Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

I haven’t done much flying lately. We were on a family vacation for a week involving a sailboat rather than the plane. That combined with some really cruddy weekend weather lately has conspired against me.

Finally on Sunday I was able to go flying. The clouds didn’t look too friendly, but were supposed to burn off. I met Jim Piavis down at Thun Field for lunch. That’s only about 20 minutes away, so I messed around a bit on the way down. Showers kept threatening, but never hit us. Clouds never did clear up… until Monday. Better a little flying than none at all.

I have about 60 hours on the plane now. Almost time for the next oil change. The FSDO is giving me a little trouble getting my Repairmen’s Certificate, but I think we’ll have it ironed out this week. I don’t really need it until March anyway.

After a few days of working too late, I was finally able to get Mom up for a flight today. We went down and around Mount Rainier.

The NW side of the mountain was a little cloudy, but it cleared up nicely on the other side. Very bumpy for must of the way around, but Mom seemed to enjoy herself.

Saw this very cool maze replica of the Washington State quarter carved into a field (corn maybe?) just SE of Lake Tapps. It’s near the bottom left corner of the picture.

Our daughter was staying with her grandparents, so it was time for Mom and Dad to have some fun. A flight down to the Evergreen Museum at McMinnville, Oregon was a great destination.

Julie got a couple shots of Boeing’s 737 Renton plant from the pattern.

Mount Rainier was playing hide and seek behind the clouds. The layer at 5000′ was scattered, so we stayed above it until we got close.

The Spruce Goose was huge and cool, but this museum is chock full of cool stuff. Even just the row of various combustion and jet engines was cool.

This is the door near the nose of the Spruce Goose where they apparently dropped anchor. Note the sign above the door. Cool.

Had lunch at the museum, hopped the shuttle back, and had an uneventful flight back.

Short final at Renton. The C-17 flying over the Seafair hydroplane race course was clearly visible over 5 miles away, but unfortunately didn’t show up in the picture very well.

Highly recommended day trip!