moving to spokane

I'm considering moving to Spokane in a year. Any comments on
Mead airport, Deer Park, or Felts field???

I'm a new pilot and I'm wondering about the weather situation
there. I live in San Joaquin Valley in California. Sunny
most of the time, except in winter (fog!!!).

Thanks

I'm considering moving to Spokane in a year. Any comments on
Mead airport, Deer Park, or Felts field???

I'm a new pilot and I'm wondering about the weather situation
there. I live in San Joaquin Valley in California. Sunny
most of the time, except in winter (fog!!!).

I dunno about the airports, but it appears to me that an instrument rating
is absolutely required if you want to live in Washington.

I was just there for four days. It rained every day, with alarmingly little
warning, and with quite suddenly lowered ceilings and visibility.

(In short, the weather SUCKED.)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I'm considering moving to Spokane in a year. Any comments on
Mead airport, Deer Park, or Felts field???

I've landed at Felts a couple of times on trips to Alaska. A good
field, with a good restaurant.

Jay responded:

I dunno about the airports, but it appears to me that an instrument rating
is absolutely required if you want to live in Washington.

I respectfully disagree, unless you plan to fly into Seattle a lot in
the winter.

I was just there for four days. It rained every day, with alarmingly little
warning, and with quite suddenly lowered ceilings and visibility.

Jay, you were west of the Cascades. Spokane is east of the Cascades.
Two different worlds.

Moist air comes in from the Pacific, rises, cools, and it rains.
After going over the Cascades, it descends into eastern Washington,
where Spokane is located; it warms, and the sun shines.

Eastern Washington is quite arid. I'm not claiming it's never cloudy
at Spokane, but the wx there is totally different than in the Seattle
area.

Actually, even Seattle is not all that cloudy in summer. You are
generalizing from a sample of four days. I lived there only one
spring and summer, still a small sample. But we had far more sunshine
between March 1 and Labor Day, 1969, than clouds; and had to water
the flowers occasionally. Pretty much like the wx here in central PA.

vince norris

Jay Honeck wrote:
I'm considering moving to Spokane in a year. Any comments on
Mead airport, Deer Park, or Felts field???

I'm a new pilot and I'm wondering about the weather situation
there. I live in San Joaquin Valley in California. Sunny
most of the time, except in winter (fog!!!).


I dunno about the airports, but it appears to me that an instrument rating
is absolutely required if you want to live in Washington.

I was just there for four days. It rained every day, with alarmingly little
warning, and with quite suddenly lowered ceilings and visibility.

(In short, the weather SUCKED.)

A quick look at a map would show that Spokane is over 200 nm east of
Seattle - well over 100 nm east of the Cascade mountains.

The climate in Spokane is much different than Seattle. Many Washington
Residents consider Western and Eastern WA to be two different states.
(Ditto Oregon)

A moments Googling found this information:


Spokane, WA Climate
* 260 Days of Sunshine a Year
Average Annual Rainfall: 17 inches
Average Annual Snowfall: 51 inches
Average Days with Snow: 73 days
Average January Temperatu 20-30F
Average July Temperatu 54-82F


Seattle, WA Climate
Average number of rainy days each year: 154
Average annual rainfall: 39 inches
Average annual snowfall: 11 inches annually
Average temperature in January: 40F
Average temperature in July: 65F


- John Ousterhout-

I live in Sandpoint ID which is about 50nm NE of felts. The weather is
going to be wetter than the Central Valley in CA and quite gray in the
winter. . Check out
http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/s...p3?c=US&refer= and compare
Spokane to some places that you are familiar with. The bad news is that
there will be ice most of the time when there is IMC. The good news is that
you will be really close to some of the best backcountry flying in the US.

Mike
MU-2 (for the ice)
Helio Courier (for the backcountry)


"pablo" smpharmanautatyahoodotcom wrote in message
...
I'm considering moving to Spokane in a year. Any comments on
Mead airport, Deer Park, or Felts field???

I'm a new pilot and I'm wondering about the weather situation
there. I live in San Joaquin Valley in California. Sunny
most of the time, except in winter (fog!!!).

Thanks

Hi Pabl.o
Come on over and join us at:
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/pnwflying

You'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about the area.

Tony
C-GICE

In article ,
pablo smpharmanautatyahoodotcom wrote:

I'm considering moving to Spokane in a year. Any comments on
Mead airport, Deer Park, or Felts field???

I'm a new pilot and I'm wondering about the weather situation
there. I live in San Joaquin Valley in California. Sunny
most of the time, except in winter (fog!!!).

Thanks




--

Tony Roberts
PP-ASEL
VFR OTT
Night
Cessna 172H C-GICE

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:f1ale.6364$IC6.759@attbi_s72...
I dunno about the airports, but it appears to me that an instrument rating
is absolutely required if you want to live in Washington.

I was just there for four days. It rained every day, with alarmingly
little warning, and with quite suddenly lowered ceilings and visibility.

Ahh, yes. Four days is *plenty* to learn everything you need to know about
the weather in a particular place. Never mind that you were here at the
tail end of three days in a row when we had thunderstorms; keeping in mind
that we can go YEARS without having even one thunderstorm.

In any case, as John O. points out, the climate in Spokane is radically
different than that in Seattle anyway. Eastern Washington is basically high
desert; very dry and hot in the summer, cold and snowy in the winter.
Plenty of sun all year 'round.

Pete

pablo wrote:
I'm considering moving to Spokane in a year. snip
Thanks

I live in Western WA. I will ditto what has been said already: The
climates are vastly different. Eastern WA (east of the Cascade mountain
range) is much drier and extreme temperature-wise. It is mostly like a
high-plains desert, very flat, few trees, rattlesnakes, lots of rich
wheat farmers, very conservative politically, hot in the day and cold
at night.

Spokane has more trees than most of eastern WA. It has, I think, about
300,000 people, lots of Republicans and "neo-cons". Lots of
agricultural stuff going on. The town seems a little run-down in most
areas.

Western WA is almost the diametric opposite: Cloudy and/or wet most of
the time from mid October to about mid may. It is fairly dry in the
summer months, though. More jobs are here because the cities are
larger. Lots of traffic problems on the only freeway that runs north to
south (I-5), more liberal, more beautiful with its lush foiliage, fir
trees, lakes, Puget Sound, and ocean. State capitol is in Olympia on
this side. More TFR's than anywhere in the US. Better colleges. Lots of
liberal types here.

If you like, you can write me with specific questions.

Antonio

"Antoñio" wrote in message
oups.com...
[...]
More TFR's than anywhere in the US. Better colleges. Lots of
liberal types here.

I'm still trying to figure out how political leanings got dragged into a
discussion about weather. I mean, without Jay's help, that is.

As far as the TFRs go, I guess you haven't actually been flying in awhile.
We've only got one left.

Are the jobs here because the cities are larger (as you claim)? Or are the
cities larger because the jobs are here? The fact is that it's a little of
both, but mostly both the population AND the jobs are here because we're
much closer to the coast. That's where population centers are, for the most
part. Near shorelines.

I love how it looks here on the west side, and prefer the scenery here, but
I'll bet some folks from the east side would take issue with your assertion
that the west side is "more beautiful". There is lots of wonderful scenery
on the east side, if you just open your eyes to appreciate it.

Other than all that, I think you summed things up nicely. That said, I
think I'm starting to see why your wife contradicts you so often.

Pete

Jay, you were west of the Cascades. Spokane is east of the Cascades.
Two different worlds.

Ah, good point. That's one of the real down-sides of airline (versus
private) travel -- you have no "sense of place." I literally stepped onto
a plane in Chicago, and stepped off in Seattle, without the slightest regard
to geography or distance.

I could have been in Argentina, for all it mattered.

I was just there for four days. It rained every day, with alarmingly
little
warning, and with quite suddenly lowered ceilings and visibility.


Moist air comes in from the Pacific, rises, cools, and it rains.

It was amazing. We were downtown at the aquarium, and we were able to watch
the rain squalls rolling in across the bay (or, rather "sound") every few
minutes. In between, it would be sunny and semi-nice out.

Nor surprisingly, it looked EXACTLY like the Weather Channel depictions of
Seattle, with bands of precip rolling across the state.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"