Tulip Festival at Skagit

The weather last weekend is perfect for GA flying. Though there's not too many lift for my glider training, the calm wind does make a ride in small Cessna pretty comfortable. I went up to Skagit again to check out the tulip festival after seeing people posting Saturdays picture from the field. (I flew to Skagit two weeks ago and saw nothing but grass and dust)

I departed Renton in late afternoon and landed at Harvey to pick up my friend A.J, who is going to help me to some photos so I can just focus on flying. We were cruising at 4,500 until we get close to KBVS and spotted the tulip fields. Because some tulip fields are really close to the Class C airspace, so I checked Whidbey ATIS to adjust the altimeter and then started decending towards the southeast to stay away from the Class C airspace. Then we came back just staying below the class C airspace at about 1,100 to 1,200 MSL and did a couple circles around the field - my first ground reference maneuver practice in three months! Looks like what we learn in private pilot training is quite useful for this kind flying :) After taking enough photos, we headed north and landed at Bellingham International, refueled, and headed back to Harvey and Renton. Logged 3 hours of X-C time. Great progress towards that 50 hours requirement for the Instrument rating. Next weekend, S43-KKLS-S43 with A.J, we are planning each flying one leg under the hood so that we can both log all the time.