Olympic Peninsula Tour

Hop in and come along for a flight in a Mooney 252 from Seattle to the Pacific Ocean and around the Olympic Mountains. The area is one of the most isolated in the country, with only a few airports. Most often the area west of the Olympics is covered by clouds, but today we'll get lucky and have CAVU. Forks, WA, a town in the spruce rainforests on the west side, receives more than 100" of rain each year.

You'll see a few of surprises common to flying in the Puget Sound region on this flight. One is the only beach airport in the United States -- Copalis State (S16). If you go, bring your tide charts and make sure that it's in your GPS, because S16 is hard to find among all of the rivers and streams on the coast. Grab your sectional (or just a Rand-McNally road atlas) and join us for the tour! We'll start from Seattle and fly clockwise around the mountains.

Henry Hochberg and I left Paine Field, Everett, in mid-October for a VFR tour around the Olympic Mountains, having been blessed with a good, clear day to fly. The area was experiencing 70 miles visibility, though you'll see some low fog still hanging over the water. The fog was there at takeoff (around 10 a.m.) and was there still upon landing at around 2 p.m.

A temperature inversion put temperatures at 3,500' at 18 degrees C, while the ground temperature was around 10 degrees C. This put a rare smog layer over the eastern Puget Sound at around 1000' MSL. The air was smooth with the general flow was from the east, also unusual to the area. This was carrying some Seattle smog northwest, out the Strait of San Juan de Fuca. Prevailing winds are the opposite direction, off the cooler ocean water.

Images here were taken with an Olympus (no relation to the mountains) D-620 digital camera . Normal resolution is 1280x1024, though these images have been edited in their full version to 640 pixels wide.

Best regards,

Andy Czernek, aczernekATcomcast.net
Mooney Owner Events home.

Click photo for a larger image.

Tour pilot: Henry Hochberg, N52202. Now departing KPAE. Port Townsend's paper mill. Fog in foreground covers Whidbey Island. Downtown Seattle (BFI is right of the Kingdome, off picture). Mt. Deception, at southeast end of Olympic Mountains. Fog covers the Hood Canal. Navy Bangor submarine base on the Hood Canal.

Lake Cushman, one of the many reservoirs built on rivers around the Olympics. Hoquiam RWY24 -- with Gray's Harbor at high tide. Lana's Cafe is the lunch stop here. Wesport, WA -- the southern mouth of Gray's Harbor. Famous for fishing. Ocean Shores -- airport on the right, at the edge of Gray's Harbor. The old Ocean Shores airport -- now a golf course in the heart of town.

Copalis State -- closed due to high tide. S16 is the only beach airport in the U.S. Pacific Beach -- if you've come this far N, you've missed Copalis State! Destruction Island, harbinger of the rocky coast. Olympic Seashore National Park has several monuments to shipwrecks along this coast. Quillayute State Airport (UIL), an old Navy base. Provides access to Olympic seashore.

Ozette Lake, part of Olympic National Park. Mt. Olympus rises to 7969', seen here from the west. Cape Flattery, where you'll hear Seattle Center welcoming flights back from the Orient. Mt. Olympus, seen from the northwest. Port Angeles harbor, where logs are loaded for export.

Dungeness Spit, a five-mile long sandspit created by the tides. Lighthouse on Dungeness Spit. The lighthouse was once at the end of the spit -- but the sand extends by 18" each year. Protection Island, a wildlife preserve near Port Townsend. Diamond Point Airport, an airpark west of Pt. Townsend that sits on a cliff. Nuclear submarine on its way back into Bangor submarine base in the Hood Canal.

Nuclear submarine in the Strait of San Juan de Fuca. Note men on deck. Navy supply ship, with Whidbey Island in the background. Freighter in the Puget Sound about to enter an afternoon fogbank. Everett Navy base, with the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in port. Back at Paine Field, where Boeing builds its wide-body aircaft.

Last updated: 9/30/2009

Tour pilot: Henry Hochberg, N52202. Now departing KPAE.	Port Townsend's paper mill. Fog in foreground covers Whidbey Island.	Downtown Seattle (BFI is right of the Kingdome, off picture).	Mt. Deception, at southeast end of Olympic Mountains. Fog covers the Hood Canal.	Navy Bangor submarine base on the Hood Canal.
Lake Cushman, one of the many reservoirs built on rivers around the Olympics.	Hoquiam RWY24 -- with Gray's Harbor at high tide. Lana's Cafe is the lunch stop here.	Wesport, WA -- the southern mouth of Gray's Harbor. Famous for fishing.	Ocean Shores -- airport on the right, at the edge of Gray's Harbor.	The old Ocean Shores airport -- now a golf course in the heart of town.
Copalis State -- closed due to high tide. S16 is the only beach airport in the U.S.	Pacific Beach -- if you've come this far N, you've missed Copalis State!	Destruction Island, harbinger of the rocky coast.	Olympic Seashore National Park has several monuments to shipwrecks along this coast.	Quillayute State Airport (UIL), an old Navy base. Provides access to Olympic seashore.
Ozette Lake, part of Olympic National Park.	Mt. Olympus rises to 7969', seen here from the west.	Cape Flattery, where you'll hear Seattle Center welcoming flights back from the Orient.	Mt. Olympus, seen from the northwest.	Port Angeles harbor, where logs are loaded for export.
Dungeness Spit, a five-mile long sandspit created by the tides.	Lighthouse on Dungeness Spit. The lighthouse was once at the end of the spit -- but the sand extends by 18" each year.	Protection Island, a wildlife preserve near Port Townsend.	Diamond Point Airport, an airpark west of Pt. Townsend that sits on a cliff.	Nuclear submarine on its way back into Bangor submarine base in the Hood Canal.
Nuclear submarine in the Strait of San Juan de Fuca. Note men on deck.	Navy supply ship, with Whidbey Island in the background.	Freighter in the Puget Sound about to enter an afternoon fogbank.	Everett Navy base, with the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in port.	Back at Paine Field, where Boeing builds its wide-body aircaft.