Coast-to-Coast in the Mooney M20J

Leg 7 - 9/27/2021 - Twin Falls, ID (KTWF) to Pendleton, OR (KPDT)

Leg Stats

• Time Enroute: 2.5 hrs
• Distance (direct): 269nm
• Distance (actual): 285nm
• Fuel Used: 22.4 gal

After lunch, I decided the weather to get to Seattle was a definite no-go (freezing levels as low as 5000 ft MSL, lots of overcast/broken layers, and 9000 ft MEAs to get into the area), so I decided the furthest we could go was Pendleton, OR, which still had good VFR and was forecast to stay that way until the evening. Departed TWF VFR with flight following and headed northwest. Overflew Boise, Idaho and Mountain Home, Idaho. We had great VFR and clear skies all the way until 20nm or so from PDT, but it was looking very very sketchy ahead. Clouded all through the valley that crosses the mountains into Pendleton. At 8500 MSL, I looked at my OAT gauge and saw it was still 6C and consulted the charts to get into PDT. I only needed to get to 9000 to get over the mountain and 7000 ft to join the approach, so I decided going IFR was safe enough. The field was reporting MVFR with moderate ceilings, but the landing itself might be a challenge, since it turns out Pendleton regularly gets quite strong East-West winds, and the winds were gusting from 20-30 knots, more or less down the runway. Ultimately I decided it was safe enough. Asked for and got a popup IFR, got a 500 foot climb over the mountains, entered IMC, was cleared for the approach at 9000 ft, flew a pretty simple (but extremely steep downhill) RNAV, and broke out around 1000 AGL and made an easy landing in Pendleton. Pendleton itself is in the more desert-like eastern part of Oregon, so it was mostly flat and featureless coming into to land, once we got past the mountains. We spent a couple nights here, mostly just walking around the town. It turns out Pendleton is known for a major rodeo (the Pendleton Roundup), but we had just missed it by 2 weeks. But the town is filled with monuments to the rodeo and other cowboy type things. Fortunately, Pendleton was cheap to stay in and even had the "App Scooters", so I was able to rent scooters to get around and get us food. Pendleton also did have a river walk and a fairly nice city park, which Magic enjoyed.

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