RED REX 2 the MAX

[HardCub]

~~O~~

On Sunday, January 8, 2012 something extraordinary was about to happen to the unsuspecting citizens in the Portland, Oregon area.
You see, as the evening hours approached, the weather overhead was about to undergo a totally unexpected change...
something rarely seen or recorded in ancient history, much less understood by many people in modern times.


Something was coming... a unique phenomenon that would change the face of the sky.


It has been labeled in recent years by the MSFS community as... the REX effect




Time line: Sunday, Jan 08, 2012 3:30pm PST

Doug and I arrived at the Hillsboro Airport (KHIO) for a little Sunday afternoon flying in my Aeronca Champ.
The gentle flying qualities of the Aeronca makes it a solid favorite of mine, and I figured Doug would really
enjoy the excellent viewing capabilities of the Champ. How do you like the pretty paint job?



And we're cleared for take-off on Rwy 30 by the friendly guys in the control tower. Can you see the little Honda Civic in the background on
NE Brookwood Parkway? That's my brother-in-law, Terry Goldman. He's driving back home after bringing us over to the Portland-Hillsboro airport.



And we're finally airborne! The little Aeronca Champion is climbing gently into the skies west of the airport.
I'm so happy!!! Flying is were I love to be.



We're clearing the airport boundaries as we fly slowly over NW Evergreen Rd., which runs around the northwestern end of the airport property.



Doug and I are just "putting" along in the little Champion, approx. 1300ft. above the serene peacefulness of the Oregon countryside
as the late afternoon sunlight begins to fade. However, I think he's getting a little bored actually, as he suddenly wanted to know
if we'd be back in time for him to watch his TV shows. (long sigh from me)



Knowing he was referring to catching up on some missed episodes of "GLEE" and "Project-Runway" (me making gagging gestures),
I slowly banked the plane's wings left back towards the Hillsboro airport. Rolling my eyes heavenward, I turned and dryly said,
"Sure babe, ...I wouldn't want you to miss anything on TV."



It's really too bad the low hanging clouds didn't hold his interest... I thought they were super cool looking!
To me, they sort of resembled smoldering cauldrons as they hugged the terrain surface of the countryside
looking westward towards the mountainous foothills of the Tillamook State Forest area.



The Portland-Hillsboro Airport is in sight ahead of us as we descend slowly in a wide circuit pattern near the Turner Creek Park area.
It looks like there's a forest fire burning in the far distance off the end of Rwy12, but I know it's just another low hanging cloud mass.



On final now for Rwy30 at the Hillsboro Airport. The weather is changing and I can sense something is happening as the visibility
is dropping at a steady rate in many areas. Doug's not impressed as much as I am with the scenery outside the cockpit windows.
Oh well. LOL It's my flight and (I'm) enjoying it!



Everything is looking "picture-perfect" for us as we continue on the final approach. You can see some auto traffic on
NE Cornell Rd. directly below us as we get ready to fly over the airport boundary fence near the threshold of Rwy30.
The landing is looking so good... and it was a perfect 3-point touchdown! Sorry I didn't get a photo of it for my friends.

Anyways, back to the unexpected scenario that was awaiting us in the hours ahead.>>>




Or ...maybe, it was something else entirely?



A music video by Kate Bush: Her beautifully enacted story of what terribly happened to Dr. Wilhelm Reich
once the Fed's (FDA) discovered his amazing invention to help farmers make rain clouds in times of drought.

More information is located here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloudbuster



Who can actually say???

The weather continued to evolve... you could "feel" the atmospheric difference changes.
~The story will continue soon~

Microsoft FS2004
Long Island Classics Aeronca Champion
REX 2.0 WeatherEngine and Textures
FlightZone Scenery Portland02
FSGenesis 19m terrain mesh Oregon
ENBseries add-on
FSScreen
EZ-Thumbnails v3.0
1920x1200x32m pixels original resolution .bmp converted to .jpg (resized / Not Edited @ all)

[Doods]

Glenn my man you did it again..... FANTASTIC......

[HardCub]

~~.O.~~

Having landed at the Portland-Hillsboro Airport in my little Champ, Doug has decided he isn't interested in flying with me anymore today. So, with him catching a cab back to Beaverton (we didn't want to risk calling Terry back so quickly) I decided (I) wasn't ready to stop flying just yet. The late afternoon skies somehow held the promise of mystery, of an unseen adventure yet to be experienced by anyone bold enough to wait...



The Portland-Hillsboro Airport (KHIO) as seen from above on this early Sunday evening. The shadows are lengthening now,
and the city lights are beginning to blossom brightly below as the dusk approaches rapidly over the landscape.




I boldly rented a vintage Stampe biplane for a quick little jaunt into the gathering clouds of the evening skies.
Something was just pulling me up there...




Ahhhh, it feels so good to be back up here again.




So peaceful, so quiet looking in the evening light...
Who am I kidding??? It's a little nipply up here in the late afternoon air!




The visibility seems to be holding for the moment as I execute some lazy turns around the countryside in the Stampe.

I headed back to the airport and decided I better make plans to return to the Portland-Troutdale Airport (KTTD) where we had originally planned to be landing before Doug's flying interest completely melted down. We had arranged previously on Friday for Doug's younger brother, Brian and his wife Amanda to pick us up late on Sunday evening as they returned. They'd been on a long weekend camping trip to the beautiful, scenic Columbia River Gorge area, east of Portland. I was running out of daytime rapidly because I had stayed up for too long. OOops!


Hmmm...what was happening to the weather? The skies were beginning to change hue color slightly...
somehow the pressure felt different too... kinda weird like. My "fur" was starting to stand on end.




The rest of this story will continue later. The "real world" is calling me at the moment.


Thanks so much for viewing.

Microsoft FS2004
Stampe Classic Biplane (freeware) Model by Eric Dantes. By Alayn Gourio File name= stampe11.zip
REX 2.0 WeatherEngine and Textures
FlightZone Scenery Portland02
FSGenesis 19m terrain mesh Oregon
ENBseries add-on
FSScreen
EZ-Thumbnails v3.0
1920x1200x32m pixels original resolution .bmp converted to .jpg (resized / Not Edited @ all)

[HardCub]

Glenn my man you did it again..... FANTASTIC......

Thank you so much Leif. It is going to get very interesting as the story of the evening's flight unfolds. I'm glad you are enjoying it thus far. I'll upload the remainder as soon as I can.

[lifejogger]

Nice flights and screen shots, I enjoyed your commentary.

[FlyingKiwi]

Great shots Glenn, the atmosphere is just perfect - I know what you're talking about with that need to get back in the air almost as soon as you're back on the ground, flying is an addiction.

[jomni]

Beautiful haze effect

[peer01]

Well my friend. I think these belong to the "best of album" !!!! Awesome Glenn!

[adamb]

Superb shots Glenn,the environment is just perfect,well done.

Adam

[HardCub]

@ lifejogger> Thanks John!


@ FlyingKiwi> So true Leo ~ So very true! Flying just gets inside of you and all you can think of is getting airborne.
Thanks for the compliments.


@ jomni> Thanks Jason. It was all produced by the RE* software. Ooops.. I just gave away part of the answer to this thread. Darn it!


@ Peer01> Awww, thank you so very much Jan. But, (it's)everything is about to change. Stay tuned!


@ Adamb> Thank you very much Adam. It is about to rapidly change into something sinister-looking.