EAA Chapter 46



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	Anniversary Flight
	By Bill King

I’m seeing a lot of articles about pilot-couples lately, There was one in last month’s AOPA written by the male counterpart of that other King flying couple, there was one a couple of months ago in Sport Aviation, there was an online survey of flying couples and this month’s AOPA magazine had the results of that.

I didn’t respond to the AOPA survey. In fact, only 6 two-pilot couples did. If I had, I would have said that two pilots in the cockpit to share the work are better than one. Two sets of eyes looking for traffic are better than one. Two sets of ears listening to the approach controllers are better than one. Two people identifying landmarks and jotting down times are better than one (yes, pilotage/ded reckoning is our primary form of navigation, backed up by our one NAV. GPS? What’s that?).

These are all good arguments for two pilots, but really, in our case, we love flying together. Sharing the experiences of flight. Seeing the fall colors on the rolling hills of the Boston Valley with the occasional white fluffy cloud slipping beneath us. Flying over the Finger Lakes or Letchworth State Park. The thrill of flying through the “Canyons” of cumulous clouds (staying 2000 feet away from them laterally, of course) and a thousand other sights too beautiful to describe. This is why we fly, but more importantly, this is why we fly together.

You may say (and many of you do say) that I am one of the lucky ones because I have a spouse that’s interested in flying. Well, OK, I’m lucky. I admit it, but not just because of that! My interest in flying came about at around the same time I met Liz. Coincidence? Perhaps. Liz always had an interest in flying. She enjoyed the stories I’d tell her about my lessons and generally was very positive about the whole thing. I think that, subconsciously, my passion for aviation was reinforced by her positive reaction to it. It is not far-fetched to say that if not for her, I wouldn’t be a pilot today.

But I digress…

This is a story about our anniversary flight. I should start writing about the flight!

The plan was to fly to Oswego (FZY) for breakfast and then go to Maxson Airfield (89N) and spend the day at Alexandria Bay. I read on airnav.com that the FBO at Maxson has a $12 tie down fee that includes a ride into Alexandria Bay and back. That seemed reasonable enough. I checked Google Earth and found that the distance from the airport to the very heart of Alexandria Bay was only about a mile. Worst case, we could walk it.

We really hadn’t planned on what to do when we got to Alexandria Bay. I guess we were banking on the fact that it is a touristy sort of place and being “tourists” we would find something to do. For my part, spending the day with Liz anyplace is time well spent, so Alexandria Bay would do just fine.

Tuesday’s forecast for the past week had called for clear skies. When Tuesday arrived, that was still the case. Ceilings were forecast in the 2500 to 3500 range and the winds aloft were westerly at 25 knots. Well, that would surely get us there, coming back might be a challenge!

Since Liz was PIC the last time we flew (on a picture-taking expedition up to Lockport) I would be PIC for the first leg.

Leg one, BQR to FZY, pilot, me.

I did the pre-flight and pulled the plane over to the pumps for a fill-up. Liz saw Don Griffiths and went over to talk to him. Not to get off-topic (again) but I have to say that Don is a real treasure-trove of stories about the Lancaster Airport. I wouldn’t mind sitting down with him some day and recording all of these wonderful tales of the old days at the airport. Did you know that the hanger down at the west end was purchased for $500? Ask Don about it someday.

Back to the story… After chatting with Jim Cavanaugh, who was preflighting his 150, and then watching him leave, I got an updated briefing and we were off. Buffalo Approach suggested that I remain at 2500 and take a 90 degree vector for traffic. Within 2 minutes I was told “resume own navigation, cleared to 5500” (my requested altitude).

Although there was an AIRMET for turbulence, it was turning out to be a very smooth ride. As we approached Batavia, I could see quite a few cloud buildups over Rochester, It was becoming clear that we would have to divert around them. Liz said that it seemed to her that all we had to do was head southeast for a while and we could avoid them without changing altitude. I informed Rochester Approach of my intention and they “approved”. That got us by Rochester but once back on course looking ahead things were really beginning to pile up.

I decided that we needed to descend and get under. I reasoned that the tops appeared too high to go over and now that we were past Rochester, Oswego would be coming up soon anyway. I descended to 2500 and that was still too high. A broken layer seemed to me to be at 2200 feet. A quick check of the sectional chart showed me that the maximum elevation figure (MEF) for the quadrangle we were in was 1400 feet. The sectional was new, in fact, as anyone with a subscription to the Detroit sectional will tell you, it came out only the day before. After verifying my altimeter with Rochester Approach, I descended to 1800 feet. I was still a good 1200 feet AGL and 500 feet below the ceiling, therefore I’m not calling it Scud-Running!

We stayed at that altitude for a while and I had fun actually flying the plane, as opposed to the trim-the-plane, sit-back-and-watch sort of flying that I so often do. Don’t get me wrong, I like it when it’s smooth, but it’s good to have to do some work occasionally.

Once we got past Williamson-Sodus, things started to clear up and settle down. I climbed to about 2500 for the rest of the leg and in no time, Oswego was in sight. Total time for this leg was an hour. Almost exactly what I had estimated despite being somewhat diverted around Rochester.

We went into Caroline's Airport Diner for breakfast. If you haven’t been to Caroline’s, do yourself a favor and go there. The only problem I had with the place is that they served too much food.

Leg two, FZY to 89N, pilot, Liz.

Liz assumed command after we walked a bit to burn off some of that breakfast. She needed the windshield to be cleaned so we went looking for the FBO. We went into the office where we were able to purchase a can of the spray on windshield cleaner. The only thing we needed now was a “soft cloth”. “That’s right”, the girl at the counter said, “you can’t use paper towels on the windshield, it’ll scratch!”. She said to go into the shop and ask for Doug. “He’s the skinny one”, she said.

Doug was working on a 182 and had himself tucked under the cowl. Ahh, I see, there are advantages being skinny! Doug was accompanied by Toby, the Bassett Hound. When we found out the dog’s name Liz said “See! I told you all Bassett Hounds were named Toby!” As if it was something that she was constantly saying to me! We had to get a picture. Doug went off and obligingly got us our soft cloth. Toby came over and allowed me to take his picture.

I cleaned the windshield and added a quart of oil. Liz did the preflight and we were off. Things were pretty clear by now and Liz climbed right up to 3500 feet. I dialed in the Watertown VOR and set the OBS. Finding the airport would be easy since the VOR was almost exactly midway between Oswego and Maxson. All we had to do was establish a heading TO the VOR and keep track of the time. Reset the timer once we pass over the VOR and keep the same course for the same amount of time and that would put us right over the top.

It worked like a charm. The only glitch, if you can call it that, was when Syracuse approach handed us off. I didn’t quite hear WHO they handed us off to, I just got the frequency. I said nothing and assumed (hoped actually) the Liz heard it. I tuned the frequency in the stand-by and waited for Liz to punch it in. Then she asked, “Did you hear WHO we will be talking to? I didn’t catch it”.

“I dunno” I said. “It was Wheeler something. Sounded like Sack”. Actually it was Sack. Wheeler Sack is the Air Force Base named for two men who died in the line of duty. I told her to just call Wheeler Sack and see what they say. When they responded, they said Wheeler Approach.

When we got to Maxson Airfield, despite what she will tell you, Liz did a great job landing. Not only was the runway narrow, but it had quite a few puddles on it as well as other distractions. On top of all of that, the last 600 feet of the runway is NOTAMed as being closed! Splashing through the puddles, the plane got a little bath on landing. We taxied up to the FBO and tied down on the grass. Liz secured the plane while I went looking for someone to pay the $12 to and get our ride into town. The place was deserted! Nobody there except the cat! It was getting to be about noon so we figured they must all be at lunch.

I wrote a note and left it on the counter and said goodbye to the cat. We took his picture as well. Liz had everything stowed away in the plane and my bag packed with the stuff we needed to take into town. The day was just perfect for a walk into Alex Bay so off we went.

We got just about half way into the town when a pickup truck pulled up beside us and asked us if we wanted a lift. It was Hank from the airport. We hopped in and he took us the rest of the way, a very short trip to say the least. Hank told us about a couple of things that we could do. One of which was to take the ferry tour.

Before he left us he asked if I needed fuel. I told him I meant to have it filled up when I got back. Since there was a chance that he would not be there when we got back he said that he would fill it up and leave the receipt of the dashboard. We could then just write a check and leave it in the mailbox. Talk about service, Maxson Airfield is definitely a top-notch place.

Alexandria Bay

Now that we were left to our own devices, we decided to just walk around and see what we come across. Liz wanted to see what that ferry was all about so we started walking in that direction. The slight breeze indicated to Liz that she needed to buy a jacket so we went into the first shop we came across and she picked one out. “It’ll be good for the boat, I don’t want to freeze!”.

We went to the dock and by now we started to become concerned about getting back to the plane. We wanted to leave by 5:00 since it would be about a 2 ½ hour trp back and I wanted to be back before it got dark. I don’t mind flying at night, but there was still a scattered layer of clouds and I don’t fly at night when there are clouds.

There was a 2 hour boat tour that left at about 3:00 so that was out. There was also a shuttle ride over to the castle that we could take that would get back in plenty of time. We opted for that. The Uncle Sam II got us over to the Castle in time to give us almost an hour to walk around before we had to catch the ride back. The castle was built by George Boldt for his wife Louise. Tragically, she died before it was complete and therefore the castle was never finished. It is in the process of a complete restoration however, and is a wonderful place to visit.

Leg three, 89N to BQR, pilot, me.

It was getting late. Just about 5:00 when we got back and I wanted to get the wheels up in a hurry. I called FSS to get an update. Things were really clearing up a lot. Cloud cover was being reported all along our route as 6000 scattered or better. We would be flying into the sun but that didn’t matter to me. Navigation would be rather simple. I planned to follow the lake shore until I could pick up the Buf VOR and then just head right for it. Since the forecast called for 6000 scattered, it seemed logical to climb to 4500 feet. There was actually a scattered layer at about 2500 but I had climbed above it and it was scattered enough that I didn’t mind being on top of it.

The clouds were dissipating fast and it seemed like there was nothing but blue sky between me and Buffalo. The air was cold and quite clear and even though we were heading into the sun, forward visibility was not that bad. There was not a bump in the sky. The plane was trimmed and I just sat back and watched as the miles of southern Lake Ontario shoreline made their way from my windshield past Liz’s window and eventually out of site behind me. I could see the faint orange and red coloring just beginning to unfold and the leaves’ futile attempt to hold on to its familiar green. All of the farmers in their various machines running up and down the long rows of light brown. The best view of all, however, was inside the plane sitting in the right seat. She’s been next to me for 19 years now. With any luck, she’ll be there for many more. Lucky? Yeah, that’s me.

Happy Anniversary Liz.