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.

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The museum’s last owner was the late Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and business magnate, who owned and managed the museum as part of his estate. Allen died in 2018 after battling cancer.

The Museum’s History

According to the museum’s website, Allen was an avid aircraft collector in his lifetime and acquired other military artifacts. 

In 2008, the collection moved from its home in Arlington, Washington, to its current location at Paine Field. It showcased Allen’s collection of approximately 71 pieces from the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union. Another point of historical significance is that the refurbished hangars that housed the museums served as maintenance hangars for Alaska Airlines in the 1950s. 

In May 2020, the museum suspended its operations indefinitely due to the disruption from the pandemic but never reopened. 

Allen’s estate was managed by the holding company he founded in 1986, Vulcan Inc., that held the museum as an asset. Another recent and prominent divestment was Stratolaunch, which Allen founded in 2011 to build a new flying launchpad for space vehicles and rockets. 

With the sale, it is now expected that Walton or the Runway Group will relocate the entire exhibit to another location. Some of the prominent artifacts include SpaceShipOne, the world’s first private crewed spacecraft that won $10 million from the X Prize Foundation as the first civilian team to launch a low-cost spaceship into suborbital flight twice within two weeks. It was carried into space by the White Knight carrier airplane, which was also in the museum.

Who is Steuart Walton?

Steuart Walton is co-founder of the Runway Group, a holding company that invests in real estate, hospitality, and other businesses in Bentonville, Arkansas. He is also the founder and chairman of Game Composites, a company that designs and builds small composite aircraft.

He sits on the boards of directors of Walmart, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Flipkart, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Walton, an accomplished pilot, has been known for his affinity for vintage airplanes. In May 2020, while serving as chairman of the Arkansas Economic Recovery Task Force, he led a statewide flyover to honor healthcare workers and first responders in the early stages of the pandemic. That flyover included four warplanes—a 1944 Goodyear F2G Super Corsair and three North American P-51 Mustangs.

Efforts by FLYING to reach FHCAM, Vulcan, or the Runway Group were unsuccessful.

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In a joint press release with the county Tuesday, the company said the grant will help it leverage its $5.5 million refurbishment budget at the Everett, Washington, airport to occupy facilities in addition to providing a workspace for a launch team of 20 design and software engineers. 

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The team of engineers is critical in supporting ZeroAvia’s development of the ZA2000 powertrain for a de Havilland DHC-8-400 (Q400) aircraft in conjunction with Alaska Airlines.

In a statement, Val Miftakhov, ZeroAvia founder said, “Paine Field was an obvious choice,” adding that his company would now be “well-positioned among one of the most talented aerospace and clean energy communities worldwide.”

Snohomish County is led by executive Dave Somers and is the third-largest county in Washington state. It owns and operates Paine Field, adjacent to Everett’s central business district. The airport is a tactical hub for the region, housing more than 500 aircraft of all categories.

“ZeroAvia is exactly the type of company that Snohomish County wants to attract because they are innovators, job-creators, part of our growing green economy, and the reason we are the aerospace capital of the world,” Somers said.

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Snohomish County is home to more than 500 aerospace companies that produce more than $60 billion in annual revenues and support 159,000 direct and induced jobs. The county has deployed its Strategic Reserve Fund specifically to recruit, retain, and expand the appeal of Washington State to skilled professionals.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee knows what the grant money can accomplish.

“This project is an important part of Snohomish County’s continuing efforts to maintain a competitive edge and strengthen the community with good jobs in the aerospace industry of the future,” he said.

ZeroAvia is initially targeting 500-mile range, 10- to-20-seat aircraft that can be used across all commercial market segments. For its ZA600 program, ZeroAvia hopes to fly a 19-seat aircraft in a hybrid configuration in the weeks to come and fly a hydrogen-electric power aircraft this year. 

The company has recently announced separate deals with de Havilland Canada and United Airlines(NASDAQ:UAL).

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