Gloomy but Gleaming Flight

Saturday, the 18th of November 2006, started out gloomy but soon changed to a mix of shadows, rays of sunshine and interesting cloud formations, and it was nice to shake the water out of the wings after ALL of the rain we've had over the past few weeks. Today it was just Dad and I since my wife had a previous engagement elsewhere.

After a thorough pre-flight inspection, I pumped the throttle 5 times due to the cold weather and the fact that the engine has not been run in over 2 weeks. After 1 rotation of the propeller it started with gusto. As I taxied out to the runway but before I did my run-up, Dad noticed much water spewing from the right wing. We were going to taxi for a while to let it all run out, but after much shaking of the plane using only the brakes, we noticed that MOST of the water had spewed out.

Take-off was powerful but smooth, helped by the fact that the air is cold, dense and allows the propeller to "bite" into it, as I mentioned in my last post. I headed north and climbed to 2,500 feet. The turbulence was light and the visibility was 10+ miles, which was really nice. We could see the Catskill mountains soon after we took-off from about the Morristown area.

Continuing north, I climbed to a little over 3,000 feet since the moutains were higher in this area. We soon crossed Route 10, then Route 46 thru Dover, then Route 80 and the Rockaway Mall. Soon we were over Picatinny Arsenal and Green Pond, commenting how the hills of north Jersey looked so brutal and desolate with no leaves and the sky a gloomy grey. But just as we crossed Route 23 and approached the state border and the onion fields of Florida & Pine Island, NY, the sun was peeking out and with the spotty shadows this created against the backdrop of the hills in the area, the sight was simply astounding.

A quick check of the GPS showed our ground speed was a low 125 mph due to the headwinds from the north. I eyed our destination airport and circled it to shoot some pictures since I knew I had none of Orange County airport in Montgomery, NY. We soon landed and taxied to the Restaurant/Fuel area. The restaurant was newly renovated and opened last year. The new owners turned it into a real, first class joint, calling it "Rick's Runway Cafe", with a Panera Bread type menu, and awesome Dark Roast Guatamalan coffee - YUM !!! Anyway, since it was a bit crowded, we decided to take-off and shoot some pictures of a resort a few miles north. Once I had shot about a dozen or so pictures of this amazing place (I forget the name off hand, but will have these posted on my site sometime in the near future), we headed east across the Hudson river, just north of Poughkeepsi, NY, to Sky Acres airport.

This airport has a coffe shop as well, and usually not too crowded, but when we walked in, we could've swore they were offereing FREE meals as the place was packed. No problem, though, as we decided to simply look around the gift shop, then take-off and head west once again, back to Orange County airport for fuel and food. This flight took us back over the Hudson river, just north of Stewart International airport. Finally, after landing, parking and walking into Rick's Runway Cafe once again, we noticed the place had emptied out. Waiting for us, though, was a nice, warm slice of homemade appple pie and that dark roast coffee I mentioned above. A bit pricy, but then again, so is Starbuck's.

After a nice rest and warm-up with the coffee, we had the maintenance crew fuel us up at a whopping $4.09 per gallon (OUCH !!!) then taxied to runway 26, applied full throttle and we were off in a few hundred feet. Turning left, we headed south, climbing to 2,000 feet and heading towards Greenwood Lake and West Milford, NJ. This route took us over Greenwood Lake airport and once again the hills of northern NJ. I wanted to check-out Morristown airport, so I headed a bit more southeast and flew a course taking us over Boonton Reservoir and the interchange of Route 80 and Route 287. Soon, Morristown airport was dead ahead, and since I didn't want to bother with calling any control towers, I flew in the only slot available where I did NOT have to call anyone. This is 300 foot high gap between the upper boundary of Morristown's airspace and the lower boundary of New York's airspace. It works out quite well.

Finally, I turned a bit southwest now, taking us just east of Bernardsville, then over the Route 78 / Route 287 interchange, which I photographed since it looked so amazing. Again, I will post this and other interchanges I shot that day on my site in the near future. Entering the Solberg (my home base airport) pattern, it was smooth and a bit of sun was poking thru the clouds. I touched down ever so gently and taxied to my tie-down spot, giving the engine a quick run-up to ensure the plugs hadn't loaded up on landing.

So what seemed like a gloomy flying day turned out to be a fun-filled and gleaming day of airport hopping, photographing & otherwise beautiful views......