I had decided to make my first cross-country, after getting my license, a trip to Pasco to visit my folks before they leave on another bicycle trip. I also wanted to visit someone who is like a Grandmother to me who I had not seen in over a year. Due to my work and home schedules, it needed to be a quick trip. My plan was to leave Portland after lunch Friday and return in time for the five-thirty church service the following day.

I got a bit of a late start due to having a long lunch with my wife - which was good. The weather was perfect with clear skies and the winds aloft forecast predicting favorable winds. I was planning on flying back at 5,500 or 7,500 feet depending on how I felt when I got to 5,500. The few times I have flown above 4,500 feet I found the flight to be a bit boring as it is hard to see the detail moving by below. Anyway, when I got to 5,500 feet I liked the view and decided to continue up to 7,500. The above picture shows the view I had of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams as I flew up the Columbia River. The air was smooth and the GPS was indicating a ground speed of 135mph. This was a perfect flight and it looked like I was going to arrive a bit early.

The above picture shows the Columbia River about midway between The Dalles and Richland. About ten minutes after taking this picture, I decided to start my decent. After loosing about 1,000 feet I hit some turbulence that was unlike any I had ever felt. As apposed to the normal rocking of the plane, this turbulence caused the plane to raise and fall at great rates. As I descended I lowered my airspeed to 80 mph (I had been indicating about 95 although my groundspeed was 135) and tried to maintain a decent of about 500 feet per minute. The vertical speed indicator gives a good indication of your vertical speed although it reacts a bit show and due to the up and down drafts I was hitting, it was not of much use. I was basically using the airspeed indicator to control my decent trying to keep it around 80 mph indicated. I was surprised to see the vertical speed indicator showing 1,000 feet per minute of climb one minute and then 1,000 feet of decent the next. This continued for about five minutes getting worse the more I descended. At one moment I glanced at the vertical speed indictor and saw it showing 2,000 feet per minute which is the maximum that it will show. I remember wondering if I was climbing or falling. Shortly after that moment I noticed I was flying downwind and parallel to an upsloped ridge that ran for miles along the desert floor. I decided it must be forcing air up and around. I then changed my course to run towards the ridge and sure enough, as I crossed over it the turbulence quit. The following picture shows the end of the ridge as I flew down the valley towards Richland. Making the 90 degree turn and showing down added some time to my trip but I was ahead of schedule.

Once in the valley I flew towards Richland at about 2,500 feet enjoying the flight. As I approached the airport, only one plane called on the radio in the ten or fifteen minutes I was listening. On such a nice day I was surprised more pilots were not up, at least I knew which runway was preferred - assuming the plane that landed used the preferred runway. I entered the pattern and made an OK landing. (I also made a note to myself to find the location of the windsock using the airport directory before entering the pattern as they are not always where I expect to find them.) I taxied over to the tiedowns and secured the airplane. This was the first time I would be parking the 170 over night someplace other than home. It felt good. As I was finishing up a Cessna 182 landed and parked next to me. When I told him this was my first cross-country after getting my license he was surprised I was doing it in a taildragger.

While in Pasco I visited with my folks and had lunch with Tootsie - who is like a grandmother to me. I also had a number of nice telephone conversations with my wife who was back in Portland - she does not like to fly. It was nice to just sit around and chat. I was a little late leaving but that was OK as Portland was covered in a layer of clouds that was not expected to breakup until the afternoon.

Return Flight to Portland:

Although I was a little late leaving, I was still hoping to get home about an hour before church. The winds aloft were stronger than when I came so I was thinking about flying back at a lower altitude. As I climbed out of Richland I decided to stay quite a bit downwind of the ridge that caused so much trouble on the way over - flying upwind of the ridge would add a lot or distance to my flight. The temperature had risen to 95 by the time I left and that was causing turbulence at lower altitudes so, I decided to climb to 6,500 feet to look for a slower yet cooler and smoother ride. It was both smoother and cooler at 6,500 but I was also going quite a bit slower according to the GPS. I decided I might as well climb to 8,500 feet and see if it was any smoother or faster up there. Sure enough, it was smoother and a bit cooler but it was also about 5 mph slower. I figured loosing 5 mph was worth the smooth cool ride. However, my ground speed was now around 78 mph.

As I approached The Dalles I started to feel a bit dehydrated. I had been drinking water but didn't want to drink too much as it would be over an hour before I got home at my current speed. I was wondering why I was feeling dehydrated because I felt like I had been drinking more than usual. That is when I realized I was sitting in the hot sun! The 170 does not have sun visors and I had been sitting directly in the sun. I stepped up my water intake and started to feel better. I think I will add sun visors to my wish list. (After returning home I also wondered if the altitude didn't contribute to my feeling dehydrated.)

As I approached Portland I could see the cloud layer that had been covering the surrounding area all morning. It was braking up so I was not at all worried about finding my way through it. I decided to fly under it just in case which increased my ground speed back up to 115 mph. I ended up being about ten minutes late for church which was not bad considering it was still much faster than driving.

Overall it was a fun trip. The flight over felt like a fifteen minute flight although the flight home felt like a two hour flight. I wish I could have made the trip with my wife; however, I'm also glad she didn't go as the turbulence would have been too much for her.