The plan was that an early launch from Florence Airport would hopefully mean a pleasent, turbulance free flight across the Coastal Range to Oakridge State Airport, nestling in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains to the southeast of Eugene. The river valleys were covered in early morning fog but the sky was clear, temperatures would be rising pretty quickly in the Willamette Valley making for a windy and bumpy return flight to the coast later on in the morning.

Climbing out of Florence over the fog covered Siuslaw River.

The fog continued many miles into the Coastal Range.

Coastal Range mountains.

The visibility was ok but there was significant haze from the low sun. Mount Hood, up towards Portland, could just about be seen in the haze but the snow covered Sister Mountains were clear and they dominated the view ahead of us and towards our destination. Our new Garmin 696 with XM Weather was proving to be useful as I could check out the weather in the valley long before it came into clear view. Many times we have crossed the mountains only to be confronted by unpredicted low laying cloud covering the valley airports, today it was totally clear with calm winds.

We avoided the highest peaks in the foothills and travelled deeper into the Willamette National Forest over the 10 mile long Lookout Point Lake, this would save an unneccessary climb to 4,500ft followed by a descent to the Oakridge airport elevation of 1,393ft. Later on in the day this route would have proved ‘interesting’ due to the winds and the route over the terrain would be much more preferable!

Cascade Mountain foothills. There mountains have an elevation of 2,500ft to 3,000ft.

Although Oregon has had a wet winter the lake looked suprisingly low.

As we approached Oakridge from the west it was difficult to identify the airport and we were only a couple of miles away before the runway was visible on a hilltop plateau above the town. Oakridge has a reputation for being a difficult airport to fly into due to the updrafts and downdrafts which can occur around it, when you see the topography you can understand why. We overflew the airport and descended to the east for a straight in approach to 27. The final approach is interesting as you have to judge the top of the plateau, clear some tall trees on the right hand side of the ridge and the descend down an incline to the 27 threshold. The runway drops down in the middle and then climbs to the 09 threshold which is handy if you get your approach speed too high.

There are a good number of tie-downs on the apron and enough grass areas to camp for the night if that is your thing. A one mile walk downhill will get you into the town where you can find food and accomodation. Next time we will spend some time having a look around the area, today we didn’t stay too long as we would be flying to the Star Duster cafe at Independence Airport for brunch.

Oakridge Airport, looking east to west. The sharp drop at the end of runway 09 can easily be seen in this picture.

Looking down runway 27 at Oakridge.

Runway 27 threshold.

Sikorsky fire fighter helicopter. Oakridge is regularly home to fire fighting aircraft and helicopters as the Willamette Forest usually suffers from massive fires in the summer. This year things have been quiet due to the cooler and wetter weather and the crew which were on standby during our visit were just sitting around drinking coffee and looking pretty bored, things may change after the 4th July fireworks though.

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