![[FLYING]](images/aplanec.jpg){kind=small}
In April 2004, Adam and I took a trip in N6205J to Boston for the NCAA Hockey Tournament.
We had talked about the trip a lot, but did not make definite plans until the night before (which was the first night of Passover, the Seder was at my parents' house). After the seder, Adam and I got together at CS to make the flight plan. We had set aside two days, in case of bad weather, and made the decision that we had to go on Tuesday, as the weather on Wednesday would be bad enough to cancel the flight.
Since I did not yet have my Instrument Rating, the plan was to go VFR if we could, otherwise Adam would have to fly. We decided on three legs:
We also decided that the pilot not flying would work the radios and navigation aids.I flew the first leg, which was fun. We had a huge tailwind, made very good time. The FBO at Mansfield was a bit odd -- kinda hidden around the corner, but the flight planning room was in the main terminal. We skipped lunch, but grabbed some snacks from the machines.
The weather looked ok for the second leg, but we had some concerns. There was a huge wind from about 330, and everything from AVP to the east was still reporting very big gusts. We checked the notams, and RW 10/28 at AVP was closed, so that stop was out. We decided on IPT (Williamsport, PA) instead, which also shortened the leg by about 30 minutes.
We flew that leg at 7500. We couldn't go up to 9500 because of icing and clouds. And we didn't want to get any lower, in order to try and minimize the mountain wave effect (remember that big wind from 330?). Ugh. 7500 was low enough that I had a very rough 45 minutes of turbulence and riding the waves -- throttle back to 10 below below VA, don't fight it.... throttle in... regain altitude... throttle back.... Finally, IPT was ahead of us... actually, almost below us. I hadn't flown at 7500 before, and I guess Adam hadn't adjusted his view because he was looking way ahead too. And there it was. Ok. time for a pretty steep decent.... enter a (high and fast) right downwind for 30... base... wait until your co-pilot thinks you are going to hit that ridge... turn final, smooth touchdown.
At IPT, we took a break for a late lunch, and waited while we decided what to do. We chose the wrong place for lunch. Oh well. The weather looked worse for Wednesday, and the winds were forcast to calm down... we talked with a State Police pilot who had just come in (in a 172, I think) and then a local instructor... checked the weather again, called flight service, and decided to go on. Adam flew that leg, staying at 7500 until we were past the not-quite-as-high ridges just past POU (where we turned northeast). We arrived at about 8:30 PM local time, and all the FBOs were closed. The tower called around, and Northeast Executive Jet Center turned the avgas sign back on so we could find them. The guy gave us a ride to a nearby restaraunt where we had dinner and waited for Ross to pick us up.
Checking the weather Friday and again Saturday morning, Adam and I made two decisions: We had to leave early Sunday morning; and we had to take the “northern” route in order to avoid bad weather: duck down towards POU (to avoid the high terrain), then north to ALB, across to SYR for fuel, west to BUF then a turn down the shore of Lake Erie to CAK. We also decided that the only way to get an early start was to sleep near Lawrence that night, as the commuter trains to Lawrence didn't run early enough on Sunday morning.
Our plan was to run out as soon as the championship game ended (please, no overtime!), take the “T” back to the hotel, grab our stuff, and return to the Fleet Center, which is also the commuter rail station. That worked out fine -- Denver had to hold off a 6-on-4, but won in regulation. We were so quick that in fact we ran into our friends leaving the fleet center as we returned.
Sunday, I flew the first leg, landing at SYR. Again we made a poor choice for lunch. When we got back to the airport, we looked up the FBOs at CAK, and called to check their hours (it was Easter Sunday). The bigger of the two said that they were open 24/7, so we decided to go there. Adam flew the second leg, down to CAK. Turns out the line and line shack were open, but the rest of the FBO wasn't -- no flight planning room, no vending machines, nothing.
We walked over to the passenger terminal, grabbed a bite, and called flight service. I also called Deb, and asked her to check the Toledo airports on Airnav for nearby hotels (we had already realized that we weren't going to make it all the way home that day). After I got off the phone, I looked at Adam and we both said at the same time: We're tired. We are in an airport with hotel shuttles. Lets stay here tonight. Good decision!
Monday, I flew to FWA, and then Adam flew the leg to MSN. Near RFD, we hit a layer of clouds and low-level turbulence, so Adam filed for IFR and we got above the bumps for the last bit to MSN.
I logged 10.3 hours on the trip -- and although they aren't logged, another 8 or so hours while Adam flew and I worked the radios and nav aids. This was my first really long trip -- the first one where more than one weather system had to be considered. In addition, we were flying in areas I wasn't familiar with. I think I learned more on this trip than on all of the cross-countries I took to “build hours” to meet the requirements for the instrument rating (not that I didn't learn from them, but this was a whole not more all at once. I was also very glad to have another pilot for the flight -- not only to split the time and the duties, but to have a second set of eyes and brains on the decision-making along the way. Overall, we made poor food decisions, but good aviation decisions on the trip, which is better than the other way around.