[ MSFS2020 | VATSIM ] the A2A Comanche from Friday Harbor (KFHR) in and around the San Juan Islands!

When one says "San Juan Islands," you might guess that we're in for a tropical adventure -- but they're actually in the Pacific Northwest, tucked between Seattle and Vancouver. We discovered them during the early run of "Bush League Backcountry" events. We've returned multiple times, and given the density of private dirt strips, we probably still haven't seen more than about half. The weather was typical for the region -- gloomy and misty with low overcast throughout.

We set out from Friday Harbor (KFHR) in our A2A Comanche bound for Cypress Island -- my perennial favorite of these. However, low clouds and low visibility impacted us early, and we soon realized we weren't where we had intended. As it happens, after departing east from Friday Harbor I had turned south TWO land-masses too early. Our strategy became, "land wherever we see a runway and then we'll ask where we are." It turned out to be Center Island. We also realized there was a chance we'd grazed the perimeter of Whidbey Island's Class Charlie -- but with no VATSIM ATC on, we escaped any Naval intervention.

Unexpectedly in an area with three successive strips side-by-side, we figured we'd take the opportunity to explore the other two while hoping the weather at Cypress Island would pass. So next was Decatur Shores, a larger private strip we'd passed over on our setup for Center Island. Our approach wasn't perfect but we had tons of room to work with. We then set off for its neighbor, Decatur/Jones. We initially looked to land on the northeast-bound runway before spotting the power lines which hang menacingly over that end. So we decided to make it an "arrive southwest, depart northeast" kind of visit. The second attempt was tight and rushed, with a ton of extra speed inbound. The Comanche is a decent short-field performer -- but at a higher weight than a true bush plane, it doesn't forgive extra altitude or speed. On the rollout we thus spat ourselves out from the end of the airstrip onto an adjoining road. However, we lived to tell the tale, and went on to the next stop!

We'd hoped to make a second attempt at Cypress, but leaving Jones we realized the weather to our north and east was still looking ominous. We thus turned west instead, and curled around onto Blakely Island. The airstrip there is quite sloped, higher in the middle than on the ends, and the resulting touchdown was a bit of a jolt as a result -- but good enough not to hurt ourselves nor the airplane. I hadn't remembered Blakely having a full parallel taxiway, so, I was briefly concerned that we'd landed at Orcas Island instead, somehow. A quick conference with a local (read: a quick glance at vatsim-radar) confirmed we were at Blakeley. Whew!

As much as I wanted to continue branching out and exploring, a rash of recent minor illnesses had left my voice sounding particularly strained, so we decided to start making our way back toward our origin. We still wound up making 2.5 more stops, however. And yes, I'll explain the "half."

We noted from the special event map from Bush League #8 that Shaw Island had two airfields -- we dubbed them "Shaw East" and "Shaw West". And while our approach to Shaw East found us suddenly carrying about twenty extra knots of airspeed, its longer length and uphill rollout gave me confidence that we could stick the landing without complication -- and we did. Departing back from there, Shaw West came into view -- but buried in the forest as it was, it was difficult to make out exactly which clearing was the runway. We circled for an inspection pass and discovered that it indeed does feature two paths, intersecting in a V-shape, either of which is landable! But we elected for the slightly straighter, slightly longer one -- and as we came in slow over the cove and harbor, we let the upslope rise to meet us.

Circling for Shaw West we had noted a strange scenery feature -- a massive paved runway looking like it was lost, floating in the middle of the waters west of Shaw, even featuring a sailboat lazily floating right in the middle! We were dared by one of our hooligan stream regulars to see if we could manage a touch-and-go there -- and we figured, what the heck. Low and slow over the sailboat mast, we touched down on the far aiming blocks, then jolted the power back in so we didn't end up swimming. That plan almost backfired as the sudden burst of torque almost flipped the plane over. But we survived to head back to Friday Harbor.

Rain and mist continued moving in, and spotting our origin was no easy task. We finally found an area of San Juan Island whose coastline we recognized, and knew that our airport was just beyond it. But when it came into view, we were tremendously too high. Rather than forcing a bad position, we circled once to lose altitude then closed the night with a mostly graceful arrival back at home to end on! -- Watch live at   / slantalphaadventures