But today I’m finally taking a day off. I’ve had an ultra-productive week, I’ll be flying for work tomorrow, and Dawn just headed to her parents’ place in South Dakota. It’s just me and my flying pooch, Piper, living the bachelor life. It’s time for a playdate to go explore those Cascade mountain strips I’ve been eyeing from high above on the CHINS5 and GLASR2 arrivals. This would ideally be done in the cool, still air of morning, but I got waylaid by another project, and it’s after noon by the time Piper and I finally depart and turn northeast. It’s not a terribly hot day, though, and we’re light, and the highest airstrip is at only 3,000 feet in elevation. The puffy cumulus over the Cascades aren’t looking too threatening—yet.

I skirt south of Paine Field (KPAE) and enter the mountains via the dramatic Skykomish River valley, with 6,000-foot peaks towering over both sides. Fifteen miles in, the town of Skykomish appears around a bend along with our first destination, Skykomish State Airport (S88): 2,000 feet of turf runway, 1,002 feet elevation, trees on both ends. The left pattern to Runway 24 makes for a tight downwind along the southern ridge and close by a granite outcropping before turning a blind base. Turning final, the runway appears again out of the trees, and I ease down a groove and land on the grass. With just Piper and I and partial fuel, I easily turn off at midfield without getting on the brakes.

Piper is a much less anxious flyer these days, but he’s still always glad to clamber out of the airplane and run his little heart out. The airport is deserted today, so I let him wander off leash while I take a look at the picnic tables and camping spots. The field is ideally set up for group camping by an EAA chapter or a gaggle of friends. The guest book reveals mostly old taildraggers like mine, the most recent some 10 days ago. There’s no reason you couldn’t take a Cessna 172 in here easily if you kept it light, but alas, many flight schools and FBOs in the area now prohibit landing at unpaved airports.

After a quick lunch, Piper and I load up again, start up, and take off on Runway 24. I fly a mile beyond town and then turn around in a wide part of the valley, climbing steeply to have plenty of altitude before approaching 4,056-foot Stevens Pass. I see the alpine lake to which Dawn and I snowshoed last winter and turn north to cross a 5,000-foot ridge into the Rainy Creek watershed. I follow it down to beautiful Lake Wenatchee and the Lake Wenatchee State Airport (27W), elevation 1,936 feet msl. As I approach, I can see the middle half of the 2,473-foot runway appears to be bare dirt and decide to do an inspection pass down Runway 9. I don’t see any big rocks, but on the next approach I touch down right at the threshold to get slow before the bare patch. Even at reduced speed, we bounce around a lot, and I can hear stones hitting the underside of the fuselage. Maybe I ought to have landed beyond the dirt—there was a good 1,000 feet of grass left. Soon after we arrive, a Cessna 182 buzzes the dusty strip and peels off into the left downwind. I film his landing, which is a dramatic plop right in the middle of the rocky zone. The hardy Skylane seems no worse for wear, and I’m soon talking to Bryce from Las Vegas. He’s flown all the way here for the Touratech Rally for adventure motorcyclists in nearby Plain, Washington. We talk dirt bikes for a bit before I eye the skies and decide it’s time to go. Those cumulus have built a good bit. They’re not ugly enough to chase us out of the mountains just yet, but Piper and I should get moving.

I purposely came into the mountains with partial gas, necessitating a fuel stop at Wenatchee’s Pangborn Memorial Airport (KEAT). From there, we climb out over Mission Ridge, dodging rain shafts. My Stratus ADS-B receiver shows some strong precipitation northeast of Mount Rainier and over the Goat Rocks Wilderness, but so far it’s staying clear of our next destination. Passing Cle Elum, Snoqualmie Pass looks very doable—that’s my backup option. As I work my way southwest, though, the weather holds. Crossing Bethel Ridge, I marvel at a fantastic ridgetop trail and file it away for a ride on my KTM dirt bike. From there, it’s a fast drop into the Tieton River valley, where Tieton State Airport (4S6, elevation 2,964 feet msl) is nestled on the shore of Rimrock Lake.

In late summer, Tieton State becomes a busy Forest Service firebase, but for now it’s quiet. The vertiginous dome of appropriately named Goose Egg Mountain lies just off the north end, making this a mostly one-way-in, one-way-out airport. The wind is nearly calm. I fly out over the lake, make a spiraling descent, and set up a dogleg approach to 2,509-foot Runway 2. There’s a decent bug-out option to the left down to about 150 feet, but below that you wouldn’t want to go around without a good bit of power. This time, speed and glide path are right on target, so I continue over the shoreline and make a wheel landing on the grass. Overall the strip is in great shape.

Tieton looks like a fantastic place to airplane camp. There’s plenty of shady parking alongside the strip, an indoor pit toilet, and nice views over the lake and mountains. It’s a short walk to the beach, where Piper frolics in the sand. For a minute, he’s a young pup on Windbird again. But now it’s 5 p.m., and those overdeveloped cumulus are getting a lot closer. I can see rain shafts cutting across the far side of the lake. Our playdate is almost over. The hourlong flight home will take us up and over White Pass, past Mount Rainier via the Skate Creek and Nisqually River drainages, and thence via Puyallup and the Tacoma Narrows. As a young pilot, this would have been a grand adventure, and now it’s all part of my backyard.

My 20th wedding anniversary is coming up, and while we’re celebrating with a monthlong trip to New Zealand later in the year, we didn’t have plans for the big day itself. When I asked Dawn what she’d like to do, she said airplane camping in the mountains. I think Tieton State Airport will be a great place to base ourselves for a few days of exploration. I’m a very lucky guy.

This column first appeared in the September 2023/Issue 941 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Playdate Provides Chance to Explore the Cascades appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

To be fair, we did not have Mozzie and Mingus back when I got my ticket, but still, for years I have wanted to take them on a trip. It seemed a little risky in the flying club’s Cessna 172, given the possibility of motion sickness. But now that we have “Annie,” our Commander 114B, which is very smooth in flight, we figured it was time. Besides, we could line the interior with protective padding to absorb any potential messes.

• READ MORE: Dogs Love Trucks, But Not Always Airplanes

Despite the advice of friends who told me to limit the first few flights to short hops in order to give the dogs time to settle in and get used to flying, we packed up Annie and headed to Maine—337 nm away.

We purchased hearing protectors called Mutt Muffs to cover their ears, but the noise did not seem to bother them, and after 20 minutes or so they both took the muffs off and went to sleep. A number of folks told us to expect this. Just as it is for my human family members, the aircraft cabin is a great place for the pooches to nap.

Both spent time looking out the windows, seemingly unfazed by the unfamiliar perspective from 5,500 feet. We started with both huddled in the baggage compartment. Eventually Mingus joined my wife, Alexa, in the back seat, giving himself and Mozzie more space.

I think the passage would have been perfect if not for a band of turbulence as we crossed Connecticut. Annie’s tail started to swing noticeably, for just long enough. I think we were passing over Bridgeport when Mingus lost his breakfast, which sounds terrible but really was no big deal. Alexa, who is a good sport, rolled the mess up in a towel and covered the seat with another—kind of like when this happens in the car, except you cannot pull into the conveniently located rest stop to clean up.

• READ MORE: Taking Wing: Dog Is My Copilot

Full disclosure: Our towel method was not perfect, as I still had some cleaning to do later at the FBO. It was a funny scene as I chatted with the friendly young line worker, also a pilot, who is building time toward an aviation career. Having never seen a Commander before, he wanted to hear all about Annie, and I was more than happy to tell him the whole story while thoroughly wiping down the back seat. All is well. Once you have traveled with small children, dogs are no problem—and vice versa.

I imagined the folks inside the FBO watching us emerge from Annie and figuring we must have been pressed for space in her four-seat cabin. But there was plenty of room and even some useful load to spare with full fuel. This was one more case in which I felt the benefits of Annie’s wide fuselage outweighed the downside of added drag and slower cruising speed compared with, say, a Bonanza F33A or Cirrus SR22.

The trip home was completely uneventful with both dogs snoozing all the way, probably because it was closer to their afternoon nap time anyway. At one point I looked around to find both dogs and both of my human companions sleeping soundly.

It was just like decades of family car trips, except the transit time was just more than two hours instead of 10. I also had the benefits of an autopilot and ATC radar service, so I could take in the scenery a bit while scanning for traffic. Utter joy.

The post Taking the Dogs on Vacation in Your Ideal Aircraft appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The event, called “Mission Possible 15,” is organized by Wings of Rescue and The Sato Project, and is set to liberate 165 dogs and 135 cats from overcrowded municipal animal shelters in Puerto Rico, which typically have a high rate of euthanasia.

During Saturday’s mission, the pets will be loaded onto two chartered Embraer Brasília 120 twin-engine turboprop aircrafts, each flown by a pilot and a copilot, according to Gene Gable, a spokesperson for Wings of Rescue. As a standard EMB 120, the lift will give the animals the ability be able to travel in a fully pressurized and temperature controlled manner, according to the San Diego, California-based nonprofit that conducts large-scale transport of animals in overcrowded shelters or shelters in disaster areas.

Also onboard each flight will be a Wings of Rescue representative and a guest passenger.

“They are configured for cargo from Berry Aviation in Texas,” Gable, told FLYING. “We also regularly fly a Pilatus PC-12, including to Puerto Rico, but as the number of pets on Saturday is so large, the Brasilias are a better choice.” 

• READ MORE: Rescue Dogs and Airplanes

Plans for the mission have been in the works since the beginning of the year, and the schedule was set with an eye on potential weather events in the region.

“Since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, it has become a standard part of our practice to fly as many animals as we can off the island before peak Atlantic hurricane season, which begins at the end of August,” said Tara Steinberg, spokesperson for The Sato Project, an organization focused on rescuing stray and abused pets in Puerto Rico. 

The Sato Project has rescued more than 6,200 dogs and cats from the island, Steinberg said. “It has been rescuing dogs from the streets of Puerto Rico, vetting and rehabilitating them, and then flying them to New York for 11 years. For the first few years, our dogs flew on commercial flights.” 

A partnership established with Wings of Rescue in 2016, however, elevated transport efforts dramatically, she said.

“This partnership has allowed us to fly even more dogs off the island at once and even lend support to other organizations and animals in need,” Steinberg said. “Since 2016, we have completed 42 missions of privately chartered airplanes packed with rescue animals from Puerto Rico.”

• READ MORE: A Blind Dog Flies Home

Herding Cats and Dogs

The logistics of herding 300 cats and dogs onto airplanes, even chartered ones, requires a lot of coordination. The unsedated dogs and cats are placed in approved, hard travel-safe pet crates, which are loaded into the cargo aircraft.

“Every animal has a certificate from a licensed veterinarian that certifies them healthy to fly, vaccinated, and free of any infectious diseases,” Steinberg said.

The flights from Puerto Rico then land at Million Air FBO at Westchester County Airport (KHPN) in West Harrison, New York. 

"We are told by pilots that the pets are typically very quiet during the flight, but tend to stir and be more vocal during takeoff and landing," Steinberg said. Once in New York, they are processed by an awaiting team, and their circumstances change for the better almost immediately.

The animals are taken out of their crates, secured with a collar, harness, and leash, and transferred to their next step of the journey, which Steinberg described as "either to a foster family, shelter partner, or directly to their new family waiting in the parking lot!"

Want To Adopt or Fly a Rescue Pet?

Anyone interested in adopting a rescued pet may learn more about the process by visiting The SATO Project's website. Pilots interested in volunteer opportunities for rescue flights around the country may learn more by visiting Wings of Rescue's website.

• READ MORE: Hundreds of Pilots To Provide Transport for Women’s Medical Care

The post Airlift Aims To Rescue 300 Abandoned Dogs, Cats appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Like the other examples, traveling with Fido requires planning and often comes with a degree of trepidation. After all, it is hard to predict how your uninitiated pet will respond to the sensations of flight. While many pilots who fly regularly with canine companions say it is no big deal, that their dogs usually fall asleep during the taxi, it might not be so easy in every case.

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While I look forward to taking Mozzie, our hardy Australian cattle dog mix, on his first flight soon, I wonder if cockpit noise will bother his sensitive ears. I also worry about motion sickness, which occasionally strikes him on long car trips. Perhaps the unfamiliar airport and aircraft will make him nervous?

Christoper Corrado, a veterinarian and pilot based in Blairstown, New Jersey, says anxiety and motion sickness tend to be the main hurdles for dogs. And sometimes the odd visual perspective of the earth through the windshield at several thousand feet upsets them. But many dogs love to fly, and will jump into an airplane the same way they jump into a car.

A number of companies sell gear from muffs for hearing protection to therapeutic swaddles designed to keep dogs calm. A Warsaw, Indiana, company called 4 Paws Aviation adds oxygen hoods to the list to prevent hypoxia at higher altitudes in unpressurized cabins.

Still, many pilots who have flown with dogs for years say the only equipment you really need is a comfortable back seat where the animal can sleep, because that is what dogs usually do.

“No one knows better how your dog is going to behave than you,” says Peter Rork, founder and president of Dog Is My CoPilot. You have to allow pets some time to get used to the routine of flying, which may take a few trips, he adds.

Rork’s organization flies dogs from overcrowded shelters, where they may be killed to make space, to adoption centers in areas where dogs are in demand as pets. For this type of bulk shipping, efficiency is the goal. The dogs ride in crates in the group’s Cessna Caravan because it is the best way to transport as many as possible while keeping them comfortable and under control, Rork says. 

Dog Is My CoPilot has not used special equipment beyond crates for the animals. While the Jackson, Wyoming-based organization flies routes over and around the Rocky, Sierra, and Cascade mountains, they do not fly above 14,500 feet—and they keep high-altitude exposures short. Rork says the dogs feel more secure in their crates and typically snooze from takeoff to landing.

Patience is probably your greatest resource in getting dogs into the air successfully. Let them hang around the hangar for a while and get familiar with the aircraft’s interior before departing. Bring a bag with water, treats, and maybe a favorite chew toy. Have another family member or friend come along the first time to comfort, and if necessary, wrangle the critter while you fly. Remember, distraction is always a serious threat.

Chances are, if your dogs tend to follow you from one activity to the next, they will fly with you as well. Some will love the experience while others will just tolerate it. A few will be anxious, ill, and otherwise miserable. In this way, dogs really are like people.

The post Does Your Dog Need a Headset? Tips for Flying with Fido appeared first on FLYING Magazine.