I passed on flying to the High Sierra fly-in this year because weather at home was too bad for flying out of Puget Sound earlier this week. It was projected to get worse during the time I would have been flying home. Well, it improved over the weekend, but it was already too late to make the long trek to Nevada. My consolation prize was some smooth flying locally with fresh snow on all the local peaks.

Here's some fresh white stuff on the Olympic Mountains


Mount Baker is higher than the Olympics and got a lot more fresh snow.


Mount Rainier is 100 miles away in this shot, but its load of new snow makes it very visible in this shot from Port Townsend Bay

Best place in the world to fly!

Beautiful flight.

About 20 years ago I was a pilot with Horizon out of PDX. One morning we had a 7am departure to SEA, the weather was great but as we approached Olympia fog moved over SEA and closed the airport. We were given holding over Olympia with an EFC time about an hour and a half down the road. We were completely full in the back, mostly business guys on their way to meetings and they were ready to riot.
Not wanting to hold over Olympia for the next hour and a half I asked ATC if we could maintain VFR over the Olympic mountains. ATC said sure and we spent the next hour cruising a Dash 8 over the Olympics. We could feel the passengers in the back moving fore and aft to get the best views. Eventually the fog moved out of SEA and we landed, most of the guys either missed their meetings or were late, but I'm pretty sure everyone of them stopped by the cockpit on their way out to tell us it was the greatest flight they'd ever had.

N949JH: That's a great story. Talk about good time and customer management! Flying around in racetrack ovals in the soup isn't fun for anyone, but an extended tour of the Olympics is a sure crowd pleaser - if the winds aren't blowing!

That is a GREAT story. Very intellegent and thoughtful move on your part.

The PNW is indeed one of the most beautiful places to live and fly, but one needs to have a sense of humor about the weather.

NB: I don't but I'm trying