Day 55 - Seattle and Sanderson

Tony Cacciarelli • August 9, 2020

Trying to meet up with other

A5 owners in Seattle - August 8, 2019

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Aircraft carrier storage and maintenance

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Seattle skyline

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737 MAXs at Paine Field

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Dreamlifter landing at Paine Field

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Original Instagram Post

More stubborn low clouds today. They never cleared out, just lifted enough around 3pm to allow me and Richard to get up in the air. The goal was to meet up with a couple other A5 owners and get out on Lake Cushman. Unfortunately, it just wasn't in the cards. Between the weather delays and some other technical issues at the airport, we weren't able to meet up. Seemed like fate was working overtime to keep us from meeting.

We did get to see the area where they are decommissioning the naval aircraft carriers and also did a pass near downtown Seattle. When we got back to Paine Field it looked like we were going to get sequenced in front of a landing 747 but I think once the controller realized what my speed was he switched us over to the smaller runway to get us out of the way. Paine Field is also where they are building the 727 MAX and there are a bunch of them in various stages of assembly or holding around the airport.

Tomorrow we're going to go to the Air Museum at Boeing Field. If the weather cooperates, we'll fly down but otherwise we'll drive. Just one more day here in Seattle and then I'll be heading down the coast towards home on Saturday!

😀👍🏼

I'd been looking forward to meeting up with some other A5 owners and doing a group flight. I was hoping for a repeat of my experience in the Adirondacks. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperating.

Our plan was to meet up at Sanderson and maybe hop over to a nearby lake. As we approached Sanderson one of the A5 owners was already on the ground and the other was in the pattern. The aircraft ahead of me ended up doing a gear-up landing. No one was hurt, just some very bent pride, but it meant the runway was shut down until they could clear the aircraft. Clearly this was not meant to be, so we headed back to Paine Field.

The weather near the lake wasn't great, so we probably wouldn't have been able to do that anyway. Still, it would've been nice to meet some other A5 owners.

Also, to clarify a few errors in my original post. The aircraft were 737 MAX, not 727 MAX and they are not built at Paine Field. Hey, what do I know, I just like to fly airplanes.

EDIT: I was a day late posting this one. Whoops!