Our
Cessna 172
More "Baby Pictures" and a trip to Astoria
February 2002
Wearing the beautiful vintage-style flight jackets that Jan so generously gave us for Christmas, we pose with 4409R at the Corvallis Compass Rose
It was fun to again pass Mary's Peak. It has served so well as an easy-to-spot checkpoint on my solo cross-country a few days earlier. Snow covers my favorite wildflower hiking spots.
It is scenes like this that make all the effort and expenditures of flying so precious and worthwhile. I was fortunate to be "a passenger" and able to take plenty of photos. Still, as a student pilot, I am getting very restless to become fully qualified to trade seats and let Ty take some pix. (Nope, we won't do this seat-trading while in flight <silly grin>)
There was some helicopter activity and an extra-busy time in the pattern, so to space things out a bit, we took a wide detour over the town and the mouth of the Columbia River before heading in for landing. Saddle Mountain is slightly left of center here. The airport itself is just to the right of the above photo.
On Final for Runway 8
We enthusiastically recommend a stop at Astoria. The people are friendly and there is decorative runway cafe with excellent outdoor-grilled hamburgers, salads, chowder, home-baked cookies and other delights.
Ty, the pilot
Louise, with Saddle Mountain overhead.
Shown above are some of the docks at Astoria.
We took a gorgeous route home. We followed the Columbia River east. While we were still far enough west of Portland to avoid crowded airspace, we headed south back to Corvallis.