RV-8 and the Closed Restaurant
- Steve
- Nov 9
- 6 min read
Saturday 11-8-25 was a very fine day. We had just come off several weeks of mostly back to back storms and had been seeing a lot of rain. Last weekend it looked like this weekend would be another rainy one, so I had made plans to do other things this weekend, but later in the week, the forecast changed and it looked like it would be good for flying. It was.
The last time I flew was 10/15/25, about three weeks ago, so I was getting a little antsy and was glad to see the weather take a turn for the better, for once. There were a few flyable days in that time, but they were all during the week when I was at work.
It looked like it was going to be pretty windy at Westport, so that wasn't really an option. It was less windy at Forks, but the winds aloft were generally from the east which can make it really bumpy descending into the Forks area on the lee side of the Olympics.
That left us with Chehalis as the best destination. The winds at Arlington were light and scheduled to remain so as were the winds at Chehalis, so it should be a fun and uneventful trip. Fun it was, but uneventful not so much, more on that later.
As I was taxiing from the hangar to the south end of the airport to take off, I noticed a really nice looking Howard at the gas pumps. Glad I don't have to pay to fill that, though I would love to fly it. Even at $6.59 a gallon, which is not too bad for this area, that thing would burn a lot of dead presidents.
I figured that since it was the first decent day after a lot of rainy days that it would be a zoo at the airport and I was not disappointed. There were airplanes everywhere. As I got to the runup area, there was a Decathlon in front of me. There wasn't much wind, so I was going to pull in next to him, but he taxied off as I got there, so I took his place.
As I approached the run up area, I saw a C-206 on floats that belongs to a friend of Jay's. He was running, but just sitting there. As I was almost finished with my runup, I saw him approaching. I assumed (big mistake), that he was going to pull in behind me to do a runup. Nope. He just went right on to A1 and waited to depart. I guess float planes don't need to do runups.
I pulled onto the taxiway behind him waiting. It was a very busy day so we had to wait for a few other airplanes to land. When the runway was clear, the guy in the 206 asked the 172 over on Taxiway Charlie if he wanted to go first. Now, I don't know when that other airplane got there compared to us, I say us because there is now an airplane behind me as well. I do know that the other airplane had the option of using 29 instead of waiting for 34, an option that we on the east side mo longer have since the destruction of the way the taxiways used to work.
It eventually became my turn and I departed announcing the plan to depart to the southwest. I had the 206 and and other Cessna in front of me and I was catching them both up. Fortunately, I was able to climb faster than them and get high enough that there was not a conflict.
I leveled off at 4,500 and headed for Bremerton. As I passed the far side of Whidbey Island I had another airplane approaching from about my 11:00 position at the same altitude. I could have turned into him and passed behind him, but I didn't. Instead, I opted to shove the stick forward and drop about 500'. As I passed under him, well, not exactly under him, he was still a little bit to my left, I turned my head to see when I passed clear of him and then hauled the stick back to get that 500' back. Through all of this, I never saw him move at all, I'm not even sure he ever saw me. This was just the first of several events where evasive action was needed to prevent a collision, or at least an encounter that would have felt too close. Definitely too close for missiles.
Shortly before we left, Chehalis was still reporting 700' overcast with clearing some time before 1:00. We left about 12:00 and when we got there we could see the remnants of the low clouds, but they were far enough south as to not be a problem.
Once there though, there was no problem getting in. By the time I got there only one other airplane remained int he pattern and I was able to work around him. On top of that, I made a pretty good landing. I was almost able to make the first turn off, but I would have had to hit the brakes fairly aggressively to do so and so opted to take the next exit.
For a number of reasons, Carl took off about 15-20 minutes before I did, so by the time I got there he had already headed over to get us a table. Imagine my surprise when I saw him walking back as I got out of the airplane. This is where the plan really fell apart.
Chehalis has a very nice pilot's lounge, dedicated to the late Scott Crossfield,so we decided to go there to rest and regroup. We were trying to find a plan B, but one was not showing itself. We once again considered Westport, but another check of the weather showed that it was quite windy there. We considered Bremerton, but as we flew over on the way down it was super busy there and we felt getting in might be a problem.
I suggested Orcas Island, but it was getting pretty late for that. By the time we got there and walked into town it would probably be about 3:00, which would have us leaving pretty close to dark. Not really a problem, but neither of us have flown at night for quite a while.
As a last ditch offer to avoid bagging it entirely and going home hungry I mentioned that we could try the strip mall on the other side of the runway. There are several eating options over there. I knew there was a teriyaki joint as well as some other things like McDonald's and Taco Bell. We decided to go over and try the teriyaki joint.
To get there you walk around the building from behind and the first thing you pass is a Harbor Freight. Have to remember that for later. In a way, that is easier to get to than the one in Marysville and way easier to get to the the one in Everett.
On the other side of the runway is the remnant of an old cross runway that also has the compass rose on it. Some people land and park on that side, but I'm not sure that is such a good idea. There was a guy in an R-22 helicopter shooting landings using the compass rose as a target. Wouldn't have wanted to be parked over there with a helicopter buzzing around.
I made the map in two shots because in order to zoom in to get all of the eateries displayed, the image was too large for a single screen shot.
Now fortified with full bellies, we sallied forth for the perilous journey home. I say "perilous" somewhat melodramatically, but we did have to make even more evasive maneuvers to de conflict with other traffic on the way home.
One highlight of the trip back was a very nice view of the mountains. There was a high cloud layer that allowed the sun to shine on Mt. Rainier in just such a way that made look really pretty.
Fortunately, when we got back Arlington wasn't too busy, but the same could not be said for the gas pumps, so I bailed on getting gas and just put the airplane away. I am happy that I made an even better landing here. I'll take the win, but conditions were about ideal so, I would hope I would be able to pull off a good one.
All in all, a very nice way to spend a Saturday and now we know that we do not have to write Chehalis off of the list until their renovation is done, there are options.
The video can be found here.