After leaving the Seattle area, I few over Friday Harbor (where we had been just the day before). It took me 10 minutes to fly from Oak Harbor. The drive to the ferry was 3.5 hrs and the ferry ride was 2.5 hrs so to get to this same location, I did in 10 min what it took me 6 hrs on regular surface transpiration! Amazing

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Flying south, quickly took me to the east of Olympic National Park which is a great drive if you ever have time.

This is Mt Rainer. Just beautiful!

Mt St Helens and some other snow capped mountain on the right. There are a lot of tall mountains out here!

After a beautiful flight to Portland area (1.5 hrs) I finally arrived for my visit with Bruce Smith. The flight was terrific and I enjoyed seeing the mountains from the air.

I was parked in a friends hangar with a Prospector airplane. It is a one of a kind, fiberglass airplane built in Alaska. What a beautiful plane.

Bruce is working on a LongEZ and is actually planning to use a Lycombing engine. Wow, I almost fell over. He is a retired airline captain and is working hard to get back in the air and is planning to keep it as stock as possible.
We took the opportunity to drive over Al Wicks airport to check out his cozy 4, Subaru 6 cylinder installation. It is a VERY impressive install with a constant speed prop hanging on the end. I ask Al if he would start the engine and he said sure thing, mind you I pointed out to Al he had junk all over the strakes with the cowls off. Screws, sockets, washes, wrenches, etc. He said no problem and just cranked it up. NOTHING MOVED. The engine didnt vibrate or shake on startup, just a vroom! As he rev’d it up a few times and the engine just purred. There was no vibration on the plane at all. I was floored. Al said he is going to taxi test the plane in the next few weeks. Cant wait to hear the results.

Bruce and I spent the day together, driving around the country, hiking up waterfalls, etc.

At Benson State Park, Bruce and I hiked up to the top of this waterfall. The very top where it starts. It was about a 45 min walk.

This is the view from the top looking down. Quite a ways up!

This is Horseshoe Falls.. just about a mile down from the pervious waterfall.

What a great time. This area of the county is certainly nice to visit and I want to come back and spend a lot more time!