From Portland to San Francisco in a C172 (PART IV)

4th leg: Medford, OR – Troutdale/Portland, OR

So, right as the sun is setting, I hear the roar of the powerful 4 cylinder-piston engine rev up to 2400 RPM, and in 36 seconds the wheels come off the ground, and the wings start supporting the full weight of the airplane. We climb through the sky towards our target altitude of 8500 ft, and we quickly leave the Medford metro area behind. A few moments later, it’s completely dark. Nate and I chew on some dried fruit (banana to be exact), as we contemplate the vastness of the world around us. Soon after, we start over flying low level fog, which looks like a down blanket covering the distant ground. This makes me think about an engine failure scenario: What would we do? We are at least 50 miles from the closest airport with an instrument approach; we are in a 30 year old airplane that has only one engine. By the time we pop through the bottom of the fog layer we would be at tree top level, with no time to steer away from the obstacles of the tree-crowded hills. Fortunately, we pass through the 100 mile stretch of fog without problems.
We are now 120 miles out and we start getting prepared for our arrival. Everything seems fine until we hear the winds: the air is rushing out of the Columbia Gorge at about 50 mph! This will make for an interesting landing. As we get close we descend to 1500 ft to avoid the Class C airspace at Portland International Airport, and the ride gets obscenely bumpy. We entered an area of moderate turbulence, which never fun in a small 4-seater!! As we get close to the runway, I feel nervous because I am the copilot and I am not in control, but I trust Nate’s airmanship. As we cross the runway threshold with partial flaps, our airspeed increases and decreases rapidly with the wind shear, but Nate is compensating nicely for it, by adding 10 knots to his final approach speed. We touch down and decelerate, and I realize my hands are sweaty. We taxi the bird to the ramp, and head home with a feeling of victory after landing in a 35-45 knot wind. Just don’t tell my instructor ;- )