Winter's Veil Recedes

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
08 Jan 2012	N21481	5G0 (Le Roy, NY) - DSV (Dansville, NY) - GVQ (Batavia, NY) - 5G0	2.0	1011.7

I have spent many days over the last few weeks hoping to fly. Rochester has been obscured by clouds for much of that time, clearing only in deference to extreme winds. Finally, the air calmed, the veil of scud retreated southward, and I took to the sky.

Regardless of what the calendar indicates, we lack one of the key ingredients of a typical Upstate winter (hint: it's awfully brown down there).  I particularly like the little white polka-dots of snow denoting sand traps at the Davis Countryside Meadows golf course in the photo above (bottom of frame, center).

Terrain around the Finger Lakes still harbored some cumulus as seen in these photos of Conesus Lake.

The veil thickened over Hemlock Lake and, further to the southeast, it was obviously snowing.

I liked the pattern here and how a light dusting of winter competed with a green specter of summer.

A denser ceiling loomed over Dansville.  As sunbeams poured through holes in the deck, they illuminated a sky teeming with high velocity motes; tiny, nearly invisible, ice crystals streaming past my aircraft windows.  Staring through them with the sun at my back, the clouds beyond assumed a shimmering iridescence.  

The landscape reddened with the setting sun (above, near Letchworth State Park).  I did some steep turns for fun.

And, finally, the sun set.  Darrell launched from runway 28 at Le Roy as I entered the pattern.  A massive moon hung low over the Rochester skyline as I rolled the Warrior's wheels ever so gently onto the pavement.

I waited an hour before returning to the sky for some night take-offs and landings at Le Roy and Genesee County.  With the flying itch scratched, rust knocked off, and night currency maintained, I drove home very contented.  It felt great to be back in the sky again and, though she could not say so, I think the Warrior was glad, too.