The Joy of Aviation

On August 7, 2011, Duchess County Airport (POU) had it’s first fly-in in many many years. As part of this event the Poughkeepsie Pilots Association held a discussion on fun places to fly to in the Northeast United States. A few themes came through. 1) On airport (or very near by) food, 2) Cheap (relatively speaking of course – lol) fuel, 3) Something to see or do (museum, tourism, etc)

This is the list of airports everyone came up with. (no particular order)

Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, NY: NY94
Old Rhinebeck sent a plane for the event and a couple of the ground crew/pilots/spokes people spoke about the Aerodrome and why it’s a great destination with its museum and airshows. Yes! You can fly in – with advanced permission. It’s a grass (bit of a roller coaster) field that they say is 1800′ (NE A/FD says 2200′). You have to be in by Noon and stay till 5:00 when the show is over. Saturday’s show emphasizes the pioneer era and the oldest* flying airplane in the world. Sunday’s show is the melodrama that Ol’ Rhinebeck is famous for.

*Well, maybe not the oldest. Apparently this 100+ year old plane the Aerodrome flys every weekend is 14 days younger than one in a museum somewhere that gets flown just once a year. So, you tell me, which is “older”.

Kimball’s / Jaffrey Airport, NH: AFN
Ok, you may have heard the owner, Harvey, is a little (cough) unconventional with the way he operates the airport. But ol’ Harv seems to have mellowed the last few years. Whenever I’ve visited, he and his wife have been very pleasant, helpful and courteous. Trust me when I tell you it’s worth it to walk to Kimball Farm for homemade dairy fresh ice cream and wonderful food. It’s a very short walk, practically on-airport.

Sky Acres Airport, NY: 44N
Still a family owned/run airport, this is one of the quintessential GA airports. Built from a farm on the side of a hill, this airport is known for “the one where you have to taxi up that hill”. “The Barn” houses the FBO and the popular Perfect Landing Cafe. Next to the barn is an ice cream stand.

Country Creemery / Turners Falls, MA: 0B5
This location was suggested for the awesome food and ice cream just across the street at Country Creemee. Suggested parking is the southernmost tiedown spot.

Central Jersey Regional, NJ: 47N
Pizza and the Hudson Corridor. Whata combo. Click to continue »

Saturday, August 6

8:00-10:00: Breakfast at the new Chetti’s Restaurant, where Lilliana’s used to be. They are working very hard to become the airport restaurant for POU, and can use all the help they can get!

9:00-12:00 Static displays from Cessna, Columbia and some of the airport’s larger pieces of equipment.

10:00-11:00: A free FAA WINGS seminar on Aircraft Airworthiness will be given at Chetti’s.

11:30-12:30: Yours truly, from the Poughkeepsie Pilots Association, will moderate a discussion on Fun Places to Fly to in the Northeast, as well as some CFI Q&A.

Flying: Parking at “Alpha Tiedown” at the eastern side of the field, near the approach end of 24.
Driving: Parking is available off of the Route 376 entrance.

Official Sponsors:
FAA Air Traffic Control Tower, Mike Wold, Manager
Dutchess Aviation, William R. Steinhaus, County Executive
Chetti’s Restaurant, Thanks to Barbara and Chris
Poughkeepsie Pilot’s Association, Andrew Zastrow, President

This is how I felt at the end of the flight!

I had my biggest and best flying adventure last Friday doing an Angel Flight. I was to pick up a couple from Philadelphia Northeast and bring them home to Rutland, Vermont. The trip down was fairly uneventful, flying smoothly between stratus layers. I was hoping this would be what I’d get northbound, but I wasn’t holding my breath. I knew the weather would be challenging up north.

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It was a brilliant foliage season in the Northeast this year. Here are a handful of shots I was able of take on some of my Fall flights.

(click on any photo to enlarge)

The new and the old Bose

I’ve owned the Bose X for about 5 years, 400 hours. I love them. But I longed for better performance and more features – like bluetooth for getting IFR clearances at my non-towered field. A few months ago I purchased the Lightspeed Zulu thinking it might be equal to the Bose X plus some nice features. (my Bose vs. Zulu review) While I was waiting for the Zulu to come in, Bose has the nerve to announce their latest and greatest – the A20. Well! This could be a game changer.

My expectations were not high. The pilot on my left shoulder said “yeah yeah… new model… some matching features to the Zulu to stay competitive”. But the pilot on my other shoulder was whispering “but they’re from Bose”. Knowing I had 30 days to try them out, I figured I’d see who was right. Click to continue »

The comforting indication from the KAP150 that it has glideslope lock

This is my first experience using an autopilot so there’s be a bit of a learning curve. Some things are very intuitive and others, like if/when the King Autopilot 150, aka “Otto”, is going to catch the glideslope, are not. Even after a 100 linked approaches, it still seems kind of random whether it catches the GS. Lately, I’d say Otto drives the plane down the approach only about 30% of the time.

I’ve been over the AP manual several times looking for clues, but can’t seem to find the answer. I’ve also experimented with different points during the approach to engage the approach [APP] button.

One of my theories was that it would not activate until I crossed the FAF. But contrary to that, it would sometimes capture before reaching it. It didn’t make sense and seemed kind of random. If it captured before, I was happy – knowing that Otto would “take it from here”. But this rarely seems to happen anymore. Click to continue »

Lightspeed Zulu and Bose X aviation headsets

I needed to get another headset and heard that Lightspeed was having a trade up program for the Zulu. I’ve owned the Bose X for four years, but always wondered if I made the right decision. Wondered which was quieter. Now, I thought, I can finally compare the Bose X to the Lightspeed Zulu myself.

It took over six weeks for the new Zulu to arrive – apparently a combination of hard-to-get parts and surge of sales from the trade-up program put manufacturing at Lightspeed quite a bit behind. When they finally arrived, I was psyched. I could finally put the years of questioning to rest. Click to continue »

OMG! What's happening under this cowl?

I noticed some stuff streaking out of my engine. Was getting worried. I’m like… OMG what the heck is happening under the cowl. I doubled my oil checking frequency but, weirdly enough, consumption is at normal levels. Yet I have these long black streaks coming out of my engine compartment. Click to continue »

My first Angel Flight passengers

Saturday June 12 9:00AM
Raindate: Saturday June 19
Sky Acres Airport 44N
I believe there will be reserved parking area (lower ramp) for people attending the meet ‘n greet
www.AngelFlightEast.org

For those of you who are looking for an EXTRA good reason to fly somewhere – consider flying for an Angel organization. And if you are in the Eastern or Northeast, I highly recommend you look into flying for Angel Flight East. They are really nice folks.

Angel Flight East was founded in 1992 and is based at Wings Field (KLOM). They have over 60 missions each month up for grabs that cover Maine to the Carolinas and as far west as Ohio.

With over 400 pilots on the roster, they still have way more missions than available pilots. So they are looking for some more.

If you have 300 hours and a current Instrument Rating, you can do flights for AFE.

It’s an awesome experience doing Angel Flights.
-You get to help someone out, who could really use a hand
-Great excuse to fly to places you normally would not fly
-Get the experience of flying into some of the big boy airports (BOS, JFK, TEB, etc) and have the red carpet rolled out for you and landing fees waived.
-Flight expenses are tax deductible
-Share your passion and give some good karma to GA

I’ll be at Sky Acres helping out and hope to see you there.

She was somebody else’s girlfriend. She was quite pretty, very intelligent, and well educated. Maybe some of us airport bums would be put off by the done-on-purpose Park Lane accent (from Radcliffe as I remember). But all of us were acting the part of ace-hero-airplane-driver. We pulled in our bellies, puffed out our chests, and tried to look steely-eyed and sharp-chinned through our wrap-around sunglasses. We swapped lies about wild flights, dumb stunts, and hazards endured (or imagined) in self-deprecating tones.

We knew better than to play that sort of game with Debbie, Julie, Mavis, or Rhonda (all flight instructors). But she was somebody else’s girlfriend. And she was playing the equivalent game with us: asking sharp questions and looking intently through her lavender-lensed designer sunglasses. Her friend had just given her her first ride in a small airplane. She enjoyed it. Let it be recorded to his credit that he didn’t do any of the idiotic stunts that scare passengers, that he flew his Cherokee in a completely professional manner.

She was asking sharp questions. It didn’t take her long to Click to continue »