Newsprint Vista

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
19 Dec 2009	N21481	5G0 (Le Roy, NY) - CZG (Endicott, NY) - FZY (Fulton, NY) - 5G0	1.9	882.7

After three weeks stranded on the ground (transatlantic flights in a flying Greyhound notwithstanding), the landscape is transformed from the soft browns of late fall into winter's austere dress.  The view is painted from the same palette as newsprint and I am reminded of the Calvin and Hobbes bit where Calvin's dad claims that old pictures are black and white because the world actually used to be black and white.  Days like this are almost enough to suggest that Calvin's dad could have been on to something.

The day's journey began with a flight eastbound over the Finger Lakes.  A couple of big hills stand between me and Canandaigua Lake in this photo.

Gunmetal gray Canandaigua Lake seen from 5500'.  Upstate New York has some very cold "fingers" in the winter.

 
You are here.

I flew from Le Roy to Tri-Cities Airport in Endicott, NY (CZG, airport #100 - a milestone of sorts) to sight-see over the Finger Lakes and explore someplace new.  Tri-Cities Airport was nice, had great fuel prices, but was very quiet.  Arriving at noon, I was the first aircraft to land all day.  Unfortunate.  From there, I decided to journey north to Oswego County (FZY) for lunch at Melony's Landing.  Between Endicott and Fulton, I passed Skaneateles Lake (above), one of the small easternmost Finger Lakes.

 
Returning home from Oswego County, westbound at 3000' along the Lake Ontario shoreline.  At 75% power, I am indicating 115 knots with a groundspeed of 139 knots.  The dot-matrix vista seen here is a sampling of the myriad orchards located along the lake.

Along the lakeshore, some bona fide color appears: brown!  It is a splash of pigmentation among shades of gray.

 
 A frozen river splits on its way through marshland  toward frigid Lake Ontario.

East Bay, located appropriately east of Sodus Bay, is entirely frozen over.

 
Standing water and some huge icicles in a quarry near home base.  The quarry is immediately northwest of the airport and makes for some squirrelly breezes on days that the wind blows from that quarter.