Social Flying Scrapbook

Scrapbook

Flying with others is one of the best ways to put a pilot certificate to use. From bringing first time time flyers along to travelling in packs in search of that $100 hamburger, there is a rewarding fellowship in flight. As I have said before, as pilots we enjoy the freedom and challenges of aviation, but the human element always makes flying more meaningful.

While several of my flights with others in 2019 were already captured in posts of their own, many were not. I do not write up every trip aloft in this blog. Sometimes, there is no particular story to tell. In this season of reflection; however, this post is meant to highlight the previously overlooked social flights of 2019 because they were an important part of my aviation experience this year.

First Timer

On March 24, I took my colleague Dave for his first general aviation flight. Accompanied by Ed flying Four Four Papa and Tom in Eight Five X-Ray, we did our part to keep The West Wind restaurant on the field at St Mary's in business.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
24 March 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - OYM (St Marys, PA) - SDC	3.3	1930.6

Dave and me en route to St Marys.

Warrior 481 at Sodus. Photo by Dave.

Dave and me at St Marys. Photo by Dave.

Alicia, Tom, Ed, and me. Photo by Dave (not pictured).

The WFC fleet preparing to depart St Marys.

Dave showed that airplane who's really the boss.

A Little Drop of Rain

The EAA chapter at nearby Oswego County Airport holds excellent pancake breakfasts monthly during the flying season and we could not bring ourselves to miss the first one of 2019. So what if it was raining? It was still VFR...just a very, very wet sort of VFR. Parking was easy to find and every fly-in visitor received a complimentary airplane wash!

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
12 May 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - FZY (Fulton, NY) - SDC	1.1	1946.1

Backside of Warrior 481 seen between another pair of sodden Pipers.

Mike giving me his best "hurry up and take the picture so I can get out of the rain" face.

Natalie, Brad, and me in the Warrior after surviving the rain.

Front Row Parking (For Some)

Eleven aircraft carried fifteen people to the Oswego County Airport for breakfast at the Tailwinds Diner. As an extra treat, my father-in-law Terry joined me for the flight.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
25 May 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - FZY (Fulton, NY) - SDC	1.2	1953.6

Alan, Terry, Mike, Lee, Lee's brother, Melodie, Brad, Dave, Tom, Alicia, Denny, and Mick (not pictured - me).

Must be in the front row. Seemed like a gutsy move, but I guess it pays to be small and unique.

Busy Morning

It was a busy morning for the WFC on Saturday, June 8. Grounds volunteers worked diligently on mowing the grass, a group of eight aircraft carried ten members (including me in Warrior 481 with Tom and Jamie as passengers) to Whitfords for breakfast, I hosted two representatives from Rochester ATC who so effectively engaged with the WFC audience that our questions pushed the presentation run time to an hour longer than planned, and Chef Tony wowed with the salt potatoes he prepared to accompany the burgers at lunch. As always, Mike was instructing. On top of it all, it was a glorious day to fly. All in all, it was a good day to be a member of the Williamson Flying Club.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
08 Jun 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - B16 (Weedsport, NY) - SDC	1.1	1956.2

Mick, Lee, Brad, Tom, Mike, Don, Alan, me, and Jamie at Whitfords.

Ice Cream Social

Forget hamburgers and pancakes. On June 22, fourteen WFC members and their friends flew to Dansville (DSV) for ice cream. There are several varieties of Perry's ice cream "on tap" at Ice Cream Island located across the street from the Dansville Municipal Airport.

It was evidently a good day for ice cream and soaring, if the number of glider-tow operations we witnessed was any indication.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
22 Jun 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - DSV (Dansville, NY) - SDC	1.3	1973.3

At the KSDC fuel pump. Side note: there are four aircraft in this photo. I have flown all of them.

May the Fourth Be with You!

Penn Yan hosts a hugely popular fly-in breakfast every July 4th. After many years of meaning to go, I finally made it in 2019. Several WFC aircraft negotiated the hectic pattern, including me and Eric in Warrior 481.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
04 Jul 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - PEO (Penn Yan, NY) - SDC	1.1	1980.7

Eric and me.

Rochester Air Center's Cirrus SR-20.

Steve, Paula, me, Gary, Eric, Mike and son. Photo by ?

For anyone wondering where AOPA's 2008 sweepstakes Get Your Glass Archer II is, it's at the Penn Yan Flying Club.

We got to see the new Cirrus Vision Jet up close and personal.

When the Vision Jet's right wheel slipped off the taxiway and into the grass, the pilot put in some significant power to keep the aircraft moving. I was afraid that the jet blast was going to blow over some nearby Porta Potties, one of which had Eric inside, but everything turned out OK. This was good news for Eric.

Warrior 481 visible at the end of the line as a singular blue fin projecting above the other aircraft.

I felt like I was on M*A*S*H.

Chris and a friend with Chris' Bonanza.

Gary, Steve, and Paula.

Mike and son in One Delta Tango.

Eric and me. Photo by Paula.

From Across the Pond

In early July, my cousin Fiona and her mother Margaret visited from overseas. Fiona currently lives in Australia, but was born and raised in Scotland and I have not seen her since the mid 1990s. They both flew in from Scotland in early June and arrived in New York City before spending time with us in Rochester. They each got their first light aircraft flights with me and Ed when we picked them up in Poughkeepsie to fly them back to Rochester.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
07 Jul 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - POU (Poughkeepsie, NY) - SDC	3.6	1985.4

The Catskills

Fiona and me.

Margaret and Fiona in the hangar at Sodus.

Closing Time

One of our better club fly-outs this year was to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. As we all know, travel by general aviation does not always go as planned. The first time we tried to go, the weather was a bit dicey and we went to the Tailwinds Diner at Oswego County Airport instead. Though we did not realize it at the time, it was the last day the diner was open before closing permanently. Sadly, this limits the already small number of lunch options at nearby airports. If anyone wonders why we fly to Pennsylvania for breakfast so frequently, this is a contributing factor.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
04 Aug 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - FZY (Fulton, NY) - SDC	1.5	2004.4

Mike, Eric, and me in Warrior 481.

Dick (right) and his friend with One Delta Tango.

Kristy Goes to Breakfast!!

The title says it all. She picked a beautiful, smooth, high definition kind of day to join in.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
10 Aug 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - DSV (Dansville, NY) - SDC	1.3	2005.7

Erie Canal - a predecessor to Victor airways from an earlier, simpler time.

Canandaigua Lake

Canandaigua Lake

Tom, me, Kristy, Jamie, and Ed. Photo by Tom.

Conesus Lake

Back to Fuzzy

The Williamson Flying Club turned out in force to support our neighbors from EAA 486 at the Oswego County Airport (FZY) during their pancake breakfast. I failed to round-up everyone for a group photo, but we counted at least nine airplanes and 17 people from KSDC that made the trip to Fuzzy for breakfast. Tony and I have worked together as founding members of the Activities Committee since I joined the club in 2013, but this was our first time flying together.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
11 Aug 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - FZY (Fulton, NY) - SDC	1.2	2006.9

Mike had his Hummel Bird back in the air after a double crankshaft failure (meaning that it broke in two places) resulted in a forced landing to a cornfield earlier in the summer.

Jamie, Alicia, Tom, Mike's friend, Mike, Mike's son, and Dalia.

Eric and Dawn.

Tom, Alicia, Dalia, and Jamie.

Me and Tony. Photo by Jamie.

Tony and me in Warrior 481.

In the Spotlight

Our planned trip to Penn's Cave was not possible due to weather. Fortunately, we were able to get some airtime Saturday morning before the weather moved in. We had three aircraft, six people, and enough breakfast to satisfy beyond lunch.

Concerned about the coming weather, Rochester ATC asked how long we planned to be in Dansville while we were en route. I always appreciate the thoughtfulness of the Rochester controllers.

Along the way, Rochester glowed under a break in the clouds as though a deliberate spotlight were cast upon our fair city. It was a remarkable sight.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
17 Aug 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - DSV (Dansville, NY) - SDC	1.4	2008.3

What's that bright spot way out there just ahead of the wingtip? 

The city of Rochester with a spotlight on it.

At Dansville: Natalie, me, Tom, Alicia, Melodie, and Brad.

Our three aircraft made it back to Sodus just before the rain moved in.

Wingman

For the second time in as many months, our objective was Penn's Cave in central Pennsylvania, but the weather had other ideas. So we exercised the aviator's prerogative of a Plan B and departed gloomy Rochester to the northeast in search of sunshine. We found the sun and a great lunch at the ADK CAVU Cafe on the field at Adirondack Regional Airport in Saranac Lake, NY. Three aircraft and five people had a great trip on Sunday. Our only disappointment was that we had to return to the gloom.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
01 Sep 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) -	3.1	2021.1

We were somewhat overwhelmed by the turbine aircraft on the ramp.

Tom with Eight Five X-Ray.

Tom, Alicia, Brad, me, and Brad's friend (because I'm terrible with names). Photo by Tom.

Tom, Alicia, me, Brad's friend, and Brad. Photo by Tom.

On the way home, Tom and Alicia were visible in Eight Five X-Ray as a tiny dot on the horizon about five miles off of my right wingtip.

"Hey, Eight Five X-Ray," Wheeler Sack Approach called out to Tom. "Do you still have your wingman (i.e., me) in sight?"

A cheesy quote from Top Gun suddenly comes to mind.

Volume Congestion at Finger Lakes Regional

At least eleven airplanes launched from the Williamson Sodus Airport for the fall pancake breakfast fly-in at Finger Lakes Regional airport. Dave flew with me in the Warrior. We were proud of ourselves for how well we planned our arrivals and spaced our aircraft out in the pattern, especially considering that the aircraft ranged from a Champ to a Cirrus. For some inscrutable reason, we managed to arrange our arrivals from slowest to fastest -- a 65 HP Champ, a Cessna 150, Warrior 481, an Archer I, an Archer II, a Cirrus SR-20 -- and yet we managed to sequence ourselves remarkably well.

I had a goal of doing some practice instrument approaches with Dave as safety pilot after breakfast, but the clouds rolled in unexpectedly. The weather was too crummy to practice approaches in VFR and too good to be worth practicing on an IFR flight plan.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
15 Sep 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - 0G7 (Seneca Falls, NY) - SDC	1.4	2028.4

Warrior 481, Mike's 150, and Ed's Archer II

Brad's Cirrus.

Alan, Mike, Dave, Alicia, Tom, Denny, Brad, Ed, Natalie, Lee, Linda, and Mick (not pictured: me).

A Tight Spot

This morning found WFC members scrambling to install their winterization plates before a quick hop to Whitfords for some of John's cooking. Ten aircraft from KSDC made the trip (assuming that helicopters count as aircraft). The grass was soft and ramp parking was limited, so we exercised some creativity and arranged the airplanes close together as though they were all in the maintenance hangar.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
02 Nov 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - B16 (Weedsport, NY) - SDC	1.1	2028.2

Alan prepares to depart Whitfords.

Running up for departure at Whifords.

Ed prepares for departure in Four Four Papa.

Breakfast Rush

With ten airplanes and fifteen people, we filled up the ramp at Dansville Municipal Airport and the Country Pride restaurant. It was a great morning to fly!

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
23 Nov 2019	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - DSV (Dansville, NY) - SDC	1.2	2065.2

Dave, Mike, Jamie, me, Ed, Alan, Denny, Dan, Eric, Jim, Don, Gary, Derek, and Alicia. Photo by Tom (not pictured).

A lot of traffic inbound to KSDC. This does not reflect the three non-transponder equipped Champs in the mix.

In Closing

Taken individually, many of these quick flights do not have much of a story to tell. However, when taken together, a true sense of what it was like to fly in 2019 emerges. If the people in these photographs look like they're having fun, it is because they are. That is a big factor in what makes aviation so worthwhile; come for the cool experiences and great views, stay for the camaraderie!