Day 12

The day began with a tour of the museum at Vancouver Pearson Field. The museum houses many interesting aircraft, and wartime articles. It was the first commercial airport in the country, and disputedly in the world. The first flight over the North Pole, which began in Russia, ended at Pearson. While at the museum, the crew was asked to give a talk. Each member of the crew talked about what the expedition meant to them, personally. It was a very reflective hour. At last, it was time to depart for the coast, and the final destination of the journey, Astoria, OR, where Lewis & Clark set up their winter camp at Fort Clatsop, after finally reaching the ocean. When the first plane saw the ocean, the famous line from William Clark's journal was uttered, "Ocian in view! O! the joy." The crew was greeted by the Chinook tribe, and during the meeting, three ravens, signifying the three tribes, and a bald eagle suddenly flew over, and hovered, overlooking the ceremony-- a good sign, according to the Native Americans. Flight Operations View Slideshow Flight Operations Expedition Leader's Notes Day 13 The crew put on their flight suits for the last time and after breakfast at the Homewood, headed over to Pearson Airfield to meet the public. Expectations were that we would have a lot of students show up because of the number of Trunks of Discovery (4) we'd placed in the general Portland/Vancouver area. Outlying visits to Woodburn and Jefferson High School had not materialized and only a few students showed up at the airfield accompanied by a respectable and inquisitive number of adults who loved having their picture taking with Roger in period buckskin and badger hat. Our crew enjoyed that as well. Thanks to John Nold and the Museum staff for allowing us to use their theater for what turned out to be a great hour of entertainment for me as each member of the crew stood up and talked for a few minutes about their role in the Flight and what they had observed along the Trail. Rosemary Andrews at CSI kindly ran off to get lunch for everyone and refused to be reimbursed… so thanks from everyone, Rosemary. Roger F. flew the 182 down river with the AOPA rep while Randy and Roger W. took the photographer up in the Hughes for some action shots along the Columbia. We're hoping for a nice article in AOPA Pilot sometime in the future. The entire crew lifted at around 1:00pm for the final push to Astoria. This included Joe Hargitt, who sponsored the local TOD in Vancouver. I asked Roger Fraser and my son Lee to ride with me in 724RJ on the final leg and Gene Elmore, RV pilot deluxe took his first flight of the expedition. Offered his choice of any aircraft, he chose to fly with Jill in the Twin Commanche. Lots of industrial development along this stretch of the Columbia; rafts of logs, lumber and pulp mills... more barges and ships than we'd seen anywhere previously. In fairly short order we rounded the last bend of the widening river mouth and could see the Pacific. I think it was Jill… flying high cover in the Commanche that first called out: "Ocian in view…oh, the joy!" Landing at Astoria (AST) we all kept our engines running until the last aircraft had landed. After shutdown, we assembled in front of the Caravan while Pat Cooney-Nida went across the field to liaison with the local Tribe representatives. We watched Mike Mann's youngest son play on the tarmac in front of the flag-carrying Chinook delegation… his wife Candy had brought the family up from Orange County for the event. I asked Roger W. to stand by me and present our intentions to the Chinook in sign language. Tribal Chairman Gary Johnson approached with his group and welcomed us in his Chinook language and it was easy to imagine a somewhat similar scene 200 years ago. We walked together down the crew line, Gary giving each a bag of ceremonial shells while I introduced each one of them in turn and their expedition role. When we reached Jeanette and my son, Lee, Gary stepped back and directed his gaze to an area of the sky just above our aircraft at the end of the taxiway. Following his lead, we all were startled to see a bald eagle wheeling in the air followed by three ravens. After a few moments of observation, we turned our attention back to Gary, who spoke: "You have done something good," he said. "The eagle has come to great you." It was a very emotional moment and like me, others have said that after Gary had spoken and they turned back to look for the eagle, the birds had vanished on the wind. After a very pleasant exchange of gifts with other members of the Chinook Alliance we departed for the motel and dinner. Gary said that the Tribe has some extensive erosion problems on the north side of the Columbia and I promised that during my summer educational tour for the Oregon DEQ that I will stop in and offer some advice. I'm looking forward to using my expertise to return the Tribe's hospitality to us. Roger F. and Jill took off in the Commanche to begin their journey back to Big Fork, MT while the ground crew, Pat, Ross, Joe and Roger W. wheeled it back to Portland. The rest of us checked into the Shilo Inn. We proceeded on to dinner at Doogers and there was much rejoicing…