Painted Cloudscapes to Saratoga Springs

Exploration

Some trips are simply made for light aircraft. 

Take, for example, our recent foray to Saratoga Springs, NY for a college visit. (Yes, The Bear has reached that age. How is that even possible?) We had a 9:30 am appointment to tour the college's interdisciplinary sciences building on Monday, September 25. We also had tickets to the theater in downtown Rochester the afternoon before, with the show expected to end shortly before 5:00 pm. Drive time to Saratoga Springs is 3.5 hours. By car, our options included a late arrival Sunday night or a very early departure Monday morning.

General Aviation to the rescue!

September 24: Cloudscapes

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
24 Sep 2023	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - 5B2 (Saratoga Springs, NY)	1.9	2731.1

Even slowed by a 25 knot headwind, the airplane still saved time. After leaving the theater, we stopped for a quick dinner and continued on to the Williamson Sodus Airport. I had already fueled and readied the Warrior for departure, it was just a matter of pulling her out of the hangar.

From flight planning, I knew that we would experience rain, instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), and darkness. Mitigating factors included no risk of convection (thunderstorms) or icing at our cruise altitude of 5,000 feet and VFR conditions expected to prevail at Saratoga Springs for our landing. We departed Sodus VFR and contacted Rochester Approach for our instrument clearance. All went according to plan. 

However, I did not anticipate the radiantly fantastic environments that we would fly through en route to Saratoga Springs. Stunning views beyond our windows rendered me a speechless witness of nature's grandeur. It is one thing to view these cloudscapes from the ground, but quite another to be among them.

Slight obscuration between us and Sodus Bay.

See? We're having fun!

Farther east, we entered clouds that were generally smooth. We flew through some light rain, logging an hour of IMC time.

Eventually the sun set and the heavy overcast enveloped us in absolute darkness for the last 40 minutes of the flight. When I tuned the AWOS (automated weather observation system) at Saratoga Springs, the transmitter broadcast a repeating statement about the AWOS being unavailable. (We learned the next day that a circuit breaker for the weather sensing instrumentation tripped, but the transmitter still worked. It just didn't have any useful information to transmit.)

I requested the RNAV-5 instrument approach from Albany. As we maneuvered for the approach, we passed through an invisible rain shower in the darkness of sufficient vigor that the sound of rain ticking on the windshield penetrated our headsets. We broke out of the clouds and the rain well before the final approach fix and landed among lights lining the runway of an otherwise dark and deserted airport.

Ground team!

Fortunately -- and remarkably consistent with the forecast -- the rain stayed south of the airport. We worked together to bundle up the airplane and minutes later, we were travelling into downtown Saratoga Springs by Uber.

At the end of the day, we easily reached our destination in a timely manner by leveraging the versatility of our airplane to fly 0.6 and 1.0 hours at night and in IMC, respectively. Being instrument rated and current on instruments and night operations was obviously a factor. Better still, we had the unexpected treat of spectacular views as we flitted in and out of the clouds.

September 25: Having Our Druthers

The next day, we had a wonderful tour of the well-appointed, heavily wooded campus, including the science and music buildings that were of greatest interest to The Bear. We gathered good data as The Bear tries to winnow down her college choices. Saratoga Springs itself is an odd blend of college town and resort town, but overall seemed like a nice place. We had a terrific lunch at Druthers Brewing Company and, after a brief Uber ride back to the airport, we were airborne and headed for home. A tailwind shortened the ride to 1.2 hours (versus the 3.5 hour drive) as we surfed through the tops of the clouds (0.3 hours IMC). Like our family flights of old, The Bear was sound asleep in the back seat before we ever leveled off in cruise.

College. Yikes.

Enjoying lunch outside at Druthers Brewing Company.

A Crowded House for the Widow of Reading

"It's not good when the mechanic says 'hmmm'," said the mechanic.

Dealing with the Unexpected

While trying to start Warrior Eight One Six that morning, a strange chirping sound rang out across the ramp from the engine compartment. "Boop, BOOP, BOOP!" Not able to see anything wrong from my vantage point outside the plane, I gestured to Scott to cut the engine and he pulled the mixture to idle.

"BOOP, BOOP, boop," said the airplane as the propeller came to a stop. After inspecting the starter for a Bendix drive that failed to retract properly, I shrugged. I had never heard a sound like that before. Though we did not know what it was, we knew that it wasn't normal and went to find Ray.

Scott started the airplane again for Ray. "Boop, BOOP, BOOP!" said the airplane again.

Ray rubbed his jawline. "Hmmm...." Then signaled for Scott to shut the engine down while glancing over at me. "It's not good when the mechanic says 'hmmm'."

Finding nothing out of place after opening the starboard side of the cowling, he opened the other side and peered within a few moments before jerking his head back in surprise. "Oh, you're not going anywhere today in this plane."

When I asked what the problem was, Ray stepped aside and gestured to the exposed engine. I saw it immediately, a circular component peering out of the open cowling at me. Whatever it was, it did not belong in that spot. After a beat, I recognized it as one half of an engine mount that had fallen out of place, one of four securing the engine to the airframe. It was undamaged, it just came apart. The chirping we heard was due to excess torque-related motion of the powerplant in the engine compartment. Ray later found that the nuts securing the remaining three mounts were insufficiently torqued by whomever mounted that engine before the Williamson Flying Club bought the airplane in 2021. Mike, the club's chief instructor, also noted that Nyloc locking nuts were used on the mounts and speculated that someone had reused them. This is not recommended for critical applications. In the combined experience of the entire group, no one had ever seen or heard of such a failure before.

N32816 photographed May 22, 2022. I have 4.1 oblivious hours in this airplane, completely unaware of the flaw lurking under the cowling.

We originally planned a flight to Vermont for lunch at the Red Mill Restaurant located alongside the magnificent grass runway at Basin Harbor (B06). Softened by excessive rain, the runway was NOTAMed closed. I proposed a Plan B of visiting the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, PA and all participants agreed.

But now we were seven people down from three airplanes to two and were forced to leave someone behind. Unfortunately it was Eric, a relatively new student pilot who was looking forward to riding along on a club adventure. Scott joined Dan and his friend in Eight Five X-Ray and Kim joined me and Mark in Warrior 481 for the trip south.

El Mariachi

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
16 Sep 2023	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - RDG (Reading, PA) - SDC	3.9	2725.3

We had an easy flight southbound to Reading. Our first goal was lunch at Klinger's at the Airport in the terminal building. Tower directed us to park wherever we wanted in front of the terminal. This surprised me as there is a red box painted on the ramp reserving space for commercial flights. We learned later in the day that Reading no longer hosts commercial traffic, which explained Tower's ambivalence about where we parked.

Warrior 481 and 85X in front of the terminal building at Reading.

Scott can never resist these things!

Inside the terminal, we encountered this kindly mariachi who greeted us warmly and played songs for us from his homeland. To our surprise, the musician bore a strong resemblance to an A-10 Warthog pilot we met at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island and a speed skater we once saw in Lake Placid.

Lunch at Klinger's was very satisfactory, but the main attraction was the museum across the field. 

Mural near the bar in Klinger's at the Airport.

Outside on the ramp, Mark watched me pull the chocks from Warrior 481's nosewheel. "Do you ever forget about those and start up while they're still in place?" 

I laughed in spite of myself. "Only once. It was at the West Wind restaurant in St Marys, PA several years ago. I started up while still chocked in front of a full lunchtime crowd. It was super embarrassing." Fortunately, another pilot saw my predicament, ran over, avoided the spinning propeller, and pulled the chocks so that I did not have to shut down again. Mere recollection of the incident was enough to make me blush.

Beating the Odds

I called for and received taxi clearance to the museum and started rolling. Dan received the same clearance. We had already taxied Warrior 481 off the ramp when Dan called Ground again.

"Uh, Eight Five X-Ray needs to shut down for a moment. I pulled a stupid."

Mark, Kim, and I exchanged glances, decided that it did not sound serious, and proceeded along our approved taxi route. Eight Five X-Ray was back on the radio a few minutes later.

Dan received his taxi clearance, then offered that the whole process works better when the chocks are removed before engine start. Mark and I looked at each other in surprise. "We were just talking about that! What are the odds?"

Don't worry, Dan. We've all done it.

Yes, MAAM

We parked side by side on the museum ramp under the massive wing of a Flying Boxcar. Before long, we were connected with a docent who gave us a great tour.

I like the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum. The airworthy aircraft are in excellent condition and obviously lovingly maintained. But space in the main hangar is incredibly limited and that relegates several other aircraft to sitting out in the weather. As is the case for this glorious ruin of a Piacecki H-21 "Flying Banana" helicopter, exposure to the elements is not doing them any good. 

This Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter is derived from the infamous B-29 Superfortress of World War II. These airplanes were also the basis for the Super Guppy, the beluga whale looking freighter big enough to haul portions of the Saturn V rocket by air.

This 2/3 scale homebuilt Mustang featured a 600 horsepower engine. According to our docent, going full throttle packed quite a punch of torque for such a small airplane.

"An Airplane in Every Garage"

One of the unique aircraft in the MAAM collection is the Zuck Plane-Mobile 1, a 1946 creation of Lockheed Skunk Works Engineer Daniel Zuck. It was one of a few mid-twentieth century attempts at a practical "roadable airplane" alongside Molt Taylor's Aerocar and Fulton's Airphibian.

Ready for first test flight, Rosamond Dry Lake, California 1947. Photo from Plane-Mobile.com.

In 2012, Plane-Mobile 1 was given to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum for restoration and display.

Unfortunately, the close confines of the MAAM hangar made getting a good photo of the unique artifact quite challenging.

Famous Warbirds

Briefing Time is a B-25 Mitchell bomber that is well-known on the airshow circuit in the northeast. The airplane was also featured in the film Catch 22.

Standing aft of the museum's SNJ (Naval version of the T-6 Texan), a World War II era advanced trainer.

The fuselage of this beautiful Ryan PT-22 Recruit primary military trainer positively gleamed as though it made light of its own.

This odd looking flivver is a 1964 homebuilt Flying Flea. Originally designed by Henri Mignet, this version was built by Louis Dagne Sr in the United States. Short-coupled with a large horizontal stabilizer, the aircraft was practically a staggered biplane. Pitch was controlled by varying the angle of incidence of the upper wing (forward and aft motions of the stick) and roll was initiated by the oversize rudder (left-right motion of the stick). The two cycle 28 horsepower engine could propel this Flying Flea through the air to a maximum of 86 mph.

Originally a Vultee BT-13 Valiant, this replica of a World War II Japanese "Val" bomber (Aichi D3A) starred in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) before being donated to the museum in 2023.

The Black Widow of Reading

The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's claim to fame and reason for existence is the restoration of this rare World War II era Northrup P-61 Black Widow. One of only four remaining worldwide, this one was rescued by museum staff from a mountainside in New Guinea where it crashed in 1945.

Black Widow in 2023.

I have been following the painstaking restoration of this aircraft since my first visit to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in 2009. While progress has been slow, it is definitively moving forward.

Black Widow in 2023.

Aft fuselage of the Black Widow in 2023.

Black Widow as it appeared in 2018.

By way of comparison, this is how the Black Widow appeared during my visit in 2018. 

The Black Widow in 2009.

Going back to 2009, this was all of the airplane that had been reassembled (view from aft of the fuselage). The twin tail booms, vertical stabilizers, engines, and forward fuselage were years away from being mounted. Progress is measurable and I look forward to the day that the aircraft is fully restored.

Unfortunately, the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum has a space problem that goes beyond the weathered artifacts already decaying outside on the ramp. There is no room in the hangar to attach the Black Widow's wings outboard of the tail booms. As the Black Widow took shape over the years, the museum added more aircraft to the main hangar; space became tighter while the airplane grew larger. What is the museum to do? Our docent had no idea what the path forward would be, but the technical challenges of restoration may be outdone by a simple lack of space.

Our group of intrepid Mid-Atlantic Aviation Museum visitors, photo courtesy of our docent.

After an informative tour, we migrated back to the airplanes for an easy flight home. Everyone remembered to remove their chocks this time. Kim actually dozed off in the back seat on the way. I take her trust in me to get her home safely as a tremendous compliment.

It will be interesting to see what the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum is able to do with their Black Widow in the next few years.

Warbirds and Pancakes

Back to Basics

In 2023, I enjoyed some great adventures from earning my seaplane rating in Traverse City, MI to exploring the Outer Banks with other Williamson Flying Club members as part of a caravan of aircraft. But some days, an aviator need the simplicity of pancakes and grass runways.

Kristy and I were flying back to New York from a visit to Michigan with my family and high school friends when I received a text from WFC member and recently certificated pilot, Joe F. He was looking for a ride to a fly-in pancake breakfast being hosted the next morning by the National Warplane Museum on the grass-only airport in Geneseo, NY. He had neither attended a fly-in nor landed on grass before and hoped to ride along with me. It was a perfect back to basics kind of flight.

Surprise!

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
04 Sep 2023	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - D52 (Geneseo, NY) - SDC	1.4	2720.0

In addition to Joe and I in Warrior 481, Dan P and Jamie O were flying in Jamie's Searey. While running up the engine, we stopped next to Mike A and CFI Mike B in the club's Bold Warrior, Eight One Six.

"Where are you guys headed?" Mike B asked over the radio.

"Pancake breakfast. You?"

"We're headed over to Geneseo to give Mike a grass checkout," Mike B answered.

Do they know? I wondered. "Enjoy the pancakes," I broadcast back at them. This was how they found out that a fly-in breakfast was happening at their planned grass check-out destination.

Joe F and I in Warrior 481 en route to breakfast.

The pattern was busy when we arrived. The Mikes in Eight One Six arrived first with a WACO biplane behind them that was followed by me and Joe. We had traffic behind us as well. The landing became a little dicey when the WACO stopped in the middle of the turf runway as I was turning final. The pilot had been communicating on the radio in the traffic pattern, so it seemed that he should have been aware of us. Eventually, the WACO started to move again. It had not cleared the runway when we touched down, but we easily had 2,000 feet of spacing between us and the turf rapidly slowed the Warrior to a brisk walk. There was no collision hazard or else I would have aborted the landing. We taxied to parking behind the WACO, our aircraft making the ungainly wobble of aircraft taxiing on an uneven surface.

Back in Time

The National Warplane Museum had partially cleaned out their main hangar to accommodate the breakfast, so several of their treasures were outside under the brilliant sun.

The Williamson Flying Club was well-represented that morning by me, Dan P, Jamie O, Mike A, Mike B, and Joe F. Also present were Sam and Zoe, a pair of NetJets pilots who base their Skyhawk at Sodus.

Twinsies. Kind of. Warrior 816 and Warrior 481. Eight One Six has a bigger engine (a Bold Warrior STC for 180 horsepower), but I still outrun her with my cruise prop and installed wheel pants.

A snazzy experimental parked next to Eight One Six.

A Vultee BT-13 Valiant, Douglas C-47, and Fairchild PT-26 Cornell.

We ate breakfast as a group. The National Warplane Museum team did a great job cooking that morning and everything was delicious. When done, we spent some time exploring the museum. At some point, Mike and Mike disappeared and we saw them practicing grass landings in Eight One Six.

A close-up look at the cockpit of the Vultee BT-13 Valiant.

As its designation suggests, the Fairchild PT-26 was a primary military trainer during the World War II era.

This WACO UPF-7 was the biplane that mysteriously stopped on the runway while we were preparing to land. It is a beautiful airplane. I am still not sure what its pilot was thinking.

Whiskey 7 is the local airplane celebrity. This C-47 is a veteran of D-Day and flew as a lead ship in the liberation of Sainte-Mère-Église in Normandy, France on June 6, 1944. In 2014, the National Warplane Museum flew Whiskey 7 back to Normandy on the 70th anniversary of D-Day. It was surely the adventure of a lifetime for her crew.

The museum recently acquired this Beech Staggerwing. I know little about its origins, I just know that I love Beech Staggerwings. I would prefer mine in a different color, but otherwise, it's a magnificent specimen.

Oh, and they had a Spam Can on display. Wait...that was our ride home.

Because departure from Geneseo requires a back taxi on the runway, we waited for a break in landings, then taxied back to the departure end with a Grumman Tiger and Jamie's Searey. On take-off, when I pulled the nosewheel off the ground, Warrior 481 palpably accelerated with the reduction in drag. I was surprised at how similar the sensation was to getting the Super Cruiser seaplane up on the step, another rapid acceleration resulting from drag minimization.

After the simplicity of pancakes, good company, a grass runway, and warbirds, I was ready for the next adventure!