insignia bearing Kipa, was delivered today at N82 Wurtsboro Sullivan
County airport, the Oldest US Soaring Site.
The story goes like this:
At 6:55am the alarm rings. Too tired to get up, but, hopefully I'll bring a friend along for the flight and I have a mission. So the morning begins, shower, pray make breakfast, and head out. Still no response from Doobie. What he doesn't know is that he's about to miss out on an amazing adventure. Had I known before I would have invited someone else. Walk to the train, er, run, er, walk fast, as usual its a 15 min face paced walk and the train could come early and doesn't wait for no one. When you get there, the platform might be closed. You may have to board from the other platform, you need extra time. Only the southwest staircase (one out of four) were open today.
I text Eddie, "I'm on the train". It's a big day for many reasons; I'm getting checked out in a new airplane today. N6059D is a C-172-SP, fully loaded. And Eddie is the owner, so I need to impress. It's also my first time flying into a non-towered airport. (OK my first intro lesson when I had no clue what was going on, and in a glider, but the glider doesn't have a radio regardless. So those don't count).
Eddie loves the G1000, and he is teaching me to take full advantage of it. I learnt a ton today, how to set up a flight plan, how to alter it and how to use the auto pilot.
RWY 1 at Farmingdale’s Republic Airport KFRG is in use, straight out departure, call approach and request Class Bravo clearance. We are approved. Eddie asks if ______ is the controller. No. _____? no. ______? no. finally the guy says who he is, and we all start laughing on the radio. Eddie is a controller at NY approach and these are his boys. He gets an update on who is working the shift and we carry on our way. Direct N82. What's in N82 Wurtsboro Sullivan County Airport, you ask? Well for starters it is the oldest Soaring site in the United States. Dan is the Airport Manager and I am going to meet him. I have a special delivery and it should be hand delivered.
The view is gorgeous. And once you learn to use the autopilot you actually get to enjoy it. The Hudson river, the hills, the mountains, lakes, trees, houses, mansions.... Up and over the mountains N82 is behind a mountain. You wont see it till you are over the mountain. I'm pretty sure I was looking at Resnik and saying that's got to be it. Calling Unicom, it seams the operator is on vacation. So we follow a low wing into the field for what would make sense is the active runway, RWY 5, it's the one with the Instrument approach. Although the locals prefer 23 when possible, especially because they are usually towing gliders, and off the departure of RWY 5 is another mountain. When we taxiied in, Sabastian a pilot from Florida who just moved to the area and is looking for work gave us the heads-up that they chewed his ear off for landing on the wrong runway. No sweat I came to meet the manager. We will square it out.
Wurtsboro has two L19 Bird-Dog's for towing gliders, both are being used. Lots of students. We see some cool gliders, and a powered-glider with the cowling off so we can see the engine. After he takes care of a few tows we meet Dan at the hangar, Hey whats going on blah blah.. Eddie might come back to get his glider license. I tell Dan I brought him a gift. His face brightens as he switches it for his baseball cap. The world's most expensive Kipa!! I show Eddie around the airport and we head off. (Is it important to mention that i got a root beer at the airport? and a patch?)
The way back was much of the same, we practiced steep turns in both directions. I'm more comfortable with the left turn. I think because I can SEE the ground. The only real difference is that this time approach makes us descend below class bravo after we enter it. Landings at both airports were butter smooth. I'm not sure if Eddie was helping on the controls but I don't think so. He is impressed with my flying and I like his airplane. I like how he embraced the technology available to us. Till now my instructors never let me use the auto-pilot. I flew from Farmingdale to Groton CT and back in actual IFR by hand!!! So it is a different world. We get back and tied down the airplane. Take a few photos and chow till next time.
I text Eddie, "I'm on the train". It's a big day for many reasons; I'm getting checked out in a new airplane today. N6059D is a C-172-SP, fully loaded. And Eddie is the owner, so I need to impress. It's also my first time flying into a non-towered airport. (OK my first intro lesson when I had no clue what was going on, and in a glider, but the glider doesn't have a radio regardless. So those don't count).
Eddie loves the G1000, and he is teaching me to take full advantage of it. I learnt a ton today, how to set up a flight plan, how to alter it and how to use the auto pilot.
RWY 1 at Farmingdale’s Republic Airport KFRG is in use, straight out departure, call approach and request Class Bravo clearance. We are approved. Eddie asks if ______ is the controller. No. _____? no. ______? no. finally the guy says who he is, and we all start laughing on the radio. Eddie is a controller at NY approach and these are his boys. He gets an update on who is working the shift and we carry on our way. Direct N82. What's in N82 Wurtsboro Sullivan County Airport, you ask? Well for starters it is the oldest Soaring site in the United States. Dan is the Airport Manager and I am going to meet him. I have a special delivery and it should be hand delivered.
The view is gorgeous. And once you learn to use the autopilot you actually get to enjoy it. The Hudson river, the hills, the mountains, lakes, trees, houses, mansions.... Up and over the mountains N82 is behind a mountain. You wont see it till you are over the mountain. I'm pretty sure I was looking at Resnik and saying that's got to be it. Calling Unicom, it seams the operator is on vacation. So we follow a low wing into the field for what would make sense is the active runway, RWY 5, it's the one with the Instrument approach. Although the locals prefer 23 when possible, especially because they are usually towing gliders, and off the departure of RWY 5 is another mountain. When we taxiied in, Sabastian a pilot from Florida who just moved to the area and is looking for work gave us the heads-up that they chewed his ear off for landing on the wrong runway. No sweat I came to meet the manager. We will square it out.
Wurtsboro has two L19 Bird-Dog's for towing gliders, both are being used. Lots of students. We see some cool gliders, and a powered-glider with the cowling off so we can see the engine. After he takes care of a few tows we meet Dan at the hangar, Hey whats going on blah blah.. Eddie might come back to get his glider license. I tell Dan I brought him a gift. His face brightens as he switches it for his baseball cap. The world's most expensive Kipa!! I show Eddie around the airport and we head off. (Is it important to mention that i got a root beer at the airport? and a patch?)
The way back was much of the same, we practiced steep turns in both directions. I'm more comfortable with the left turn. I think because I can SEE the ground. The only real difference is that this time approach makes us descend below class bravo after we enter it. Landings at both airports were butter smooth. I'm not sure if Eddie was helping on the controls but I don't think so. He is impressed with my flying and I like his airplane. I like how he embraced the technology available to us. Till now my instructors never let me use the auto-pilot. I flew from Farmingdale to Groton CT and back in actual IFR by hand!!! So it is a different world. We get back and tied down the airplane. Take a few photos and chow till next time.
(this post is copied from an older blog I had so the date is incorrect)
Thank you for sharing this post. I recently purchased a private plane and love the experience so far. I wanted to take my airplane overseas but found out I needed a certificate of registration to do so. Luckily, a great company provided me with aircraft title services and I was able to fly internationally.
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