The Joy of Aviation

This was a four-part mission:
1) Give my friend, Pete, a memorable birthday present.
2) Enjoy some Maine-fresh lobster.
3) Expand my navigation envelope.
4) Place a new “pin” in my Airports Visited map.
5) Check off one of my life’s “to-do list” items.

First, let’s go back to the late 1970s. I was in High School and had a teacher who was a private pilot. I used to really enjoy his stories about where he went “for lunch” on weekends. One that really stuck in my mind was him flying to Portland ME for lobster – and returning the same day!! That’s at least a 12 hour round trip by car. It was one of those moments that really stuck in my head of how a small plane can really be a time machine. I decided right then that someday I too was going to do that.

Fast forward to 2008. I take Pete for a flight over his Albany, NY home and then up the valleys of southwestern VT. This is his second flight in a plane EVER – first, in a small plane. He’s hooked! He sends me an email with overjoyed emotions and possibilities reminiscent of when we first got our drivers licenses. “Oh the places we can go!! What freedom! When’s our next flight? Where shall we go?” I gave him a two hour radius from Albany. He chooses the eastern most point – Portland Maine.

Portland. Awesome choice. Now to learn about that location. I remember reading about Portland in Pilot Getaways magazine not too long ago. I rummaged through my stack of mags and found the Sept/Oct 2007 issue that had the write up. In the article it recommended a scenic route of flight that, if the airport is not too busy and the winds are right, you can request from Approach. The Harbor Visual approach for runway 29 was a great find. The article also listed several good restaurants. Pete and I choose DiMillos Floating Restaurant. With “what to do” and “how to get there” taken care of, I next turned to “how can I become a better pilot – expand my envelope – with this trip.”

Since my flights are typically short, – less than 100 miles I don’t get much opportunity to practice VOR tracking. This flight is different. Being a solid 200 nautical miles it gave me the opportunity to use four well spread out VORs. Another plus is that Portland International Jetport is Class C . This is one notch down from “the biggies” Such as NY JFK, Boston Logan, Chicago O’Hare, etc. I’ve only flown into a Class C airport – Albany [ALB] twice previously, so I was looking forward for another opportunity to do “all the Class C stuff” (I’ll write a post about what all that is, soon). VOR Tracking, Class C. “Expanding envelope” – Check! Ready to go.

Due to Pete’s tight work schedule, all this planning happens about six weeks in advance of our flight date. Now we sit and wait to see if the weather will cooperate on the day planned.

Six weeks pass and there’s lots of rain in the forecast – except for October 30th. On Thurs, the bad weather is supposed to blow outa here and we should be left with clear skies. Tuesday is windy – like gusting to 30kts. Wednesday is windy – gusting to 25kts. There are AIRMETs for moderate turbulence all over the northeast. It’s not looking so good. I call Pete Wednesday night and warn him that we may have to scrub. Two hours of moderate turbulence in a small plane is no fun! We set the “go, no-go” decision time for 7am Thursday.

7:00 am – More AIRMETS for turbulence. I looked at the Terminal Area Forecasts at several major airports between here and there. Many were calling for gusts to 25 kts. UGH. I canceled. Then as I was gazing out my window with disappointment, I couldn’t understand why it looked dead calm. “It’s supposed to be windy” I thought. I dug into the weather reports and looked closer at the AIRMETS. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the majority of the high winds would be when we were in Portland, dining on fresh lobster. Yippee! I called Pete, explained my discovery and said we’re a GO!

Now, with this on again, off again, our launch time was now an hour and a half later – closer to the turbulence time. As I preflighted the plane, the winds began to increase and get a little gusty. Hmmmm… fingers crossed. If it’s too bad (uncomfortable), we’ll just come back and schedule it for another day.

Winds were 330 at 8kts gusting to 10. We get our “Cleared to take off runway 33. Right turn to the northeast approved.” from the Dutchess Tower at 10:40. Away we go. It’s a little bumpy climbing out but nothing too major. Once I get up to about 3,000 feet and out of Dutchess’ class D airspace, I flip to NY Radio (flight services) and activate my flight plan. Clouds are broken at 4,800 feet. We hang out at 3,500 for a while and debate whether to climb above (smoother ride) or stay below (nicer view). After about 15 minutes of light bouncing, I ask Pete what his preference is. We says“whatever you decide. I’m along for the ride”. Done. Power in, trim up. 500fpm climb out over the clouds.

We climb to 7,500 and Pete says “Ahhhhh… this is nice! Smooth.” Long Island and the Sound are in clear view. It’s wonderful. I key up flight services and update our flight plan for our new elevation. Tune into Bradley approach (for situational awareness) and began to enjoy the ride.

Our route of flight is Dutchess County airport [POU], Pawling [PWL] VOR 71º, Barnes [BAF] 68º, Manchester [MHT] 59º, Kennebunk [ENE] 90º to the shoreline and then the Harbor Visual Approach to Portland International Jetport [PWM] (boy I love saying that! “Portland International Jetport” Sounds so cool. I often get a kick when obvious marketing plays a part in naming an airport.)

About 20 miles south of Kennebunk VOR, I begin a nice 300fpm decent through the broken clouds and tune into PWM ATIS to see what the conditions are like. Winds 340 at 14 gusting to 20. Whew, this is going to interesting. Luckily most of that is pretty aligned with the runway – so not too much of a cross wind component. Over Kennebunk VOR, I contract approach: “Portland Approach, 1234XZ over Kennebunk VOTAC at 4500 descending 2000 inbound with Juliet. Request Harbor Visual approach 29.” I got back what I wanted to hear “Squawk 4630 and proceed as requested for Harbor visual.” Cool!

We head out to the shore then turn north to follow it. Near the Portland Head lighthouse Approach asks: “Report having airport in sight”. A minute or two later, I can clearly identify it… I reported “Have airport in sight” “Contact Tower on 120.9, good day” is their reply. Dialed up tower and reported my position. They said “continue harbor approach, clear to land runway 29″ Wow. I was at least 5 minutes out. I remarked to Pete that this was an unusually early clearance and it must be a slow time.

We turn west to come into the harbor. Pass over the place we are going to have lunch. Came over the Portland Bridge and turn right to 290 and line up with the huge runway. Just for fun… I smirk and point to the first taxiway (Charlie) and say to Pete… “The goal is to land well enough so we can turn off there.” From threshold to Charlie is about 1700′ Today, it was no problem. Greased the landing and rolled out without having to brake hard and turned off onto Charlie.

Contacted ground for permission to taxi to Northeast Air. As we taxi I can feel the gusts grabbing at the tail. A linesman flagged us in and we shut down. 2hrs 20min has passed since we took off in Poughkeepsie. I had estimated 2 hours. The winds were very strong over the Springfield MA area and had more than expected headwind. Our ground speed was a measly 85 kts for quite some time. That’s pretty unusual for eastbound travel.

It feels good to climb out of the plane. 2+ hours is a long time (for me at least) to sit still. After some nice big stretches, we head over to the FBO. Pete and I were welcomed by a courteous staff member. She takes our fuel order and calls us a cab. I’ve heard that Northeast is pretty generous with their crew cars but I didn’t feel like dealing with driving (how to get there) and parking. Our cab arrives in about ten minutes and we are at the front door of DiMillo’s in about 15.

We’re promptly seated – an advantage of coming here on an off season weekday. Thirty minutes has passed from tie down to sit down – a time that I make a note so we would get back on time to launch by 4pm.

In short – lunch is wonderful. The experience warrants a PIREP post of its own. (coming soon). After lunch, we have 45 minutes to kill. Pete has a mission for this flight too… get a sweatshirt that says “Portland Maine” on it – without a hood.

We start to walk along Commerce Street trying to identify any touristy stores that might have such an item. There’s a lot of “wrong color”, “not my size”, “doesn’t say Portland”, and “too cheesy.” Several stores later, our time is up. We call the cab company to send a car. While we wait, we spot a store across the street. Pete dashes over while I wait for the cab. Ten minutes later, Pete emerges victorious. About that time, the cab arrives to take us back to the airport. What timing! With the sun getting low, I’m getting a little anxious to get going. It was going to be a moonless night, so the earlier we get back, the better I’d feel.

Arrive back at Northeast Air. Pay for the AvGas. Check the weather. File our flight plan. Fire up the engine. Call Ground to set up departure clearance. Got our squawk code and permission to taxi.

Winds are 360 at 14. Clouds still at 4500. At least there’s no more gusts. We do our run up and taxi into position. “Cleared to takeoff runway 36. Left turn out.” I positioned the plane, push in the throttle and we roar down the runway. At about 500′ AGL the tower says “Contact departure at 119.75, good day”. At about 1000′ I turn left towards the 242 radial of Kennebunk and contracted Departure. Confirm our destination and projected altitude. We’re on our way home.

The sun is low and partially blinding. Not a comfortable thing. I ask Departure for Flight Following – so as to have another set of eyes looking out for us. The friendly controller says “No problem, you have it already”. Kewl. That’s what I call service!

Flight Following gave me the opportunity of more practice of being “in the system”. Another cool benefit is that my flight is tracked by FlightAware.com and I can show to you. With this being a longer than usual flight for me, I went thought six hand offs on the way home. Hand offs are always a little bit of a challenge. Did I get the frequency right? How’s the attitude of this controller going to be? How busy is he/she? Will they be courteous and helpful or gruff? Will I be able to understand them (radio noise, distance, interference, speed of conversation)? Each handoff went well and was able to be in the system the whole flight. What a nice treat.

Our in-flight movie is “The Sunset.” It’s spectacular – even better than these photos. As the sun fades for the day, the lights on the ground begin to twinkle. Pete is soaking it up. As we approach Poughkeepsie, you could see the lights of Poughkeepsie and the Mid-Hudson Valley clearly. It’s a gorgeous night and such a treat I have to divert from my straight in approach and head over the city and bridges to have a closer and longer look. I break off with NY and contract Dutchess to let them know our intentions. They basically say “Let us know when you’re ready to come land”. We descended to about 2000′ and cruise over the city. A left  turn south of the bridge gives Pete an extraordinary view of the bridge and city. I make that call to the tower. “Report mid-field for a right downwind for runway 24″ is what I get in response.

Enter the pattern. Call the tower. Cleared to land on 24. Squeak the landing at about 6:30. What an awesome flight.

After this flight, I can feel my world shrinking, wanting to go further than before. I’m looking to two hour flights being more common for me. This flying stuff is pretty fun!

Do you use Flight Following during your flights?
How do you typically expand your envelope?
Do you have any “bucket list” flights that you’ve done or dream about?

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