So, like my last post, this flight took place last year. On Sunday, December 30, 2007 to be exact. It was a nice flying day with high clouds, ultra-smooth air and relatively warm temps for this time of year. I always compare flying on these days as flying through butter - Yup, that's how smooth it was, and this was perfect for shooting aerial photos.
Our first destination was Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. I particularly wanted to shoot photos of their newest coaster, The Dark Knight, and its construction progress. Our flight took us just to the west of Princeton airport and the town of Princeton. We could see Princeton University and their football stadium in the distance, with Trenton-Mercer airport off to our right (looking soutwest). We crossed Route 1 and continued over the New Jersey Turnpike, noting the rather heavy holiday traffic. Continuing, Dad and I could see Great Adventure ahead, with Kindga Ka's spike protruding into the horizon. I set-up the plane and Dad flew slow, CCW circles while I panned, zoomed and shot many photos of the new coaster, and the park in general. You can check-out my Dark Knight photos HERE, as well as my photos of the park in general HERE. After circling about four times, I figured I had enough pictures. I resumed flying the airplane and headed northwest towards our second amusement park destination, Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, PA.
It was there that I wanted to shoot pictures of the construction progress of their newest coaster for 2008 called VooDoo. You can view my pictures of this HERE. On the way, though, our course took us directly over Trenton-Mercer airport. And because this is a tower controlled field, I decided to climb to 3,000 feet, well over their airspace, and not bother calling-in. We were now just north of the city of Trenton (our state's capital) and heading over the Delaware river and into Pennsylvania. Soon we were traversing the scenic terrain just southwest of New Hope, then just ahead we over-flew the beautiful Lake Nockamixon. Within a few more minutes, we could see the mountainous ridge-line blocking the view of much of Allentown, PA, with Dorney Park just past this ridge line.
Once reaching Allentown, we flew low enough to clear Lehigh Valley International airports airspace, and continued towards Dorney. Once there, I asked Dad to fly a few CCW circles of the park while I did what I love to do - Shoot Aerial Photos. There isn't much to report as far as construction goes. Some track lies in the parking lot, the coaster footprint is defined and some concrete piling are in place. Still a LOT of work to do. After this, we decided to land at Queen City airport just south of Allentown. This is our usual stop because the staff is nice and friendly and the fuel is cheap (relatively speaking), though we did not purchase fuel there that day. We did, however, bring our lunch with us and made full use of their cafeteria as we enjoyed sandwiches, chips, pickles, olives, drinks and even cookies for dessert. Always lots of jealous faces as we eat, while they buy junk food at the candy machine :) - Hey, we ALWAYS plan ahead and bring our lunch with us, unless we've made prior plans.
After departing Queen City, I wanted to shoot a few photos of one more amusement park nearby. This one, called Bushkill Amusement Park in Easton, PA, was just northeast, though I had to fly there by circumventing Lehigh Valley's airspace. Upon arriving at the park, Dad again flew one CCW circle while I snapped away. The park looked a bit depressing, though not only because it was winter, but due to the latest flood that has damaged this classic park that first opened in 1902. You can see my latest pictures of this children's park HERE. The park now sits smack dab in the middle of a house development, and adjacent to a shopping center.
Ok, enough picture taking, and we were now flying east, back to New Jersey. Soon we were crossing the Delaware river once again, passing just north of Easton, PA. I could see the Merrill Creek Reservoir up ahead, perched high above the valley floor, and enjoyed once again seeing this pristine area of Warren County from above. Next we headed south over the valleys and were treated to a magnificent show of white birds (most likely Seaguls) over these fields. I filmed a short video of this and shot some pictures as well, and will post these to my website in the near future.
We were now nearing our home-base airport and I entered the traffic pattern, setting up for a landing. Of course in this ultra-smooth air, the landing was uneventful. We purchased some fuel and taxied back to our tie-down, ending a day to remember, at the end of 2007.
Thanks for Reading...
