After waiting for a couple of hours in Bellingham for reasonable weather, we all got in the two planes (Catherine & I in the Spacewalker II, the rest in the beaver).  We took off and set course for Concrete.

The weather had indeed improved, but we were still limited to around 1200′ (which is 1000′ AGL) for this flight.  With the lower ceilings, we couldn’t take the more scenic route (to the base of Mt. Baker), but as it was cold and damp anyway, we just followed the most direct route down to around Sedro-Woolley, and then due East over to Concrete.

This was a bit of a bumpy flight as the winds were starting to pick up (Concrete is in a valley which acts as a wind funnel).  I’m sure there were times that Catherine was asking herself how she got into this, but patience, love and (most importantly) forgiveness are all virtues of hers.  I could feel the winds’ buffetting on the various controls, so I knew the landing wouldn’t be all that great, but I announced my intentions crossing midfield and set up on the downwind leg for runway 25.

Kevin and the beaver had landed ahead of us (they always seem to be able to leave after us, pass by, and land first), so I had a bunch of the Duncan crew out to grade my horrible landing.  Glad to have all the big pieces still (just kidding), we taxied over to a parking spot beside the beaver (leaving space for Trevor’s stearman that would be arriving tomorrow).

To be fair, Kevin had warned me about a bit of windshear off the approach to 25, and even though I was ready for it, I had been aiming for the numbers which was totally unnecessary with the length available in Concrete.  If I had come in a little slower (I was high and fast on final) and had been aiming for about 1/3 down the runway, everything would have come off much better…