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"For anyone looking for a fantastic New England get away - Basin Harbor in Vermont is amazing. 3,000 foot grass runway. On the lake. In Vermont. Dog friendly. Family friendly. Daycare. Lots of activities. Golf course. Great food! What’s not to love? Have seen two other planes since we arrived and we are the only over night guests."

-- Brian on the East Coast Private Pilot Facebook Group, September 4, 2021

Brian went on to wonder why this fantastic destination was apparently so obscure. I responded to Brian quickly, "Wonderful place! Coincidentally, I'm heading there today with a few pilots from my flying club."

Brian is absolutely right about Basin Harbor being a fantastic destination. But I do not believe that it is particularly obscure. When I first moved to New York, Basin Harbor appeared early in my search for great aviation destinations in the Northeast. The fact that ten years elapsed before The Bear and I first visited in 2016 ("That Old Autumn Magic") is my own fault. Like Brian, The Bear and I loved the setting, the immaculate turf runway, the food, and the playground. Well, the playground appealed more to The Bear than to me, but I could appreciate it through her eyes. 

We planned a club fly-out to Basin Harbor on August 29, but canceled due to low clouds in eastern New York.  (This was a shame, we had a large group of enthusiastic pilots ready to go.) With beautiful weather forecast for September 4, the available pilots quickly planned a trip.

Maintenance Solidarity

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
04 Sep 2021	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - B06 (Vergennes, VT) - 6B0 (Middlebury, VT) - SDC	4.3	2351.5

We were momentarily delayed when Tom discovered a mechanical problem with Two Six Romeo. Fortunately, Ed had space for both Tom and Alicia aboard his Archer II. This type of last minute mechanical issue occurred to me twice this summer in Warrior 481, causing me to hitch rides with other club members. While I sympathized with Tom, I also experienced a strong sense of solidarity. At least it wasn't just me. Then again, as of this writing, Warrior 481 toted my butt around for 170+ hours in 2021, so maybe I should not sweat the small stuff.

There were more low clouds along the route than I expected from the forecast, but they made for a beautiful flight east from Sodus.

The Bear and me

Piseco Airport (K09)

I chose a route south of the direct course to avoid the higher terrain of the Adirondacks. We passed south of Piseco, where we had flown to a pancake breakfast just the week before.

Cloud Negotiations

Sectional chart depicting Basin Harbor and Ass-Pirin Acres

Due to broken clouds over Lake Champlain, I worried about being able to make a VFR descent to Basin Harbor. While I could always get a pop-up IFR, Ed did not have that luxury. Although there were some large holes in the layer on the New York side of Lake Champlain, there was also high terrain lurking under those clouds and I did not want to gamble with that. The ideal place to descend would be over Lake Champlain, but Boston Center issued a directive for us to stay west of the lake to accommodate skydiving at Ass-Pirin Acres.

Ass-Pirin Acres? What kind of name is that for an airport? On the radio, it sounded like a wildly affected way to pronounce "aspirin" and I was moved to verify the spelling from the chart. Yep. Ass-Pirin. Later internet research was enlightening. In addition to a private grass runway home to a skydiving outfit, Ass-Pirin Acres also bred miniature donkeys. Because those two activities so obviously go together.

The clouds opened up over Lake Champlain and we were given permission to descend once skydiving was no longer a factor. The hooked peninsula home to Basin Harbor was already in sight as we descended among the clouds.

The Bear Goes To Ground

Basin Harbor occupies a peninsula on the Vermont side of Lake Champlain and we spotted it immediately. Due to a late descent, we spiraled downward to the proper altitude before joining the traffic pattern.

Basin Harbor with turf runway (02-20).

Looking north across Lake Champlain.

Looking west across Lake Champlain back toward New York.

Lining up on runway 20 at Basin Harbor.

The Bear was very excited to have returned to Basin Harbor.

We watched while Ed, Tom, and Alicia landed and taxied back to parking.

Lunch!

The Red Mill is a rustic 1940s era sawmill converted to a restaurant. It is on the Basin Harbor resort grounds and immediately adjacent to the runway. Local vintage Vermont artifacts adorn the walls and ceiling, providing a homespun Green Mountain TGI Friday's kind of vibe. With the menu in the capable hands of a new chef since The Bear and I last visited, the food remains outstanding.

The Bear and I shared an order of the delicious Salt and Vinegar onion rings. They were excellent onion rings on their own accord, but the vinegar sharpened their flavor in a refreshing way.

The Bear was very pleased with her shrimp tacos. Not to judge a book by its cover, but she knew that she was going to love these before taking the first bite.

I ordered the lobster roll, which included corn and avocado in the mix. It was not a traditional Maine style lobster roll, but it was nonetheless very good.

Over lunch, I made a comment about The Bear always sleeping in the airplane when we fly, especially right after a meal. "I never sleep in the plane anymore," she corrected me archly in front of several witnesses.

Uh-huh. OK.

Social Media Connections

Photo by Alicia.

We were all very amused by this huge Adirondack chair. The seat depth was exactly the length of my entire leg. After initially perching on the edge of the chair, it was a subjectively long, anxiety-filled slide backward before I finally hit the seatback.

Tom and Alicia.

Ed had just made the long slide backward.

Although Brian's post from that morning mentioned a lack of aircraft at Basin Harbor, the parking area steadily accumulated more airplanes. I actually got to meet Brian because we were parked directly next to his Bonanza. He introduced me to his wife by announcing, "This is Chris from Facebook!" I am struggling to decide how I feel about that introduction.

Aircraft parking with the Red Mill in the background.

A Skylane arrived at Basin Harbor.

Yep, We're Free!

The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum was right on property and free to explore. (The tagline on the museum's website is literally, "Yep, we're free!")

Because we had to be masked indoors, I teased The Bear by exhorting her to "smile bigger". This is what I got. Is this what people mean when they talk about someone's smile reaching their eyes?

We discovered this really, really big wheel. Even the museum is not quite sure of its origin. Nevertheless, behold!

There was a nice demonstration of how adding different numbers of pulleys to a block and tackle system make it easier to lift heavy objects. 

"We [don't] live in a a yellow submarine..." (Because it's too damn small.)

This little personal submarine was once active on (in?) Lake Champlain. Conceived and built by three brothers in the 1980s, the cockpit would half fill with water while submerged, requiring the operator to be a scuba diver. With a lot of effort, the Baker brothers eventually persuaded the Coast Guard and Vermont DOT to register this odd contraption, which they used to explore Lake Champlain until 1990.

This is the Philadelphia II, a 1991 replica of Benedict Arnold's gunboat Philadelphia, sunk during the Battle of Valcour Island on October 11, 1776. The original ship was raised in the 1930s and is currently on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The Philadelphia II is currently out of the water ("on the hard") for maintenance. I was grateful that a nearby sign explained the expression "on the hard" because, otherwise, I think I think there was opportunity for misinterpretation.

Mast and anchors for the Philadelphia II.

View of the Philadelphia II deck.

Lakeside

We wandered down to the shore of magnificent Lake Champlain.

When did everyone get so tall? Me, The Bear, Tom, Alicia, and Ed.

This is the promotional photo for our sitcom. I think it would be kind of like BJ and the Bear, but with airplanes.

One last group photo before we launched from the grass for home.

The Bear sought out some shade for reading while I planned the return flight. I originally intended to get fuel at Griffiss (KRME), but a quick check of the weather suggested that nearby Middlebury, VT would be a better choice. We wished Brian and his family well and launched a few minutes behind Ed.

Vermont Foothills Regional Airport

Middlebury State Airport rests directly at the edge of the Green Mountain foothills. The airport (#234) carries a curious identifier -- 6B0 --  that simply reuses the same identifier characters as nearby Basin Harbor (B06) but in a different order. This is not confusing at all.

On a left base for runway 01 at Middlebury.

Now that's a paint job! That is no wallflower Cessna 150.

While I went in search of a restroom, I left my ferocious "Guard Bear" to watch Warrior 481.

Preparing to depart Middlebury State Airport.

Famous Last Words

Fueled up, we climbed away from Vermont, eventually reaching 8,500 feet as a cruise altitude. During the ascent, there was a small trifle with a Piper Aztec flying an erratic, upwardly spiraling course that converged with our trajectory, but Burlington Approach helped sort that out.

Lake George.

Lake George.

By the time we were established in cruise, The Bear was completely conked out. So much for "never" sleeping in the airplane anymore. Sometimes, bold claims are made over a dish of salt and vinegar onion rings. 

Along the way, I spotted the narrow boxed-canyon of Beck's Grove Airport that I first visited late last year.

Descending toward home over Sodus Bay

Postscript

2021 has been a year of grand adventure, including long flights in IMC to many new places and new airports visited across a variety of states. Our simple VFR run to Basin Harbor with great friends, smooth grass, oversized Adirondack chairs, debatably sleepy Bears, and incredible $100 onion rings was exactly the right kind of simple mission for a beautiful September afternoon.