Today, I finished some Christmas shopping and decided to reward myself with a night flight. Where to go? After looking at the Seattle Sectional, Brendan Korb, one of the passengers, and I decided to take a cross country to Ocean Shores. I began all the planning, received the Weather from DUATS, and called in to flight service for a standard briefing.
To my surprise, Shelton, an airport along the route, reported a Visibility of 3 SM. We planned on flying north of it by 15 miles, but despite telling the briefer that they still reported "VFR Flight not recommended." I told the briefer that I understood the conditions, and hung up.
I checked the latest 5 METARs for Shelton's airport (KSHN). The Visibility and Weather was good up until the past hour. "Must be a couple clouds going through," I thought, "We'll continue with the plan and pay close attention to the ASOS at KSHN."
Brendan Korb, Frank Volino and I began our Vashion Departure from KBFI. The night was clear below 12000 with a few scattered clouds at 6000. I ascended to 2500 and trimmed the 172 for level flight. After showing Brendan and Frank Steep Turns, Stalls and Slow Flight over Hood Canal, we continued on our way to Ocean Shores.
After passing Shelton, the ground went Dark. I began to think that we had entered a cloud and so I religiously checked the Sectional for my planned waypoints. Nothing for at least 31 miles. I began to get the feeling that every pilot hates: lost. "Alright, Brendan, I'm gonna show you how to use a VOR," I said to my co-pilot, "Put in this frequency in that radio right there."
"Okay, now put in this frequency in the one underneath." "Okay." "Alright, now press the Nav 1 button up there, and listen." HIWAS with faint morse code in the background. I matched the morse code and identified the VOR. We repeated for the second VOR. "Center both the needles now." 320 on NAV 1 and 210 on NAV 2.
We we're so much closer to Aberdeen than I thought we were. In fact, it was a cluster of lights off in the distance. Perfect! I flew the rest by pilotage as the moon lit the bay fairly. I descended to 1500 feet and made a radio call that we were going to over fly the airport at 1500 feet.
Needless to say, we couldn't find the airport. I clicked the mic 5 times, in hopes that maybe some runway lights would come on. Nothing. I checked the Sectional with the Radio. Hmm. We were on the correct frequency. Why were there no lights? We could see the city, but where was the airport?
Thinking in the interest of time, I diverted. This time, to Westport Airport (14S). I set up the radios, and hoped to find that the airport had some type of weather system. Nothing. Joy. I made the proper call on, coincidentally, the same frequency, and I entered the pattern and flew right traffic for runway 30. Set up to land and turned base, then final.
As I descended for the runway, I picked up speed at an unusually high rate. "We were going to miss the runway," I thought. "Go Around," I said, bringing in the flaps.
I tried again. Same thing. Unusually fast on Final. "Go around."
I decided to take a different approach. I made a call and announced that I was going to exit the pattern and reenter for a straight-in approach to runway 12. After turning the plane around, the air speed was just right.
As we came up on the Runway at 65 KIAS, I was ready to make a perfect landing with headwind. All of a sudden, the runway had a ledge in front of it. I had never seen such a ledge before. Must have been at least 10 feet. I added power and we jumped into the air another 50 feet, coming back down quickly. Bounced. Alright. Not the best landing, but could have been a lot worse.
We tied up the plane and walked into town which was closing down for the night. We found a restaurant and bar next to the marina and ordered some oysters. Delicious.
After finishing our dessert of oysters, we were on our way back to the airport. But not without a little adventure. Brendan decided that we needed to take a short cut to the airport through some thick brush. Little did we know, it was actually a marsh. After stepping shin-deep into water, we were done with that shortcut.
With soggy feet, we headed home.
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After getting home, I was putting the hours into my logbook. I couldn't remember the identifier for Westport's Airport, so I looked it up in the A/FD. Above it, Ocean Shores. Re-reading the entry for Ocean Shores Municipal to see if they turned the lights off I saw something I had originally overlooked. "MIRL (Medium Intensity Runway Lighting) for RWY 15-33 activate by 122.8." We were on the wrong frequency for the lighting! How stupid!
For now on, I will make sure I check and have the frequency for the runway lights for night flights. That was quite a stupid mistake that could have been avoided had I just read the entire entry.