Over the Land of the Waving Grass
| Date | Aircraft | Route of Flight | Time (hrs) | Total (hrs) |
| 08 May 2026 | N21481 | SDC (Sodus, NY) - 5B2 (Saratoga Springs, NY) - SDC | 3.0 | 3146.2 |
I hummed smoothly through the sky, deep blue above and below, finally, green. Warm colors, gentle air, and a mile high perspective on a vast world world accented by exquisitely clear air. These things were restorative for the soul. Tension drained from my shoulders with every mile, diffused into the very air holding me aloft.
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| Oneida Lake near Syracuse, NY. |
Following a week of long hours, I departed work an hour early on Friday to take to the sky. Kristy had an event that night and I was on my own. Seeking exploration and dinner, a simple $100 hamburger run to a new destination fit the need and Warrior 481s nose parted the sky in the direction of Saratoga Springs, NY. Just a week earlier, a new restaurant opened on the field: Sunset at Saratoga Kitchen & Bar.
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| Peck Lake near Gloversville, NY. |
My first visit to the Saratoga Country Airport (5B2) occurred in 2013 when I flew the so-called "JetHiking Gypsy" there for the next leg of her nation-spanning odyssey by general aviation. I often wonder what became of her.
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| Great Sacandaga Lake north of Amsterdam, NY. "Sacandaga" is a Mohawk word meaning "Land of the Waving Grass". |
A full decade passed before returning to Saratoga Springs in 2023 for The Bear's sake. She was long enamored with Skidmore during her college search and we made multiple visits, once by airplane. We arrived in Saratoga Springs after a beautiful flight through a painted cloudscape, ultimately flying an instrument approach in the rain after sunset to Saratoga County Airport. From the FBO, we could see that a significant construction project was under way on the next apron over.
X Marks the Spot
Saratoga County Airport is one of those "X marks the spot" kind of airports with crossing runways. Aside from a Commander 114 that landed a few minutes ahead of me, UNICOM was quiet at Saratoga.
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| Sectional chart depicting Saratoga County Airport. |
Though the airport has an automated weather observation system (AWOS) on the field, I had no weather information until within range of the broadcast on 132.025 MHz. No METARs are pushed from Saratoga Springs because of the airport's non-ICAO compliant (number containing) identifier. This limitation is the same reason why South Haven and Williamson-Sodus changed their identifiers from 0D1 and 3G7 to LWA and SDC, respectively. Now, weather conditions at both can be found with other METARs and captured by FIS-B unlinked weather, whereas Saratoga Springs weather cannot.
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| Saratoga County Airport (5B2). |
I entered the pattern for runway 23 on a crosswind to get some aerial photographs of the facility.
In 2023, we tied down outside the FBO building, a large blue hangar since repurposed as a maintenance facility. The new terminal building had a modernized lodge aesthetic and wrapped partway around a massive hangar with solar panels on the roof. Transient parking was located along taxiway C. Saratoga Springs is also popular with soaring enthusiasts and a large number of glider trailers are visible at the top of frame.
Just in case a geographically befuddled pilot happened to be lurking overhead, the apron left little doubt about one's location.
I parked next to the Commander and walked to the terminal with a member of the line crew from North American Flight Service who explained that the terminal building was opened last summer. He was personally delighted about the new restaurant. I was not charged any fees for landing or parking and all staff members I interacted with greeted me warmly.
Popular
Sunset at Saratoga is a perfect name for the new restaurant. Occupying the second floor of the terminal building with westward facing windows and balcony, it is beautifully set to frame sunsets for diners.
I arrived at 7:00 pm and discovered that the new venue was popular enough that there was a long line for entrance. I waited thirty minutes for a table. Owner Mike Speranza earnestly flitted about his new establishment, personally greeting all comers, cleaning off tables, and seating patrons. I did not see evidence of other fly-in guests, but that's actually a good thing. I am convinced that a critical ingredient for a successful airport restaurant venture is an ability to draw street traffic. Basing a business model on fickle pilots subject to fickle weather is simply not sustainable.
The dinner menu offers varied fare from wings and salads to burgers to steak and shrimp scampi. Because I am my Scottish grandmother’s grandson, I went with the fish and chips, which I enjoyed. To my mind, airport restaurants come in two “flavors”. Most are basic diners, some quite good, but otherwise nothing fancy. Cream of the crop airport eateries, on the other hand, are the kinds of places you take passengers you want to impress, like the anxious spouse of a new private pilot. Sunset at Saratoga falls into this latter category. Based on my experience, I highly recommend it and wish Mike the best!
Elegantly Appointed
After dinner, I explored the new terminal facility before returning to the sky. Saratoga County (5B2) has the most elegant terminal building I have ever seen for an airport that still has numbers in its identifier!
In case anyone required a reminder that Saratoga Springs is in horse country, the terminal clearly boasts of this status with bold splashes of red in the facility's otherwise neutral ambiance. Other nonverbal hints of this include the four large oval racetracks depicted around Saratoga Springs on the sectional chart.
An overhead light display in the lobby was suggestive of terrain contours and clearly not an off the shelf item. But when I consulted a map, I could find no obvious corresponding local topography.
A deep blue shade of western sky reaffirmed that it was time to head home.
I returned to my airplane through the airside entrance from North American Flight Services.
During the warmer months, the west-facing balcony will be a wonderful place to dine and take in the sunset.
Ready to go!
Nerd Paradise
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| Great Sacandaga Lake. |
The first half of my flight home occurred under a deep blue sky that transitioned to crimson at the horizon as though the air was somehow energized along the edge of the world.
Reflected sunlight from Venus shone brilliantly from millions of miles away, appearing long before the pointillistic illumination of the even more distant stars. Below in deep shadow cast by the horizon, terrestrial constellations twinkled brightly, shielded from the twilight.
My watch buzzed with an incoming text from Tom. "Late evening. I see you are on your way home. How was dinner??"
"Cruising along, autopilot on, air is dead calm, watching traffic on I-90, listening to a soundtrack mix from various Star Trek movies. I'm in nerd paradise," I responded.
Suspended in a quiescent atmospheric ocean, I watched the world pass by my windows. As twilight faded, natural features of the land disappeared, replaced by illuminated traces of civilization. At night, natural features can only be perceived in the negative spaces.
I proceeded home across an inverse dot matrix landscape to touch down at 10:00 pm after a very satisfying evening of flight. After months of poor weather and chaotically churning air, it was a joy to just...fly. No (significant) weather planning needed, no technical IFR flight to conduct, no constant control corrections to keep the airplane pointed in the right direction. Just a pilot, an airplane, and the physics needed to make it all work out.
