September Fly-Out to WAAAM

The Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum (WAAAM) in Hood River, Oregon, was the destination for our September fly-out this year. Although the weather there was excellent, the same could not be said for NW Washington. As a result, not all of our EAA chapter members who had planned to go made the trip. Ray Ballantyne left in his Glasair about 9:00 am and texted broken low clouds in Sequim with an overcast layer not far above, but visibility between layers was good and he could easily see better conditions ahead. The broken layer dissipated around Shelton, and soon thereafter the clouds broke up altogether. Ernie Hansen and Jeanne Scribner (in Ernie’s Swift) and Tracy and I (in our Harmon Rocket) left about 11:30. We had mostly scattered low clouds with the higher overcast also, but plenty of room between layers and lots of ground visible. John Cuny arrived with his guest Richard Humphries in John’s Seabee later in the afternoon.

WAAAM holds their annual fly-in the weekend following Labor Day, hence our choice for this flyout. There were lots of aircraft attending and plenty of volunteers to assist with parking and to answer questions about the airplanes and cars in the museum. This is a place (and event) everyone in the NW interested in vintage airplanes and cars should visit – where else can you find over 80 such aircraft and 100 cars/motorcycles in one location? The sun was brilliant and the breeze kept temperatures comfortable. We had a good lunch and time exploring, and later just enjoying talking to each other and to the people stopping by to admire John’s Seabee. About 5:00, those of us in the Glasair, Swift and Rocket departed for Sequim, leaving John and Richard to camp overnight and enjoy another day in Hood River. The trip home was good, with just a bit of rain north of Bremerton. Clouds and visibility posed no problems although the broken clouds south of Port Townsend to Diamond Point had bases around 1200 ft. Ernie and Ray flew beneath these for a few moments; I flew over them at 3000 ft. These were scattered in Sequim; the scene was very pretty as we arrived at our Rakes Glen airstrip.

This was a great fly-out, and will be on our list again next year.

Barry