hilsboro tower cessna 8km here i think i want to make this one full stop, 8km hilsboro, cleared to land runway 30. perfectly smooth landing!

and in the next few moments my sweaty forhead dries up and i stop fighting the controles of the plane, i remember all that i had been taught. everything has re-connected. and it feels like when you are driving through the mountains and everything seams distant, suddenly your ears pop, and all the sounds around you get louder, and you never knew your ears were clogged. just in time...

then it hits me, I know how to do this, i have learned how to do this

passing precariously over the internet middleclass suburbs below me, trying not to think about landing in one of their backyards

very intense flying in gusts up to 25 knts every moment on the controls, lots of rudder work,

i logged a whole .5 hours and only did three touch and goes in the pattern

and this time its a really windy high pressure day

but 1 week later i find myself in the cockpit again, although this time i don't have an expert aviator friend sitting next to me with a fully functioning set of controls

this is what i looked like flying grahams plane, after such a long break... not very relaxed

this is what relaxed looks like

he gave me total pilot in command autority, so, taking all factors into account, descided to fly the length of the Columbia river to is mouth at the pacific ocean

a week earlier my friend graham came to visit from the east coast in his own plane, and he let me fly

it's ben a long time since i have been flying so i am incredibly rusty

a little while ago i went to hilsboro airport to rent a cessna for a couple of hours

this is a coffee table that caitlyn and i made this last week, it is supposed to "feel" like a section of bridge that has been through some kind of catastrophe...

i reflect on the fact that THIS is my home, this planet, this time, and it is beautiful, nothing can change that! NOTHING!

and as these words of her's ring in my mind the sun disappears on the western horizon, just as the moon climbs into the sky from the east

she reminds me that on the east coast you will travel a greater distance for far less,

just as the sun is about to vanish, caitlyn reminds me of the fact that we are only a few hours away from home,

the sky lights up as the sun slips downward

and since sunrises occur so early in the morning very few humans actualy get to see this on the east coast..

as the sun begins to near the horrizon i am reminded of the fact that i have never before witnessed a sunset over the ocean,

the vastness of these pacific beaches reminds me of just how far i have come in life

after many hours killed at the helm of my kite i descide to strole along the beach.. the thirty knot headwind makes it seam more like a survival adventure so i turn my attention to collecting driftwood for the evenings fire

there are crab hats laying all over the beach, i think the next time i come here i will bring some crabbing gear and have myself a feast

after the hike i descidd that it was time to fly the sport kite that my sister bought for me many weeks ago, i havn't had a chance to play with it due to lack of wind, here at the beach, the wind was soo stronge it felt like i was fighting to keep myself on the ground, let alone the kite

my exploration brought me to the top of a ridge behind our camp, the little blip in the center is our tent, this photograph is meant to show our proximity to the beach, as well as the lack of people around us

prior to naping, caitlyn and i made camp in a hollow between two dunes

i have no idea how much time has passed but when i wake up from my nap, i descide to go exploring

as long is i stay below the lee edge of the dunes, i find the wind to do little more than creat a relaxing background white noise, thought it is totaly relentless, it sooths me into a quick nap

the constant wind caused these strange drift paterns to appear behind the small stones all over the beach

caitlyn holds her hat down so as not to loose it in the constant thirty knot wind

we went with my friend eric and his dog vivian

caitlyn and i have been to the oregon coast for a camping trip