A Years Worth of Fly-outs

December 2025 is here Where did the time fly? Or, maybe, where did WE fly?

Fly-outs during 2025 began with a fly-out planned to Bremerton. But although the weather looked good during the days before the fly-out, it was crummy on flyout morning. I look for cloud ceilings of at least 1500 ft for short trips and even shifting to Port Townsend didn’t work so I cancelled the event. With broken clouds at 1400 ft, Ray and I flew to Port Townsend for an unofficial fly-out lunch. We made up for January in February when 10 airplanes (and 21 hungry people) enjoyed Amelia’s Hangar restaurant in Bremerton.

March and April were practically like January and February. Weather didn’t cooperate for a March fly-out to Arlington so we had a local drive-out instead. With good weather in April, 11 airplanes (18 people) made it to Arlington with blue skies and lunch at Ellie’s. We had clear skies in May as well (where 8 aircraft carried 12 people to lunch at Harvey’s Buzz In) and in June (where 12 airplanes arrived at Tacoma Narrows with 17 people that had lunch at the Hub restaurant).

July is traditionally a month where our fly-out is to Concrete during their annual Vintage Aircraft fly-in. Richard and Mary Ann Howell and Ray and Lisa Ballantyne flew up on Friday and camped overnight before the fly-out. On Saturday we were again faced with poor weather and I cancelled the fly-out due to low clouds. With overcast clouds at 1300 ft, Bud Davies, Tracy and I made an unofficial fly-out to Concrete and joined up with our camping friends. The trip home had much higher clouds and visibilities both coming and going were good. The cancelled Concrete fly-out was replaced by one the following week when 5 airplanes brought 9 people to Friday Harbor for lunch.

August kicked off this year’s two-month period to gather the Washington State Airport Passport stamps needed to qualify for our chapter’s Poker Run. Five qualifying stamps could be obtained from a list of 15 airports which included our fly-out choices for these months. The August fly=out was to Orcas Island where 9 airplanes brought 16 people. The September fly-out to Chehalis saw 9 Chapter 430 airplanes participate. Our group included several from other chapters, bringing 18 of us to the Riverside Bistro for lunch.

October’s fly-out to Roach Harbor was led by Aidan Lara. Several aircraft and people went including Aidan, his mother Sondra and Linda Priddle, Scott Alair, Richard Howell and Sid Vandiver, Rob Stephens and Ernie Hansen, Ray and Lisa Ballantyne with Wells and Evangeline Hutchins, Bud Davies, Cenk Ozer and his friend Scott, and Tracy and myself. We ate at the Lime Kiln Café.

November’s fly-out to Arlington should have been cancelled. Weather was crummy with low clouds in the local area. I checked weather hourly and delayed making a go/no-go decision until almost departure time because the weather kept improving. At the last minute, weather in Port Angeles reported 1900 ft broken and it was clear in Everett and Arlington and I announced the flyout was on. When I stepped outside a few moments later, however, I saw that clouds in Sequim were quite low. I learned later that Port Angeles cloud cover was probably 800 ft, and between there and Sequim even lower. There was a good size hole south of our house in Sequim (near the shoreline) so, having turned the fly-out on, Aidan and I, along with Bud Davies, flew to Arlington in clear skies above 2000 ft. We were joined by Tim Alentiev from Crest and had lunch at Ellis’s. Weather was much better when we returned home.

And that takes us to December! As I write this, unreliable weather forecasts have squashed plans for a fly-out to Forks in favor of an upcoming drive-out in Sequim for a Mexican lunch! (26 attended this one!!) All in all, we’ve had an exciting year with great attendance in many fine weather fly=outs, and only few cancellations along the way. I hope you are all planning on another year of great flying in 2026!

Barry Halsted