Sunday Drive

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
05 Apr 2009	N21481	5G0 (LeRoy, NY) - FZY (Fulton, NY) - 5G0	1.8	700.4

I took the Warrior out for a sightseeing trip on Sunday afternoon with no particular goal in mind.  I launched from Le Roy and contacted Rochester approach moments before puncturing the imaginary ring of their airspace hovering five miles to the northeast between 2100 and 4600'.  I climbed to 5500', placing me just above the haze layer.  The helpful controller at Rochester called a couple of traffic targets out to me that I never had any hope of seeing.  One was a Bonanza that was five miles ahead and traveling the same direction I was.  Before long, the controller notified me that the faster aircraft was "not a factor".

After a brief time spent with Syracuse approach, I shunned the watchful eye of radar and landed at the Oswego County Airport.  To my delight, I discovered that a new restaurant had opened on the field.

I departed the airport and made for the lakeshore.  This is a nuclear power plant in Oswego.  Yes, pilots are supposed to avoid flying in the airspace near power plants.  I kept my distance and let the zoom lens of the camera bring the plant to me.

 
The outlet of the Oswego River into Lake Ontario is marked by an impressive lighthouse at the end of a stony breakwater.  With its proximity to the power plants, I was never comfortable getting close enough to photograph it until having a high zoom camera available to me.  As shown here, the Owego Lighthouse is quite a substantial structure.

Back at Le Roy, I recorded the day's flight in my logbook and discovered that I had logged my 700th flight hour today.