Pilot Life: Chasing the Oregon Coast with My Sisters!

My sisters are in town visiting this week and for the coming weekend, and today happened to be a nice day weather-wise, so I took them up for a scenic flight out to the Oregon coast as they've never done so before! While I have taken my sisters flying one at a time back in Utah, this was my first time having both of them along as passengers at the same time!

A fun sibling outing in N5174E!

After conducting pre-flight, we hopped in, got ourselves situated, and I got the engine started. Winds were calm, so I decided to taxi out to Runway 16. After doing run-ups and waiting for some traffic to clear out, I got us airborne. From there I turned out to the west towards Newport, our starting point for when we would chase the coast. I flew us over the Newport Airport before turning northbound along the shoreline. Needless to say, my sisters had a good time! My sister Ellen was in the co-pilot seat next to me on the first leg up to Tillamook and she was taking tons of pictures with her DSLR camera! My sister Cloe enjoyed the view as well from the spaciousness of the back seats!

As we flew up the coast, I made position calls over the respective CTAF radio frequencies for the airports at Newport, Siletz Bay, Pacific City, and finally Tillamook. While my sisters enjoyed the sights of the Oregon Coast, I flew the airplane and pointed out a few features as appropriate. I really just enjoyed having the company of my two sisters on this flight; while we got together briefly multiple time last summer in Utah as circumstances permitted, the last time the three of us did something noteworthy or worthwhile together was exactly a year ago at our grandfather's funeral up in Idaho (and that was a bit more stressful and not so much as something to consider relaxing!).

I took us as far as Tillamook, where we decided to land and make a quick pit stop. After getting the local AWOS information, I made an uneventful landing on Runway 19 (the shorter crosswind runway!) and taxied over to the local FBO, where we took a much-needed pit-stop to hit the restrooms and stretch out our legs! After that, we stuck around on the ramp briefly to enjoy the local scenery (and allow Ellen to get a few pictures on her camera!) before hopping back in the plane with my sisters switching seats for the return-leg. After a quick start-up, I taxied out to Runway 31, where I did engine run-ups. Before departing, I held short for a West Air Cessna 208 doing a cargo feeder run that landed on the intersecting Runway 19. After that, I got us airborne. After executing a circling climb over Tillamook Bay, I took us southeast inland towards the Independence/Monmouth areas and the familiar sights of the western Willamette Valley, which we did end up flying over. Eventually, Albany came into view and it was a standard left traffic pattern entry for Runway 34, where I made a successful and uneventful landing on. After clearing the runway, I taxied over to the fuel pumps. After shutting down the engine for the time being, we had to take a selfie!

Selfie with my sisters Ellen and Cloe just after landing back in Albany!
(Photo credit goes to my youngest sister, Cloe Wynn!)

I hopped out and proceeded to refuel the tanks. After that was done, I taxied us back to the hangar and put the airplane away. After my sisters took a few more photos, I closed up the hangar and we drove back to Salem satisfied with the quality-sibling time we shared together!