Olympic Autumn

Phoning It In

I arrived at the airport early to preflight Warrior 481 for the annual Williamson Flying Club autumn trek to Lake Placid. With the walkaround complete, I settled into the Warrior's cabin to unpack the portable items from my flight bag: electronic CO detector, iPad, Stratus 2, camera...

Where is my camera?

I realized that I had left it at home on what was sure to be a spectacular fall day in the Adirondack Mountains, a day made for leaf peeping and aerial photography. For a moment, I contemplated making the 50 minute round trip drive home just to retrieve it. Instead, I resigned myself to using my iPhone. It seemed like a lot to ask, trying to cram so much autumnal grandeur through that tiny lens.

Forward Looking

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
05 Oct 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - LKP (Lake Placid, NY) - SDC	4.1	2036.7

I love the activity around the airport on the morning of a fly-out. It is a dichotomous hybrid of social interaction combined with the quiet focus of individual pilots readying their ships for flight. In total, seven aircraft were pulled from their hangars and readied for launch. With a target arrival time of 11:00 am in Lake Placid, the slower aircraft departed earlier than the faster ones. An eighth aircraft, a Cessna 150, failed a mag check and remained behind.

Madalenn and Armelle flew with me in the Warrior. Madalenn is a member of a local high school flying club (which is really cool in and of itself) and wants to become a commercial pilot. I have offered my support - occasional flights, a brain to pick, etc. After all, without the experienced advice of my mentor Dave, I think flight training would have been much more challenging. I still remember how helpful it was to receive encouragement during my learning plateaus and a different perspective on challenging concepts from an experienced pilot other than my instructor. If I can do the same for someone else, I am happy to.

Color change in the higher latitudes and elevations of the Adirondacks always precedes the arrival of autumn on the south shore of Lake Ontario. Climbing away from Sodus, a quick shot out the window served as a green "before" image for a day's journey that would see foliage hues shift to scarlet and yellow.

Low scud is often a challenge on fall mornings. Fortunately, our home airport was not trapped beneath clouds such as those hanging over Fulton, NY. Of some minor concern was the low ceiling advertised above Saranac Lake, Lake Placid's nearest airport neighbor with a weather reporting station. Past experience has demonstrated that the clouds usually burn off by late morning. As a group, we took our chances.

Red Shift

A crimson tint gradually spread across the landscape as we flew on our northeasterly course. There is always a sense of leaving the ordinary behind when departing Rochester for the Adirondacks in the fall, travelling not only across the state, but seemingly across seasons.

Armelle identified Raquette Lake as a favorite kayaking destination, particularly focusing on a minor river exiting to the west. Madalenn made a mild noise of teenage distaste. "Madalenn would rather fly than kayak," Armelle interpreted.

"Funny," I countered. "The Bear has been wanting to kayak all summer, but seems to be bored of flying." Tales of greener grass and fences, I suppose.

True to past experience, the low cloud layer over Saranac Lake was mostly dissipated by the time we arrived. I planned my approach into Lake Placid, heeding warnings from Boston Center about other nearby aircraft also inbound. I pulled the power back and allowed a converging Grumman Tiger to reach the airport first.

On arrival, the distinctive peak of Whiteface Mountain was still partially obscured by clouds.

Lake Placid UNICOM directed me, Ed, and the Grumman Tiger to park away from the others on the main portion of the ramp.

Having successfully avoided the Olympic ski jump towers while airborne in the traffic pattern, taxiing around them on the ground presented a significantly lesser challenge to Ed.

The windsock seems to be saying, "Looking for a Warrior? Here's one!"

With the planes. Photo by Stacey.

With the planes cropped out. Jamie, Ed, me, Armelle, Madalenn. Photo by Stacey.

Barry's friend, Barry, Jim, Madalenn, Armelle, me, Linda, Mick, Mike, Eric, Ed, Dawn, Lee, Jamie, and Tom. Photo by Stacey.

Olympic Tourists

Lunch was at the always-excellent Lisa G's. Most of us chose to simply walk there, enjoying some light exercise in the cool mountain air after the flight from Sodus. Lunch went quite well until Eric, recently returned from the restroom, reached for the salt shaker and instead plunged his fingers into my water glass.

"At least my hands are clean," Eric offered as consolation. "I just washed them."

"Yeah, in Chris' water glass," noted Mick. Those sitting around our end of the table chuckled amiably at the quip.

You know that it was a great flying trip when this was the worst thing that happened all day.

After lunch, the group split up. Some continued into downtown Lake Placid while others returned to the airport to fly home. Armelle, Madalenn, and I explored some of the Olympic sites in town.

In the off season, the Olympic speed skating oval is a little boring.

We wandered into the 1980 Olympic rink, site of the Miracle on Ice that was once hailed as the top sports moment of the 20th century. Unlike some former Olympic sites around the world, the facilities in Lake Placid are still routinely utilized and in excellent condition; nothing is being allowed to crumble from disuse. That afternoon, the Herb Brooks Arena was hosting a young pair of practicing figure skaters.

Likewise, the 1932 Olympic rink is still in use. A game was just starting when we wandered inside. The checking was pretty brutal -- this was no pee wee game.

Mirror Lake

We roamed through town, visited a couple of clothing stores (in which the eternal struggle between teenage desire and mom's pocketbook momentarily attained a palpable tension), absorbed the quiet serenity of Mirror Lake, and ended our visit to Lake Placid with ice cream. I can never say no to ice cream. It was a good thing that we walked all the way back to the airport as partial compensation for calories consumed.

Not So Whiteface

After launching from Lake Placid, we circumnavigated Whiteface Mountain.

The fact that my airplane brings such incredible sights within easy reach is still absolutely stunning to this Michigander, even after 2,000 hours of flying. I think this is why the Lake Placid trip remains one of our most reliably popular club events year after year.

Consistent with past autumn visits, heterogeneous rivers of color seemed to flow down Whiteface's many facets.

Special effects courtesy of artistic iPhone camera lens goo.

Blinded by the Light

On the return flight, our eyes were savaged by the low, late afternoon sun. I shared with Madalenn the sage wisdom imparted to me by Bill, my first flight instructor. "The trick to dealing with the sun in flight is to not look at it," I summarized. I think she was just as unimpressed by this advice as I was when I first heard it eighteen years ago.

Once back above the ordinary green of the Lake Ontario shore and pointed away from the brutal sun, Madalenn took the controls of the Warrior and performed a few simple maneuvers before we returned to the Williamson Sodus Airport. We arrived just behind another pair of aircraft from that morning's fly-out, the last three ships returning to port after a full day in the mountains. Unlike the bustling energy of the airport from that morning, the setting sun brought with it a deep calm that permeated the field despite the disruption of our return.

Lake Placid is always a delight to visit and it was even more delightful given the opportunity to share the experience with others, particularly a kindred spirit just starting on a path to earn her wings.

As for the iPhone, it  acquitted itself reasonably well, but I missed the optical zoom of my regular camera. Next time, I will come better prepared. I am already looking forward to returning next fall.