The End is Near

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The end of my cherry drying contracts, that is.

I came to Washington State in the beginning of June to start a pair of cherry drying contracts. I was fortunate enough to get a third contract wedged in between the first two, giving me almost seven solid weeks of work.

Well, “work” is not quite an accurate term. I was on standby for all three contracts, but only flew 5.2 hours on two days during one contract.

Thank heaven I was getting standby pay. Without it, I would have taken a heavy loss this summer. But with it, and thanks to the availability of a pilot willing to share ferry costs on both 10+ hour flights between Washington and Arizona, I’ll stay in the black.

My third contract officially ends on Monday, July 28 at nightfall. Unless the weather looks threatening, they’ll likely cut me loose a few hours earlier. It doesn’t matter. I’m not leaving until Tuesday.

But in the meantime, I figured it might be a good idea to drive my orchards, just to see if there was still fruit on the trees. I was in Wenatchee today, so I drove past the one near Wenatchee Airport. There are two cherry orchards across the street from each other. I’m not sure which one is mine. (Heck, it’s hard to tell from the ground when all the photos I have are from the air!) One of them still had plenty of cherries, the other had none. I continued on to Quincy and visited two of my three orchards there. Both were heavy with cherries. One of them is likely to be picked soon — fruit boxes had been laid out neatly in the rows between the trees.

As long as there’s fruit on the trees, there’s a slight chance they’ll ask me to stay on. Although I don’t mind staying an extra day or two, I really don’t want to stay longer than that. I feel done with this place, if you know what I mean.

My trip home will be completed in multiple steps:

  • Tuesday: Fly the helicopter from Quincy to Seattle. Then take Horizon back to Wenatchee and drive back to Quincy. I hope to get all that done on Tuesday, but might have to take an early morning flight on Wednesday to get back to Quincy.
  • Wednesday: Drive the trailer to Walla Walla. That Washington town consistently comes up as a top choice when I go through the quiz on the Find Your Spot Web site. I was there in 2006 during my Midlife Crisis Road Trip and I liked what I saw. But I was only there long enough to do my laundry and visit a downtown independent bookstore. This time, I’ll stay two nights and check it out.
  • Friday: Drive the trailer from Walla Walla to Salt Lake City. I’ll be staying with the family of one of my editors, Megg. She’s going to take me hiking on Saturday.
  • Saturday: Drive the trailer from Salt Lake City to Page, AZ. If I get a late start from SLC, I’ll spend the night on the road and get in sometime on Sunday.
  • Monday: Fly in Mike’s plane from Page, AZ to Wickenburg. I need to get Alex the Bird home.
  • Friday: Fly with Mike on US Air from Phoenix to Seattle.
  • Saturday-Sunday: Fly with Mike and another pilot from Seattle to Page, AZ. I’m hoping to spend the night in the Reading area, where a buddy of mine is on a fire contract. I think we’d all get a lot out of seeing how a fire operation works.

I still have four chapters of a book revision to finish. I goofed off in Wenatchee most of today, but I expect to finish up over the weekend. There’s another book right after it, but I’ll get that started when I get back to Wickenburg and finish it when I settle down in Page.

The Helicopters of Brewster Airport

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A few photos of a few classic helicopters.

I took these photos a few weeks ago. Mike and I were taking a drive and passed by the Brewster, WA airport. I couldn’t believe how many helicopters were parked on the ramp. We pulled in, parked the truck, and got out for a closer look. I had my junky little Nikon CoolPix with me, but it did a fine job, as you can see.

SikorskyThis is the ship I’d most like to fly. It’s a Sikorsky and I think it’s an S55. It has a radial engine and, a few days later, I had the pleasure of watching it start up and fly away while I was waiting on the ramp in my helicopter for my dispatcher to send me to an orchard.

This ship is in pristine condition, with seating for 7 on the lower level. What an excellent air-taxi ship this would make. Imagine flying into Scottsdale with this one? It would sure turn a few heads.

Another SikorskyThis is another Sikorsky. Not quite as pretty, but also used for agricultural work. They dry cherries with these. I saw this one in flight, hovering about 50 feet over an orchard. I think there’s so much downwash that they can just hover in one place and dry the whole orchard. (Which is a good thing, because they cost a fortune to fly.)

HueyWere you looking for a Huey? How about this one?

This pretty blue Huey is also being used for agricultural work, although I didn’t see it in flight.

HillerHere’s another helicopter you don’t see every day: a Hiller. This is one of two Hillers that supposedly came down from Canada to dry cherries.

Head On HillerHere’s the other Hiller in an artsy head-on shot. I love the old helicopters with the big glass bubbles — but I sure wouldn’t want to fly one in the Arizona sun. A buddy of mine in Arizona has one and I think he’s nuts.

Two HillersAnd here’s the pair of them, parked side by side.

There was a JetRanger there, too, but I didn’t take pictures of it. After all, you can see a JetRanger anywhere.

As cherry drying season is winding down to an end, most of these helicopters might be gone. I know the Sikorskys are based there. If you’re in the area, why not see for yourself? You can find them at Brewster Airport in Brewster, WA.

Now Read This: If do you stop by for a visit, remember to keep your hands and other body parts off the helicopters. They’re not toys and they’re not for you or your kids to climb on. It’s a Federal offense to mess with any aircraft — really! Remember that airport property is for authorized personnel; if you’re asked to leave, please do.

And if you like looking at aviation-related photos, I hope you’ll check out my Aviation photo gallery.

Airport Codes: A Meme for Pilot Bloggers

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What can you say about the airports you’ve landed at?

This afternoon, while slowly steaming in my camper with the air conditioner on full-blast, I took a moment to connect to the Internet, check my e-mail, and check up on my Twitter friends. One of them, Highway 89 Project photographer Ann Torrence, had linked to a blog post she’d just updated, “Collection of Airport Codes.” In it, she wrote about her dislike of flying and provided a table of codes for the airports she’s been to.

It’s interesting to me because the average person doesn’t pay much attention to the three- or four-character airport codes that are part of a pilot’s life. For each airport listed — and she listed airports all around the world — she included a very brief comment about her experience there.

While I’m not nearly as well-travelled as Ann, I’m pretty sure that I’ve been to more airports. In many cases, however, I was the pilot in command when I landed at the airport. I have my own story for each of the airports I’ve landed at. So I decided that it might make a good theme for future blog posts about flying.

Quincy, WAThis, in turn, triggered an idea for a meme — something that other pilots who blog could write about, too. What are the airports that you’ve landed at? Pick one and write about it. You can write about why you went there, what you were flying, or what it was like. You can write about the perfect weather or nasty crosswind or unreasonably hot temperatures. You can write about the coffee in the FBO, the courtesy car, or the line guy — or lack thereof. You can write about the people you were with and what they thought when you made that perfect landing — or two, or three. (Just teasing my airplane friends.)

If you pick up this meme and spread it, please do use the Comment link or form to post a comment with the URL for the blog post you created. Be sure to say a little bit about the post when commenting to prevent my spam protection software from thinking it’s just spam and deleting it. (It tends to delete comments that contain only links, especially if there’s more than one link.) As long as the link points to a post in this meme as described here, it’ll stay. You can copy any part of this post to spread a description of the meme, as long as you link back to this post so others who follow it will add their links to the comments here.

In the meantime, I’ll start writing my own posts about some of the airports I’ve landed at. I’ll try to keep it interesting.

I hope those of you who have blogs will join the fun. Because, as we all know, an airport is far more than the three- or four-character code that represents it on charts, publications, and GPSes. I want to read your stories.

Thoughts on the Obama Eurofest

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Could Obama be a team player in the global political scene?

I guess you can say I’m an Obama supporter. After all, I’d rather see him in the Oval Office than McCain. Like so many other people, I think McCain (1) is too old and (2) will give us yet another 4 years of Bush-like decision making. And although I may be part of the higher-income group that won’t benefit from Obama’s economic plan, I really think it’s time to stop letting the ultra-rich ride the U.S. economy without paying their fair share.

When it was Obama vs. Hillary, I couldn’t decide. I’m not registered as a Democrat, so I couldn’t vote in the primaries. I had to let others decide. I don’t even know which one Arizona chose. It didn’t matter. What mattered was the final result. When Hillary dropped out, I felt relief — not because I preferred Obama, but because I (like most other Americans) was sick of the media coverage on the race.

But since then, I have yet to be convinced that Obama is a better candidate than Hillary. (Or that Hillary would be better than Obama, for that matter.)

And no, I don’t subscribe to any of the bullshit satirized on the New Yorker cover. Although I found the illustration distasteful, I certainly do understand the concept of satire. Unfortunately, much of middle America doesn’t and is likely to find the illustration confirmation of their misguided beliefs.

On the pro side, I believe Obama does represent hope and change. He’s young, he gets people excited, and he does not represent the same political establishment we’ve been looking at for years. I believe he does have the country’s well-being at the top of his list of interests.

But on the con side, I think Obama lacks the experience necessary to get things done in our government. I think he’ll have to waste a lot of time and effort getting his ball rolling in the establishment he’s so obviously not a part of. If he wins, he’ll have a struggle ahead of him to succeed in his goals.

McCain sometimes applies the word “naive” to Obama; I don’t think that’s too far from the truth. But I also think that Obama has the intelligence and drive to rise above that.

Still, Obama’s rise in our government has me troubled. He’s come a long way in a short time and doesn’t have much to show for it. After all, when you’re sprinting to the finish line, you can’t stop much along the way to get things done. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

But what makes me hopeful for a President Obama this week is the reception he’s getting in Europe. The Europeans evidently love him. That alone is a point in his favor.

On September 11, 2001, America was the victim of a horrific act of terrorism. We suddenly had the good will and support of most of the world. The Bush administration, through its independent actions and attitudes, has squandered all that goodwill. This cannot be argued. Not only does most of the world now look down on us, but we’re actually hated in many parts of the world.

While many Americans are convinced that we’re better than anyone else and have some kind of God-given right to do whatever we want to do, I believe America is part of a global community. We need to be a team player. We need to work with our allies for the good of the world.

I believe that Obama understands that, too. But what’s more important is that the rest of the world might see Obama as a team player in the global political scene. Because no matter how low Bush’s opinion ratings are here in the U.S., I’m willing to bet they’re a lot lower overseas.

Comments? Please do share them. Use the Comments link or form for this post. Just keep it civil, okay?

Gone to the Wind[mills]

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A visit to Washington’s other source of alternative energy.

Washington state is widely known for its cheap, reliable electric power. One reason it’s cheap is because it’s hydroelectric — the Columbia and other rivers in Washington have been dammed up with numerous hydroelectric plants, many of them built as part of the New Deal in the 1930s. (An interesting side note here: we visited the Grand Coulee Dam and learned on the tour that power wasn’t one of the reasons the dam was originally built. The two primary reasons were irrigation and flood control. I really ought to write about that tour in another post.)

Anyway, Washington is also on the leading edge of renewable power generation from wind generators or windmills. Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has two facilities, one of which is on a series of ridges in Kittitas County, 18 miles east of Ellensburg. This Wild Horse Wind Facility is clearly visible from my camp just south of Quincy, about 20 air miles away. It’s also open to the public for tours. So on Saturday afternoon, feeling a dire need to get away from the book project I’m working on, I headed out to see the place close up.

It’s easy to get to. From I-90, take the exit for Vantage, which is on the west side of the Columbia River. After stopping for a burger at Blustery’s, head up the old Vantage Highway. You’ll get to the turn for Wild Horse about 12 miles up the road. It’s hard to miss — the road is clearly marked and you can see lots of windmills from the main road.

Wild Horse Wind FacilityFollow the entrance road about three miles as it winds up a hill. You’ll pass a bunch of windmills along the way — the road actually passes quite close to a few of them. Eventually, you’ll see the Visitor Center at the top of the site. Behind it are a few windmills that, when seen with the building in front, look absolutely enormous.

When I arrived, an all-girls camp group was there. The girls were in their early teens. I managed to latch on to one of their tours, which included a walk up eight or so steps into the tower at the bottom of one of the windmills. Afterward, I wandered around a bit, got technical information about the facility, and took plenty of photos.

WindmillWant some stats? The facility is on a 9,000 acre site overlooking the Columbia River Basin. It was started up in December 2006 with 127 wind turbines. Each turbine is capable of producing up to 1.8 megawatts of power in 31 mph winds, for a total of 229 megawatts. The turbines start generating power at 9 mph of wind and are programmed to feather their blades and basically shut down when winds exceed 56 mph to avoid damage. Since the site is usually pretty windy, the facility does a pretty good job generating power.

Each turbine sits atop a 221-foot tall tower. (See the flight of steps at the very bottom of the tower in this photo? It has about 8 steps. That should give you an idea of scale.) The foundations go down 25 to 32 feet and each have 120 anchor bolts around the 13-foot wide tower base. The bolts are huge, as you might imagine.

The turbines, which are manufactured in Denmark, generate power at 690 volts. A transformer inside the turbine housing, steps up the power to 34.5 kilovolts. These turbines are atop the tower (of course) and are about the size of a typical RV or motorhome. They’re reached from a ladder inside the tower.

Windmill BladeThe blades are also huge. There was one on display outside the visitor center and I snapped a photo with my fisheye lens (which explains the distortion) of the girls gathered around it. Each of a windmill’s three blades is 129 feet long, 11.6 wide near the hub, and 1.6 feed wide at the tip. They’re made of composite materials, are hollow, and weigh 7 tons each. When you figure the length of the rotor blade into the total maximum height of the windmill, you get 351 feet.

It’s no wonder I can see them from 20 miles away.

We all know that the environmentalists are concerned about windmills and their impact on birds and bats. I asked about this. I was told that the facility averages 2 dead birds per turbine per year. I think more are killed being hit by cars. The folks at Wild Horse take the situation seriously and collect and bag all birds found. Bats are not an issue there.

For me, the most amazing part of visiting the windmills was the sound they made as they were spinning.

After my tour in the Visitor Center vicinity, I hopped on the truck and followed the dirt road around the facility. I was out to take photos and I got a few interesting ones.

If you’re in the area, I recommend a visit to the Wild Horse Wind Facility. Try calling 888-225-5773 if you need more info; I can’t seem to find the official Web site for the facility.

And if there’s a wind or other alternative energy facility open to the public for tours in your area, make it a point to visit with your kids. It’s a great way to learn about energy options.