-Tacoma International airport, the big Class B in the region. The weather was very cloudy and it was raining lightly, which is not unusual for KSEA. We were directed to 16L for an immediate departure and told to stay at or below 1500 feet. After flying the runway heading for a while, I turned to the west and flew over Vashon Island (sounds like a German clothing store!), then turned towards Tacoma Narrows and made straight in for runway 17.

After refueling and changing passengers (three off, two on), I taxied back out to 17 and we were off again, this time to Bowerman on the coast. I headed for the Mason County NDB, then onto V27 to Hoquiam. At about 10 DME, I made my descent straight in to Bowerman.

The clouds were really low; even at 2500 I was too close so I dropped another 500 feet (most of the terrain is nearly at sea level in this area). Very complex weather. For some reason this made me feel cozy inside the aircraft. The light was almost gone from the sky by the time we arrived at Bowerman.

I've also bought still another C182 that I've based at Teterboro, in case I want to fly around New York.

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