It's August 8th, 2020. The country and the world are in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, which among many other things meant that we were unable to just get out and fly. While I resumed my CFI training just over a month ago, Derek hasn't been back in the helicopter since at least last December.

He and I have been trying to come up with a fun way to fix that, and we opted for a trip out to Ranger Creek. Located on the northeast slope of Mount Rainier, at 2,650 feet it's the highest elevation paved runway in the state of Washington.

The original plan was to pick up from Boeing Field around 11 am and have a picnic lunch at the campsite attached to the airport. The weather around the city wasn't cooperating, so we ended up digging in to our lunch at Atomic while waiting things out.

Luckily, by about 1 pm things had greatly improved and we had an absolutely amazing adventure. I think Derek has a new favorite aviation destination!