Having flown a great deal across the South Western and South Eastern USA, there were still some areas that I was keen to visit. Top of the list was the Pacific North West; primarily Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. In September 2012, shortly after moving to live in Pennsylvania, I had the time and opportunity to undertake my next flight, together with travelling companions Rowan and Keiko.

Having enjoyed flying a C172RG out of Camarillo the previous year, I decided to try and find the next step up; a C182RG. I had plenty of experience so far in the standard C182, but had never flown the retractable version. Some research online led me eventually to the LA Flight Center based at El Monte airport, Los Angeles. They had a C182RG available for a very reasonable block rate and were happy to rent it out for the two weeks we had planned for our adventure.

Our planned flight would take us back to a couple of much loved sites in the south west, before heading into new territory through Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Oregon states. Yellowstone and the San Juan Islands would be high-points of the adventure!

Given that I now lived in the USA, Keiko in The Hague, and Rowan in London, we planned separate travel to Los Angeles. Rowan and I would arrive early to take care of the rental check-out in the aircraft and spend some quality brother to brother time, and Keiko would arrive the following day. The day after that, we’d set off.

Click here to start reading the trip report, or use the links below.

• Section 1: The South West
• Section 2: Idaho and Montana
• Section 3: The West Coast