Ok, so I'm procrastinating once again in that it has taken me almost a month to post my last two flights, both of them in December 2007. The first one took place on Sunday, December 10, 2007. Dad and I had to wait in our car for the haze and low clouds to burn away enough where the weather turned VFR (Visual Flight Rules). Of course our pre-flight was completed, so we just chewed the fat in the car, sipped our coffees and kept our hopes up that the haze would burn-off.
Finally, around noon, the weather began to clear. Other pilots at the airport were now taking to the skies and I figured it looked good enough for us to go flying. Once off the ground, all I kept thinking was, "I'll just keep it in close and land in a few minutes". Yeah, it looked that bad. But as I kept climbing out as I circled the airport, I saw the visibility was not all that bad, even though the clouds were still low and hazy as can be. The distance we could see in front of us must've been about 5 miles or so.
As we flew east, though, it began improving. We decided to land at Central Jersey Regional airport since we spent many, many years there when Dad shared ownership of an airplane with his brother. Of course by this time, the weather was now beginning to clear, and this meant the wind was from the northwest - Yup, a direct crosswind, though nothing I couldn't handle. After landing, we parked and looked around the field, noting the new construction of aircraft tie-downs and a new fuel farm in the works. The newly renovated office wasn't even complete yet, so we had to use the port-o-potty parked outside. Ok, enough of taking a trip down memory lane. We cranked up the engine and within five minutes, we were airborne once again.
Now I headed back west and noted the low clouds were all but gone, yet it was still very hazy and we could only see about 7 or so miles ahead of us. Regardless, it was a nice and relatively smooth flight, and we flew just south of the Round Valley Reservoir and over the many picturesque farms of Hunterdon County. Finally, we agreed not to burn any more fuel for no reason, and decided to land. It was a day you really could not go anywhere far, and by this time, it was already getting late. All in all, we brought the engine to life and enjoyed about an hour of airtime that day which we were very happy about, seeing how only a few hours before we were grounded by haze and low clouds and confined to the car.
Thanks for Reading, and Happy New Year !!!
