The Joy of Aviation

3:30 PM Tuesday. The Phone Rings. It’s Bill. He can’t make the flight tomorrow. Life just jumped in the way. We were going to meet at Butter Valley Golf Port in PA (7N8) for lunch. This would be our first flying meeting since the flying bug bit him (again) almost exactly one year ago this month. That’s when I asked him if he wanted to join me on C-T182 rental/flight over the Grand Canyon while we were in Vegas for a conference. Turns out that he has his PPL but hadn’t flown in over 35 years. A year has passed and he’s become current again and has recently bought a Ercoupe. This meeting would have been his first cross country since becoming current and my first chance to see his wonderful bird. Oh well. It’ll have to wait till December – the next time when we both have open schedules.

Wednesday arrives and I have this hole of time where I was going to fly. But how to fill it? I look at my mission card. Ah! This is interesting… Go check out 97NY – a private airstrip near Hunter Mountain Ski area that recently reopened to the public. Read about that here. I figured I’d give Mark Kenny a call. Find out; if the invitation is still open, the condition of the field, and if he was available for a quick interview for this blog. Alas – voicemail is the answer I received.

As the day progresses, waiting for Mark to return my call, work slowly fills in the flying hole. The gusty weather system that has plagued us for the last several days is finally far enough away that the skies are clear and the winds are calming – at least no more gusts to 28kts. I find myself gazing out the window. I need to go out and do SOMETHING. I did pre-preflight the plane yesterday (pumped up the tires, checked/filled oil, cleaned all glass)… so pre-flight will be quick.

Opening DUATS I see the shortest briefing I’ve seen in quite some time. An excellent sign that this is going to be a nice flight. Pack my flight bag and off to the airport. My mission is to head up to Hunter and at least get a visual sighting and maybe some photos as other pilots are asking for them on the forum. While I’m up I’m going to also check out noise levels relating to prop RPM.

Small plane noise is something that is very fatiguing and I’m particularly sensitive to it. So a conversation on Purple Board for Pilots caught my attention. It turns out that the most significant noise in a small aircraft is not engine exhaust, as I thought, its propeller noise. The tips of the propellers come close to the speed of sound which produces quite a bit of noise. Two big things that can curtail that – an extra thick windshield (transmits less vibrations) or a three bladed prop (three bladed props have shorter radius therefore the tips move through the air slower). Ok, so both of those are pretty much out of my control, the only other option to slow the tips down by throttling back. Many of the pilots posting said to reduce noise they keep the RPMs at around 2200.

Its cold (too cold for this time of the year) and blustery. I thankfully get the plane pre-flighted and fire up the engine. Winds are 350 at 10. Runway 6 is active. I get cleared to taxi to Hotel for an intersection departure. It’s a (relatively) long taxi to Hotel – about a mile. I cock the plane sideways and start my run-up. Ah.. oh.. a stuttering 200+ rpm drop on magneto two. Darn. Probably a fouled plug, but there is someone behind me waiting to take off. I call ground letting him know that I’d like to taxi terminal (basically asking him how he’d like me to get there considering that there is a person waiting behind me). He instructs me to call Tower so I can use the runway to taxi. Tower clears me to taxi rw 6 to golf then on the terminal.

At the terminal, I lock the brakes and press hard on the toe as I reeve the engine to 2400 and fully lean it. I let it run for about a minute like this. Back down to idle, full rich… mag check. 125 rpm down on both mags. Perfect. Call ground to go back to hotel again.

3:50 PM – I launch into the fading daylight. Visibility is over 20 miles and the air is calm. What a nice late-day flight. I level off to 3,500′ and set the rpm at 2200 – the bottom end of the cruise spectrum. It’s a stately cruise (nod to ‘Slick-Jet’) and noticeably quieter than usual. Hmmm.. I like this. I head over to the Catskill Mountains about 20 miles away. It’s now getting significantly darker as the final ten minutes of sunshine wane. Contrast and shadows melt away as I approach the foothills.

As I cross the threshold of the mountain ridge, the peaks look like lurking monsters poised to jump up and grab my landing gear. I push the throttle in to gain another thousand feet to escape their potential grasp. Hunter Mountain ski resort is in sight with veils of snowmaking clouds covering its face. I point the nose of the aircraft towards it because I know the airstrip is across the valley and a pinch west from the ski area.

I’m actively looking for that airstrip now, but with darkness taking hold of the area it’s quite a challenge. Is that it? Nope. Maybe over here? Nope. AH… I think I see the shed and house I saw on the Google Earth satellite… let’s check it out. YES! We have the target in sight. I take some pictures to bring back to the AOPA.org forum, but alias it was not bright enough for the pics to be useful. Into the virtual trashcan can they go.

I circle the field a few times at 5000′ and head back home. For safety reasons, they recommend that you fly higher than normal at night. Even though I was very familiar with the area and have lots of airports within gliding distance, I still felt compelled to cruise back at 5500′ – 2000′ higher than normal – just to give me than extra time, just in case.

Call the tower and receive instructions to report left downwind for runway 6. Since I’m the only one in the plane and my ears don’t mind quick descents, I reduce power and enjoy a quiet 1200fpm coast down to pattern altitude.

To shorten up my taxi time, I land long – about half way down our 5000′ runway. A couple of nice chirps of the wheels let me know I’m home safe.

Update: I received a call from Mark yesterday. Unfortunately, as a result of current market conditions financing has dried up and he’s no longer involved with the development of the airport.

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