Mountain obscuration -- see photo -- keeps us grounded today. It is exotic to be in a part of the country where we can read "W CNTLDVD" in the weather forecast and actually CARE about anything happening west of the continental divide....though the thrill is officially wearing thin at this point. Around noon, Bill, Dick and Bob wandered over to the field near the Veterans Park close to the Fort Walla Walla Museum to watch the radio controlled aircraft club in full swing. The overcast skies created a real challenge to keep the aircraft in sight as they ascended. They seemed [View Full Entry]

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The first thing the weather briefers said this morning was "AIRMET for mountain obscuration: VFR flight not recommended along your route of flight." Attached picture is what that looks like. To fly, we need to get over the mountains. To get over the mountains, we need to SEE the mountains. And right now we can't see the mountains. The weather overhead is exasperatingly lovely. The other issue, after discussion with the pilot who has the most experience by a factor of at least six, remains icing. If the air is saturated, or close to it, then ice can form very easily [View Full Entry]

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At 5:50 am, Judy once again passed by Dick, set up with his computer checking weather, while she was on her way to the gym. Several hours later. after considerable peering at possible routes either from Walla Walla via Lewiston and then VOR routing to Missoula (which featured several private airports as possible diversion points if we'd needed an alternate over high territory) or along a river valley that offered a winding highway as an alternate landing strip if necessary, the weather did have many encouraging features -- ceilings about 5500 feet above ground level, with only scattered ra [View Full Entry]

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Ruth was already up when Judy headed down to the treadmill at 6:15 am, passing by Dick, who greeted her in the lobby. He looked like he'd been there for hours had already, having set up shop there with his laptop computer while his comrades slept. He was peering intently at displays from the ADDS aviation weather site, particularly the high- and low-level radar returns and the big picture of the satellite images for the Pacific moving into the Pacific northwest and upper midwest. Clearly Judy had time to fit in an hour in the gym, and Janice easy got in [View Full Entry]

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Chris Johnson is a very caring man. Today, he forced me to go to the hospital, to seek help about the illness I've been fighting for the past few days. I fought against the idea as long as I could, but in the end, he won out. They did some tests on me, in a Warner Bros cartoon decorated room. Each of the medical staff were nice. They prescribed me some drugs, which will hopefully combat whatever it is. I'm lucky to have someone who looks after me so well. He really does. [View Full Entry]

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The man at Sydney airport confirming my identity looked at my passport, looked at me, smiled, and then made a small giggling noise. I cocked my eyebrow, gave him a half smile, and asked what was so funny. He smiled, and motioned for me to go through the gates. And so began my adventure. The first plane ride was around nine hours. Bearable. A lady from Adelaide was sitting next to me, and I got to hear her life story. She was flying to Van Couver, also spending a night in Taipei. So, seeing as we both had no idea what [View Full Entry]

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