Yes, today started out COLD. On this Sunday, the 21st of January 2007, the temperature read 18F on the thermometer in the wee hours of the morning. What I thought was definitely a No-Fly day due to the breeze combined with the frigid temps turned out to be one of the better days to fly. With that said, it was Dad and I taking to the skies today, as my wife unfortunately could not be with us.
Since it was so cold in the morning combined with the fact that the engine had not run in 2 weeks, we decided to pre-heat our trusty Lycoming. After a 10 minute pre-heat and a thorough pre-flight, I pumped the throttle 5 times, but to no avail.....She didn't start. With 3 more pumps, the ol' girl came to life, and within 15 more minutes after a warm-up we were airborne, climbing at over 1,000 feet/minute at 100 mph.
I pointed the nose southeast and headed directly towards Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. I didn't expect much to be changed since my last park fly-over two weeks ago, but I was quickly proved incorrect in my assumptions. Much work had been done to the park in preparation for opening day in late March. The NEW kids area, Wiggles World, is cleared and construction is ready to commence. One of the larger coasters, Chiller, is having one section of its track modified/replaced and other areas are receiving minor but necessary improvements.
After two CCW circles of the park, I headed west for a bit, then south.....All this to clear McGuire AFB's controlled airspace. While traversing the outer boundaries of this airspace, we spotted something we'd never seen hadn't noticed before in almost 12 years of flying....A massive flock of white geese flying low over the corn fields. I snapped a bunch of pictures of this neat sight and one that I will eventually post to my website in a future update.
South Jersey Regional airport was our next destination for some HOT coffee and a banana nut muffin. The restaurant was packed as usual, though we grabbed our grub and headed for the airport's FBO (fixed base operator) lounge. After a nice rest and a warm-up, we were back in the air, this time heading northwest towards Queen City airport in Allentown, PA. This route took us north of Philadelphia, over the Delaware river, just north of Northeast Philadelphia airport and on toward the now defunct Warminster Navy base in the town of Warminster. Continuing, we spotted Doylestown to the right and an intriguing highway intersection that I just couldn't pass up snapping a picture of for a future update. Next was Lake Nockamixon on the right with Pennridge airport on the left. Further on was the bustling town of Quakertown, then finally over the mountain ridge to Queen City airport, just south of Allentown.
After landing to the northwest on runway 33 (330 degree heading), we parked at the FBO ramp and had them give us a top-off (fill both gas tanks). We originally planned on going there for not only fuel, but to eat our picnic lunch in the cafeteria, though when we arrived we weren't that hungry on account of that muffin we ate earlier. So, we paid for the fuel, cranked up the engine and commenced taxiing back to runway 33. This time, though, I wanted Dad to shoot a video of the take-off for posting in a future website video update. Turns out, the video came out great and I look forward to sharing it with everyone soon.
With a quick CCW circle around Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom after take-off to shoot some pictures of a few of their coasters, we were headed back east, enroute to Alexandria airport in Pittstown, NJ. Soon we were crossing the Delaware river once again, just north of Milford. Quickly after, I set-up the plane for a landing on runway 26 while checking for traffic. We wanted to visit this airport because we are thinking of moving the plane here from Solberg. The tie-down is less expensive and it is a freshly paved area as well. I met the airport owner ??/manager Linda and we had nice, albeit brief, chat about the tie-down issues. Satisfied with that, we were soon heading northeast toward the Spruce Run and Round Valley reservoirs to shoot more aerial photos of this pristine area. The engine oil temperature was once again back to where it should be so as to vaporize all of the water from the oil, so we then decided to head back to Solberg and finish our day of flying.
As we entered the traffic pattern, the wind was non-existent so we decided to land on runway 04 (40 degree heading). After gently touching down and a quick taxi back to the tie-down spot, we pushed the old girl back to her resting place until the next time she comes to life and carries us on yet another memorable flying adventure !!!
