Wintertide Snapshots

Invierno

I always thought that the Spanish word for winter, invierno, sounded more inhospitably appropriate to the season than its English counterpart.  While I have never been particularly put-off by cold weather, the unfortunate coincidence of water undergoing a massive phase change at 0°C is what lends winter both its hostile bite and its sterile loveliness. As a pilot, I am content with managing the former while embracing the latter.

Year over year, January is usually my least active month to fly with ceiling typically being the limiting factor. 2022 was certainly an exception. Despite some severe cold, I managed to take the Warrior aloft several times for a mixture of hundred dollar hamburger flights with friends, sightseeing, and maintenance hops. By early February, I had already logged 22 hours and visited destinations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. As winters go, this has been a good one to fly.

Pilot Rescue Flight

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
04 Jan 2022	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - GVQ (Batavia, NY) - SDC	1.3	2397.6

Frederick Douglass - Greater Rochester International Airport (KROC)

I made an afternoon hop from Sodus to Boshart Enterprises at the Genesee County Airport to pick up Ed, who was leaving his Archer with Jake for some GPS troubleshooting. Although winter started mildly enough, the landscape had begun reflecting sunlight with an icy sheen.

We flew through absolutely calm, clear air. It was a beautiful day to fly and I chastised myself for not leaving work earlier to take better advantage of the weather. Had Dave been around, an appeal to Bubba* would surely have been uttered.

* Bubba is the capricious and little known -- because Dave invented him -- deity of aviation weather who demands that aviators take vacation from work to fly whenever the weather is suitable. (i.e., Bubba is a massive rationalization for vacation burn.)

"Rise and Swine"

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
16 Jan 2022	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - LKP (Lake Placid, NY) - SDC	4.2	2406.4

Lake Placid remains one of my favorite aeronautical destinations and the conveniently-located Big Slide Brewery and Public House is an outstanding $100 hamburger destination right next to the airport. In combination, they provide a great excuse to fly to the mountains (as if flying to the mountains is not already enough excuse). On January 16, we braved single digit temperatures (in Fahrenheit!) to caravan to Lake Placid and sample Big Slide's pun-rich brunch menu for the first time.

Lake Ontario. Brrrr...

Engine preheaters really are a blessing, especially when triggered remotely. But everyone struggled that morning with fogged windows and icy airport surfaces. My G5 reported an incredible -5000 foot density altitude while operating on the surface of the Williamson Sodus Airport. When Paula had concerns about how well her engine was running, we shut down and rejiggered from four airplanes down to three. Paula flew with Gilead and I in Warrior 481 while Dan hopped into Four Four Papa with Ed and Stacey. Tom and Alicia had Two Six Romeo to themselves, but issues with the door latch led to them experiencing a rather frigid ride.

Eventually, all three aircraft were aloft and cruising eastbound along the Lake Ontario shore. Peering out across the water, the word "inhospitable" came to mind

The cold atmosphere so effectively excluded water vapor that the air possessed an optical quality resembling fine crystal. It seemed to sharpen the crisp austerity of the Adirondacks while inbound to Lake Placid.

Tom's 26R, Ed's 44P, and Warrior 481 parked on the ramp in Lake Placid with Whiteface in the distance.

It was so cold in Lake Placid that I could feel the hairs in my nose stiffening and freezing with every breath of air. Still, the sun was shining and that made all the difference. Well, that and my heavy duty parka.

Both brunch and the company were outstanding. The best-named meal of the morning was the "rise and swine" breakfast pizza ordered by Tom that came complete with sausage gravy.

Lake Placid, New York's alpine winter Olympic paradise.

It may have been cold, but the morning's excursion was a beautiful experience with wonderful fellowship. An attempted practice instrument approach for me at Sodus went haywire when it seemed like everything I tried to do continuously placed us into conflict with a Rochester-based Cirrus. This was mostly due to the Cirrus flying a practice approach against traffic, putting him into direct conflict with traffic landing in the correct direction. In frustration, I eventually gave up and simply landed.

Determination and a Welcome Return

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
22 Jan 2022	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - N30 (Honesdale, PA) - SDC	3.0	2409.4

When I arrived at my hangar on January 22, I found dense snow compacted against the door. A few freeze-thaw cycles had transformed its consistency into something more closely resembling ice than snow. After 20 minutes of work in single digit temperatures with a borrowed shovel, I was finally able to open the man door and gain access to my own tools.



Even with my edger / ice chopper tool, another 40 minutes were required to chop the ice chunks into manageable pieces and to chip them away from the asphalt. It was a lot more work than the picture above makes it appear. Clearly, I was determined to fly that morning.

As I finished, Tom and Alicia drove past and invited me to join them in a flight to the Cherry Ridge Airport Restaurant. I had not been to Cherry Ridge since October 2020 when I met the Northeast Flyers there for lunch. The restaurant struggled during the pandemic and I loved the idea of supporting them. Tom quickly called and amended his reservation from two to three.

En route, I conducted a routine VOR check by comparing my #1 and #2 navigation radios. To my surprise, there was a 10° discrepancy. This is a test that I have run monthly since 2012 and this was the first time that it ever failed (a maximum 4° discrepancy is allowed). Additional troubleshooting would be needed to determine which radio had the issue, but the matter was not urgent. I did not plan any IFR flying in the icy clouds any time soon.

Alicia and Tom with Two Six Romeo at Cherry Ridge

Lunch was excellent and I enjoyed the time spent talking with Tom and Alicia. It was another beautiful, calm winter day to fly. 

Return to Letchworth

My next goal was to troubleshoot the radio navigation equipment. Presumably, one of my radios was fine and the other off by 10° and I needed to determine which one was in error. Fortunately, there is a designated ground check point on the field at Rochester where I could easily check each radio individually.

Less than a mile visibility in a snow squall. Nope.

I was fooled by an overly optimistic weather forecast only to find the Williamson Sodus Airport engulfed in whiteout conditions on Saturday, January 29. There was no trip to Rochester that day.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
30 Jan 2022	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - ROC (Rochester, NY) - SDC	1.6	2411.0

Sunday was also a little dicey, but cleared up sufficiently for the flight to Rochester. On approach to runway 25, I realized that I had not actually made a full stop landing at Rochester since my instrument check ride in 2013. 

Reaching taxiway Tango at the international airport, I tuned the Rochester VOR on 110.0 MHz and checked the indicated radial on each radio. My ancient KX-170B paired with a King analog indicator (one of the few remaining items in the panel from when I bought the airplane in 2004) was spot on at 098°. The GNS-430W connected to the G5 HSI was 10° off. Because, of course, the newer equipment had the problem.

While the troubleshooting effort was successful, the outcome was frustrating. I departed Rochester and flew south to Letchworth for some sightseeing.

Letchworth was a favorite sightseeing destination when I was based in Le Roy, but I have not visited in many years. The gorge with its beautiful waterfalls was as stunning as ever.

It looked cold down there.

Garmin Swap

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
01 Feb 2022	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - GVQ (Batavia, NY) - 5G0 (Le Roy, NY) - SDC	1.4	2412.4

The wind was howling across the runway out of the south. On take-off, I had failed to tighten my seatbelt adequately and was literally bounced out of my seat multiple times while passing through the shear layer at treetop level. It was...unpleasant.

Henrietta, NY

At Boshart Enterprises, Jake verified my observations and swapped my GNS-430W for another one to demonstrate that the problem was in the 430 itself. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to repair the issue in-house, so the navigator box went off to Garmin for an expensive repair. In the meantime, full capability is restored for Warrior 481 as I continue to fly around with Jake's loaner 430.

The Williamson Sodus Airport

The wind had not let up at Sodus when I returned and I did a go-around when the landing went squirrely about 10 feet off the ground. The second attempt was successful.

Snapshots

Going into February, I enjoyed a number of beautiful winter sights from my high altitude perch, had flown places with friends, visited destinations outside of New York state, and developed a path forward on my radio problem. While it is certainly true that clearing the hangar door of snow and ice sometimes requires a lot of work, the effort is usually worth the reward. In the end, I will remember the winter of 2022 as one of the better ones.

In closing, I offer my heartfelt thanks to the volunteers who plow-out the Williamson Sodus Airport! Great job, everyone!