Chehalis Fly-In

Friday July 27, 2007

The Chehalis Fly-In stared Friday night with a barbecue cookout. I borrowed a Cessna 172 and flew from to Renton to Chehalis after work with George and Andrew. The flight down was mostly uneventful, with the exception of Andrew repeatedly giving me the thumbs down indication. I occasionally look back and ask how he's doing and he gives me a thumbs up or down, depending on how he feels. I was not expecting to get a thumbs down. I tried to figure out what was wrong, but flying a plane in busy airspace is pretty close to a full time responsibility. Each time I asked, I got the thumbs down and an upset - but inaudible - complaint. Then I noticed he was pointing at something in the front of the plane. I finally realized that he wanted to look at the map! I gave him the map and he was thumbs up the rest of the trip.

We met Tom's family at the airport and headed for the food. We made a contribution to the Washington Pilot's Association and ate burger patties and potato salad - they were out of hamburger buns.

After a short visit we were on our way back to Renton. I decided to return by a different route; both for variety and to allow George to get a closer view of Mt. Rainier. Once again, I got the thumbs down from Andrew shortly after take off. Turned out that he was upset because he didn't know what to do with the cookie bar wrapper! I took it from him and he was fine. While passing south of McChord Air Force Base, we overflew two huge C-17 cargo planes that were approaching the base. We arrived safely in Renton at sunset.