Our first destination was, as usual, Six Flags Great Adventure theme park in Jackson, New Jersey. I departed on runway 08 (easterly direction) then turned CCW around the airport as I climbed to 2,000 feet. My weather briefing indicated the ceiling (bottom of the lowest deck of clouds) to be no more than 3,000 feet, and as I leveled-off I could see that the forecast was proving to be correct. Flying on a southeast heading, we passed just to the west of Sky Manor airport and towards the bustling country metropolis of Flemington, New Jersey. It looked very pretty to see some color bursting from the tree buds below.
But just as we noticed the town to our left, ahead of us looked quite dismal with a layer of clouds and mist at a lower altitude than what we were flying. I eased back on the throttle and descended to 1,500 feet, just low enough to clear this ominous looking layer of visible moisture in the form of whispy clouds. The visibility was not bad, though, so we pressed on. After circling Great Adventure a few times and acquiring a massive amount of aerial pictures (See the Gallery HERE), we headed west. Queen City airport in Allentown, Pennsylvania, was to be our next destination. For simplicity, we decided to over-fly Trenton airport's airspace rather than call the control tower for permission and be vectored through accordingly. Upon leveling out at about 3,000 feet, the air was calm and smooth, and we overflew a recently closed airport, Twin Pine, located in the town of Pennington, New Jersey. I then shot a picture of this grass field airport with two, large, yellow X's on each end of the runway:
We were nearing the Delaware river. But just then, I noticed that same line of lower clouds as we had seen previously, so I quickly descended to about 2,000 feet, which was a bad altitude to choose as we soon found out. Wanting to return to our home base airport instead of Queen City due to the poor weather conditions, we were now flying northwest, and noticed a slight haze or barely visible moisture in the surrounding air. We couldn't put our finger on just what this phenomena was, though we should have of known better. Just then Dad asked me if I reduced the throttle. Of course I didn't, but he had to increase it just to maintain engine RPM. Then in a few more minutes of flying through this barely visible mist / haze, I had to increase the throttle myself to keep the engine RPM at a constant setting. Weird, I thought. But just as we passed the town of Flemington, the air became clear once again and the mist/haze was nowhere to be found. It was still cloudy, though, and we continued towards our home base airport. The engine RPM was steadier now, too. Upon entering the airport traffic pattern, all was normal so far. On final approach, though, I noticed that when I brought the engine to an idle, I could actually see each blade as it made its rotation, indicating that the engine was near stalling. I brought the power up just a bit to keep it running, and again as I powered down to an idle, the same thing happened. This kept occurring even as we touched down and taxied off the runway.
As we were taxiing back to our tie-down spot for some lunch, this so-called phenomenon hit us like a freight train riding on oiled tracks. Carburetor Ice (Click the link for an explanation of what this really is). I should have been flying at 1,500 feet, an altitude below this cloud / moisture deck, as I did on the flight to Great Adventure and after we passed Flemington. And at the very least, once we saw the moisture / haze, pulling the carburetor heat lever would of been a good idea, just as a precautionary measure. Well, any lesson learned that you can walk away from is a lesson learned well. After a bite to eat, we boarded the plane and departed the traffic patter to the west. It was then that I noticed a large, yellow lightning bolt painted on the border of a soccer field:
We continued westbound for the Allentown, Pennsylvania area. I wanted to shoot aerial photos of Dorney Park's newest coaster, Voodoo, as I had in the past (See this gallery HERE). By this time, the weather was becoming very nice with high clouds and a lot better visibility. We flew a few circles around Dorney as I captured many nice photos of this unique coaster. Then it was a heading northeast as we flew the circumference of Allentown-Bethlehem International airport's airspace up to the few remaining structures of Bethlehem Steel. Again, I shot pictures of this almost haunted looking structure that was part of this famous steel plant many years ago:
We turned further north and overflew the town of Easton, Pennsylvania, then up along the Delaware river to the town of Belvidere, New Jersey, where I shot some photos of where my friend flies giant scale, radio-controlled airplanes. Their flying club is called the North Jersey Jumbo Flyers:
I then wanted to fly further north and land at Blairstown airport in Blairstown, New Jersey. Nothing special there except for some glider activity, so after landing we taxied back to the runway and departed, this time turning southeast. One of my colleagues where I work lives in this area, so I decided to scout out his home near Hope, New Jersey, but to no avail. I just couldn't remember the map he showed me and foolishly I did not have it with me. Next Time !!! Anyway, continuing south we traversed some rather large hills with rock faces protruding over the lake below.
We then noticed that the visibility was dropping a bit, and it looked as if the lower layer of clouds that we saw earlier east of Flemington was moving further west. Up ahead of us was the development where I live, so we flew a few circles around the house and got some nice aerial photos. The best yet that I have shot of the house and surrounding area. Like all good things, though, this flight had to come to an end, and I pointed the nose towards our home base airport. And just as I did this, I noticed some interesting fields just south of Clinton, New Jersey. One looked like green rivers flowing through a wheat field:
And the other like had the shape of a lightning bolt scorched into a dirt field:
Continuing towards the airport, we touched down gently in the mild crosswind. All in all, a nice Spring flight with bits of color here and there, teasing us with what is on the horizon come summer. Looking forward to our next jaunt, and this time hopefully with my wife too.
Thanks for Joining Dad and I on this Flight !!!
