Apple Blossom Festival Fly In

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
16 May 2010	N21481	5G0 (LeRoy, NY) - SDC (Williamson, NY) - 5G0	1.0	807.5

Kristy, The Bear and I were wheels up at approximately 8:00 am this morning, en route to the annual Apple Blossom Festival Fly In Breakfast at the Williamson-Sodus Airport.  Being early risers worked to our advantage - the pattern was unoccupied when we arrived.  The ground crew was very organized and efficiently marshaled us to parking.

We had a great (and filling) breakfast.  According to Joe from the Williamson-Sodus Flying Club, there were approximately 50 fly-in aircraft and 1800 pancake breakfasts served in total.  The highlight for me was when The Bear got to stand in the cockpit of a Black Hawk helicopter.  Traffic was picking up when we departed.  We held short of runway 28 for three aircraft to land and launched as a pair of RVs entered the pattern in formation (why do RVs always enter patterns in formation?).

I contacted Rochester to transit their Charlie airspace and found the controller to be unusually chatty.

"How was breakfast?" he queried once declaring radar contact.

"Great!" I responded.

"There's a lot of traffic over there, bet it was crazy getting in and out."

"Piece of cake - but it pays to be an early bird."

The controller laughed.  "Yeah, I'll bet."

Flying through smooth air with incredible visibility, we opted to fly north of Rochester rather than return direct to Le Roy. 

Not many cities can boast a spectacular waterfall in the heart of downtown.  This is High Falls, just north of Rochester's city center.

 
About halfway home, The Bear fell victim to the inevitable effect of a belly full of pancakes, the warm sun, and a smoothly running airplane.

Back at Le Roy, The Bear excitedly climbed from the Warrior.  Kristy had promised to show her how to clean bugs off the wings and The Bear was eager to start.

 
The Bear was thrilled to spray water on all those bugs smashed on the leading edges of the wings. She didn't miss a single one.

My crack ground crew finished up on the horizontal stabilizer before we left Le Roy.  All in all, a great day for The Bear's first cross country flight of 2010.