Pilots N Paws trip - Santa Rosa to Hillsboro

[Chris]

Barry and I participated in a Pilots N Paws trip yesterday to transport two Chihuahua puppies from Santa Rosa, California to Hillsboro, Oregon. They had been rescued from a shelter in Madera, CA and should be continuing on up through Washington into BC this weekend.

The weather this time of year in the Pacific Northwest can be pretty dicey (and by that I mean icy), but the forecast for yesterday was for a small break in the nearly perpetual rain showers, so we launched early and headed south. Ran into a layer of clouds in southern Oregon, but at 12,000' and -12C they were made up of "dry" ice particles so we didn't even pick up a trace of ice on the airframe.

Weather was terrific in Santa Rosa (which I suppose is typical). I highly recommend Sonoma Jet Center if you are stopping there. Very nice facility and friendly people working there. They even gave us a discount on fuel since we were doing a rescue flight. We had a very quick lunch in the restaurant at the airport, which was very good, though a little on the expensive side.

The weather on the way back north was even better than the way down, so we got a few nice photos over the Siskiyous. The pups, only 12 weeks old, handled the trip quite well, though I think they were very happy to get out of the plane after we landed.

[Chris]

Another photo of Barry with Barney and Bandit (and N984ES) after landing in Hillsboro.

[Chris]

Shasta and the Siskiyous.

[Kai]

Great job! Thanks for sharing. I love stories with pups, pilots, Diamonds and ice and a happy end.

[Rick]

Great pictures, Chris - thanks for sharing!