Savannah Flights: Whitney and Tony's flight to Seattle

Monday morning Sept 27, my daughter and I departed Erie, Colorado (KEIK – 15 miles of Denver) for Seattle Washington (1015 miles one way). See map and pictures below. We were flying a Savannah VGW 100 HP Rotax with 21 gallon fuel tanks. Two persons, full fuel and 50 pounds of junk (baggage) brought the weight up to about 1200 pounds.

Gastric Distress is not a common flying topic however it applies here because flying north out of Erie along the base of the Rocky Mountains the plane was upright less than 50% of the time. Luckily, after the first 50 miles both the GD and turbulence ceased to be problems. At full power, we climbed at 50 MPH groundspeed to 10,500 feet in what seemed like 10 hours. The climb rate fluctuated between +/– 1000 fpm.

We planned our legs to be ~ 250 miles long. Our Rotax engine burns about 6.5 GPH at 5400 RPM and cruises at a true airspeed around 100 MPH. So a 2.5 hour flight (with mild winds) covers about 250 miles and uses roughly 16 gal of gas. Leaving a 45 minute fuel reserve for surprises. I usually fly the first third of the leg, my daughter flies the middle third and I finish the last third.

The route up to Seattle included planned fuel stops in Riverton, WY (great cowboy restaurant on the field), Salmon ID (excellent trout fishing on the Salmon River) and Pasco, WA (home of the Hanford Project – made WW II Nuclear bombs). We landed in those places but headwinds forced us to also land at intermediates: Rawlins, WY and Rexburg ID.

Erie to Rawlins and Riverton included crossing some of the Rockies so we cruised at 12,500. Typically I like to fly 500-1000 feet above the ground but after the sun has been up for an hour or two, low level flight in the mountains gets fairly bumpy. After Rawlins the terrain flattened out so we descended to 200-300 above the ground. Elk hunting season opened the day before so we expected heavy anti-aircraft fire but none appeared. Had terrific roast beef sandwich in Riverton. Very high quality, large western painting on the side of a hanger.

Riverton to Salmon is 280 miles. Headwinds forced us to refuel in Rexburg. Between Jackson Hole and Rexburg we crossed the Grand Teton Mountains (see pictures). Flying close to the tall jagged peaks increases the heart beat. Salmon airport is a major “Fire Base” for forest fire tankers. Impressive array of large fire bombers and giant helicopters. We arrived after the Fire Base closed. The planes were open… I was tempted to try my hand on the yoke of Lockheed P2V-5F but my daughter said no.

We lived in Pasco, WA (TriCities) for several years. Flying into the airport seemed like arriving home. Pasco is in eastern Washington - less than 10" of rainfall per year. During the 1940’s and 50’s most of the area was run by the Hanford Project. It’s B-Reactor (see picture) made the plutonium for the Nagasaki bomb. Now the area is noted for its wheat production and world class wine. The Tri-Cities has the same latitude as the Burgundy wine region in France.

Pasco to Seattle requires crossing the Cascade Mountains. Moisture from the Pacific Ocean often turns into clouds on the Seattle side of the Cascades making airplane passage difficult. We made it from Pasco to the middle of the Cascades before running into solid clouds prompting a 180 back to Ellensburg, located at the eastern base of the mountains. Ellensburg is noted for its downdraft winds from the mountains - the trees grow at a 45 degree angle. The wind was blowing at 20 kts gusting to 32 kts right down runway 25 for us. So no problem for the landing but making three 90 degree taxi turns to get to the ramp proved sphincter clinching for me. After seeing a Cherokee 140 catch fire after landing, we tied the plane down and drove to Seattle..

Flight time to Seattle was 13.4 hours. Flight time back to Denver was 11.8 hours. The most significant mod to our Savannah was adding 3” on NASA foam to our seats.