Flight to Lake Placid, NY

For the past couple weeks I've been waiting for a opportunity to visit with a Canadian soaring clubs' Wave Camp in Lake Placid. Jeff in VA, Phil in Hamilton, NY and I were all trying to coordinate trips so we could spend some time together there.

After a dry and hot summer, this fall has been cool and moist. As weekends approached weather would move in late in the week making it difficult for Jeff to fly up and also giving doubt to the soaring conditions during the weekend.

This weekend with showers Friday morning and forecast again by late Saturday, Phil asked if I would be interested in riding up with him. Phil has a beautiful and meticulously maintained Cessna 140 with 100 hp. It climbs about 2-1/2 times as fast as my '65 Cessna 150 and cruises much faster than my Challenger II, and well suited to flight in the High Peaks.

I could drive over to Hamilton. It is about 1:10 from my home in Camillus. Or I could fly fly over. Driving to the airport, getting the plane ready and the flight over at ~65 would only take an hour and thirty total. So flying is the obvious choice!

Leaving work the night before early with a couple hours of vacation allowed me to get about 5 hours sleep and wake at 8:30. However, half asleep as I climbed into bed I set my alarm for 8:30 PM rather than AM. Luckily, I woke just before 9, grabbed my stuff and headed out. I discovered that Saturday morning at 9:10 is not the time to want coffee from Duncan Dounuts. Passing it, there was a double line of cars backed up to the road. Fortunately, just across the street there is a MickeyD. I really need my caffeine fix in the morning. Trying to call Phil I realized his cell number wasn't in my phone.

The Challenger was checked and readied the day before so within a short time I was climbing in the 30 degree air heading southeast to round the Syracuse airspace before turning east.

Looking SW across Otisco and Skaneateles Lakes

Skies were blue and the air crystal clear with visibility at least 100 miles. Winds aloft were out of the south and I needed a noticeable correction with my 62 mph cruising speed at 3,500'.

At 37 miles this was going to be my longest flight yet in my new Challenger. Previous flights had all been within about 10 miles as I sorted through a few minor issues with this 'new to me' plane. In level flight through smooth air I was finally able to relax and simply enjoy the great view out the challengers' huge clear doors.

So many interesting things to see along the way!

Approaching Hamilton (VGC) I kept my eyes scanning the sky. Not only was it the weekend and a beautiful day but it was also "Homecoming" weekend at Colgate University and that means jets and turboprops at an otherwise quiet airport. The only aircraft other than a couple Cessnas in the pattern was a Aircoupe that overtook and passed me a few miles out like I was standing still.

At Hamilton, Phil had offered me use of his hangar to keep the Challenger safe while we were gone. After some help squeezing its big, fat and not too high wings over his car, we loaded up and headed northeast over Utica towards the hills.

Once you leave the Mohawk Valley the land rises up and becomes almost solid forest and lakes for the next 90 miles. There are very few options for landing, unless you have floats. For this reason I decided that if I were to fly the Challenger to Placid, and I will someday, the best route would be a longer route around the Adirondack Park. From Syracuse I would fly north to Watertown, then turn northeast to Gouverneur and Potsdam before turning southeast at high altitude. Something like that would add about 50 minutes to the flight but would keep me over mostly farmland for all but 40 miles.

Blue Mountain with the High Peaks ahead on the left.

Blue Mountain is a nice day hike. It does get a little steep towards the top but the reward is a fire tower on the summit that gives a great view for many miles around. It isn't a long hike and can easily be done in an afternoon. Blue Mountain trail map

Looking northeast along the route towards the High Peaks. Whiteface Mountain is in the distance center left. 

From a distance it appeared that the peaks had cap clouds. As we approached we could see it was snow! Only four weeks before I was camping and hiking here in pleasant Fall weather.

Algonquin is about a quarter of the way in from the left. Giant in the center back. Marcy, the highest point in NY on the extreme right side.

Crossing the mountains and descending into Lake Placid with Whiteface in the background.

Olympic ski jumps from final

On final. Note the displaced threshold. This is needed as the approach to runway 32 is right over  significantly higher terrain. After what seemed like skimming the treetops on base leg, we looked high on final. However Phil was right on the money, touching down shortly after the threshold.

Once on the ground Phil topped off the tanks and after a quick visit to the FBO office we walked along the taxiway, then next to the runway to the approach end of the runway where the glider operation was based.

We visited with our neighbors to the north for a while and shared a few stories. 

Cessna Bird Dog towplane

Duo Discus on take off roll

After watching a few landings and departures it was time to head back to the 140 for the flight home.

We did find some lift approaching the hills...

 Phil, one of the best pilots around.

Early in the day it seemed there was so much time. As we departed there was already cirrus moving in from the west ahead of an approaching warm front. Thickening as we headed southwest into alto-cumulus the cloudcover made for a beautiful sky and also softened the sun in our eyes.

Back in the lowlands. Griffiss Airport, the Barge Canal and Oneida Lake. We thought the reduced visibility below the clouds in the distance was haze. As I discovered returning to Marcellus, it was drizzle.

Phil's Cessna 140 and my Challenger II

Flying home I ran into a some drizzle. Not enough to wash the plane, but enough to realize that rain comes in the hinge on the windshield. Some gap seal tape should take care of that.

Back home and tucked away in the hangar. 

Ready for the warm sunny weather forecast later in the week.

Thanks Phil for inviting me along to share this with you!

Flight to Florida

Finally, an opportunity to add a post to the SoarCNY blog! Wednesday morning just as I was falling asleep after a long night at work, my phone beeped with an incoming text message. I had forgotten to turn down the volume as I usually do each morning. It was odd that a message would come at that hour so I got out of bed to check it out. It was from my friend and flying buddy Jeff who had moved to Virginia last fall asking if I was interested if ferrying a UTM Lambada motor-glider from Melborne Florida to Indiana.

For a change, it didn't take long for me to decide I wanted to do this. I wrote then called Jeff, got out of bed and started planning. Jeff was headed to Florida with Larry Stahl the manager of Petersburg, WV airport (W99) in a Cessna Hawk XP and there was room for me. Needless to say there was no sleep for me that morning. Between working out details of the non-flying transportation, packing for the trip which included a couple days camping at Sun-n-Fun, and flight planning for the Melborne - Hunterburg, IN flight I was busy right up to the point when my wife Sharon and I began the 8 hour drive to Petersburg.

En route I called the Fort Hill Hotel in Petersburg and confirmed that we were on the way. We wouldn't arrive until about midnight, but they made arrangements for our after office hours arrival. The room was very reasonably priced and clean. By the time I climbed into bed I had been up about 36 hours and fell asleep instantly, sleeping soundly until the alarm woke me at 6:30 and in time to meet Jeff and his son Warren for breakfast in town before heading to the airport.

N5323R was ready to go in the hangar at W99 and we loaded our luggage in the back and next to me in the back seat.

The winds were blowing about 20 kts on the ground as we departed and there was a "rotor cloud" stretching N-S and hovering just to the west of the airport. I was expecting some serious turbulence downwind of the hills and had my belt and shoulder straps clinched tight as we departed. Larry who has flown this area and towed gliders here for many years, turned the plane shortly after liftoff away from the promise of a wild ride in the vicinity of that rotor. We missed most of the bumps as we climbed SE into the cool clear morning air towards cruising altitude.

We did however benefit from the 50 kt winds blowing across the mountains. As we passed diagionaly through the "up" portions of wave downwind of the hills our climb rate soared. Look at the Rate of Climb indicator in the lower center of the instrument panels visible portion. It shows 2,000 feet per minute climb as we approach 8,500'! Of course, in the "down" areas of wave we barely climbed or even descended...

Larry Stahl

Jeff Shingleton

Leaving the Shenandoah Valley behind we pass the James River as it flows out of the hills towards the Chesapeake Bay.

Rockingham Speedway in NC

Waycross, GA. (AYS)
This is the place to stop on the way to or from Sun-n-Fun. For the entire run of the event the airport welcomes transitioning pilots with a choice of barbecue sandwiches or hot dogs, chips and soda or sweet tea. FREE!

From my position in the back it was difficult to see forward, but the view out the sides and back were just fine...

After a long day down low in the haze we reach our destination. Here we are downwind at Winter Haven.

At Winter Haven Airport with the line crew ready to tow 23R to its tie-down. Larry's son Alan was waiting for us when we arrived.

With the sun sinking low we discovered that the Winter Haven airport was set up for camping for pilots going to Sun-n-Fun. There were bathrooms and showers, a fire pit and a 5 dollar shuttle to Lakeland Linder Airport leaving and returning many times during the day. We decided that it was a better idea to set up right here at the airport than later in the dark at Sun-n-Fun. The airport staff was wonderful. We stayed 3 nights at Winter Haven.

In a few days I'll have photos from Sun-n-Fun and after that the flight to Indiana...

Petersburg WV Wave Camp - from Jeff Shingleton

Guys -

I flew the wave today ! Windspeeds were 15-20 G30 20 deg xwind when I launched behind a 180hp Citabria. We towed up through rotor and it was like being inside an industrial washing machine on AGITATE cycle. Lots of slack rope to deal with. I towed to a local ridge, climbed to 4500’ in ridge lift, then moved upwind into the rotor. The rotor was enhanced by thermals. I climbed in rotor, advancing upwind until I reached 6000’, then darted upwind into the wave lift zone. I contacted on my third attempt, and was right into 4 kts up for a few thousand feet. I was playing on the edge of the rotor but finally got high enough to move away from that into more reliable lift and finally into the wave. I reached 10500’ in the secondary wave, then put the nose down and flew forward over the rotor to try to reach the primary wave. I contacted the primary wave on the first try. In that, I reached 13500 before I realized that my O2 was not working. I was flying 80kts at 13500’ in 5 kt lift when I decided not to go higher. I flew across the wind for several miles in both directions. The wave window reached the horizon in both directions.

I was flying with an ASK21 and a couple of 1-26’s. The ASK reached 9000’. Only one of the 126’s reached my altitude. At 10 minutes prior sunset, he and I opened our divebrakes and descended in a race with the sun. I was descending at 1400fpm at 78kts with the brakes fully opened. I felt like I was flying the Space Shuttle on re-entry. The descent through rotor was worse than the tow. The ASI was swinging back and forth, and the ship was pitching about quite a bit. But that little Libelle was fantastic.

Tomorrow the surface winds will be very light, but we will still have 60kts at 5000’. And it will be very sunny and reaching 60F. In the morning the inversion layer will be at around 1000’, so we are going to launch at 8am and hope to tow into the wave or thermal into it later in the day.

Jeff