Winter Vignettes

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
19 Dec 2020	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - MAL (Malone, NY) - LKP (Lake Placid, NY) - RME (Rome, NY) - SDC	4.6	2200.4

Each year, once the shallow waters freeze over and the first snow dusts the landscape, I love to explore the transformed world from the air. It is a honeymoon period for winter, moments of enjoyment before fatigue sets in.

The Williamson-Sodus Airport was the place to be Saturday morning. I encountered Dan A, Max K, Ed C, Rob L, and Tim F and spent some time catching up with everyone. I planned to range westbound that day, but reality failed to live up to the lofty expectations of the forecast. (Literally, the clouds were way lower than forecast to the west). Instead, I turned eastbound along the Lake Ontario shore where the ceilings were much higher.

Steam poured from the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station to form a pale imitation of thunderhead. 

I found curious patterns writ large on the ice covering North Sandy Pond at the far end of Lake Ontario.

Moving on from the lakeshore, I flew north of Watertown and observed these patterns etched into the soil and accentuated by accumulated snow.

Over the St Lawrence River, I found the Rock Island Lighthouse.

I continued eastbound over the Thousand Islands toward Alexandria Bay.

I found it impossible to resist peeking at Boldt Castle. Even in the winter on a leaden, overcast day. I circled once.

On the bright side, the loss of foliage reveals details of the property often hidden during the warmer months.

Sure, it's a nice place. But who would want to keep it clean?

A freighter caught my attention and I followed it eastward away from Alexandria Bay. Of course, a 125 knot groundspeed meant that I could not follow it for long and the chase was over as soon as I caught up to it.

As I flew over the flat country between the St Lawrence and the Adirondacks, a plan formed. I decided to land at Malone-Dufort for the first time because it was nearby, then head south to Lake Placid for lunch. Per NOTAM, there was no fuel available at Lake Placid, but I had enough to reach Griffiss International from Placid with an hour left in the tanks. After topping off at Griffiss, I would head home.

Curiously biological looking formations adorned the frozen surface of Black Lake.

Every time I keyed the mic to say "Malone traffic", a little voice in my head wanted to enunciate "Malone" like Kevin from The Office. I encountered some air traffic at Malone (airport #214), but there was not much going on at the airport proper except for a woman walking her dog. We exchanged waves as I taxied to the ramp and again when I departed after finding the administration building locked. (And thus the restrooms as well.)

Lake Placid's eponymous lake and Whiteface Mountain

From Malone, I flew nearly due south to Saranac Lake, then turned to a southeast heading for the descent to Lake Placid through a notch in the terrain.

Lake Placid, NY

I skirted around the pair of Olympic ski jump towers intruding into the traffic pattern for runway 32.

Although the runway was covered with snow, I could see the underlying asphalt through the powder and judged it to be shallow enough for a safe landing. The only problem was that I could not see the markings for the displaced threshold. From memory, I knew that it was about halfway between the end of the runway and the first taxiway, so I aimed my touchdown to occur there. It was sweet.

Lunch was at Big Slide Brewery & Public House. I arrived for a late lunch, so I had a corner of the place to myself. The Moroccan Chicken Sammich (Ciabatta roll, yogurt and spice marinated chicken breast, sweet potato relish, Ras-Al Hanout aioli, Boston lettuce, tomato) was delicious. The menu is not extensive, but it changes seasonally and everything I have tried has been excellent. I was reminded of how good my sandwich was when I masked-up to leave; rebreathing my own breath was almost like having seconds.

Boston Center would neither answer me nor the Bonanza just a couple of miles ahead that launched out of Saranac Lake. Instead, we both reached out to Syracuse Approach from 50 miles out and were rewarded with squawk codes. I followed him right to Griffiss where we fueled up at the self-serve pump ($3.23/gal).

The Bonanza pilot was a bit green and I helped him operate the fuel pump. He explained that he'd gone from training in a Cessna 150 last year into a new-to-him 1956 V-tailed Bonanza that he had owned for all of six months. That was quite a jump! The Bonanza was clearly outpacing me while inbound to Griffiss.

Dusk approached as I flew over Syracuse on a heading for home. I shared the airspace with Ed and Stacey who were conducting a dog rescue flight. After a smooth, relaxing day in the air, I was nonetheless pleased to see the runway lights of the Williamson-Sodus Airport welcoming me back.

After intentionally avoiding the obvious ice on the ramp, I nearly lost my footing on black ice while stepping down off the Warrior's wing. Oh no, not again. Something tells me that winter fatigue will kick in soon. But today? Today was glorious.