Tach 361.0

It’s the Fourth of July, and I get off the ground at Norridgewock at 6:30AM. The air is perfectly still, but the cloud layer overhead is a little threatening, and it is hazy. Over by Fryeburg, the sky opens up a bit more. I’m at 2500’. Passing over Windsock Village in West Ossippee, I make a slight course correction to the north to head directly to Glens Falls, NY. This takes me over Lebanon, NH, so I talk to the tower controller. I may have woken him up, as there is no other traffic. Approaching Glens Falls, I hear a Cessna announcing departure from runway 19, so I know which runway is into the wind.

Tach 363.6

I pull up in front of the terminal. It’s 9:15, and I hit the restaurant in the terminal for a serving of strawberry shortcake. I add some oil, and get my wing tanks topped off with 100LL before departing. There is a light southerly breeze. The air gets a little choppy over the hills west of Glens Falls. It is hot. The cockpit is not nearly as drafty as it used to be, since I just put in a new windshield. I unlatch the pilot side door for some ventilation. Eventually I climb up to 4500’. The air isn’t any smoother, but the temperature is more comfortable. I’m just under the bases of the scattered cumulous clouds. I find myself to be a bit south of my intended track, so I crab a bit to the right. At Rome, NY, I crab back to the left to go south of the climb corridor out of Griffiths AFB, which is defunct, but still shown on the charts. By now I’m even with the cloud bases, so I tack slightly left and right to stay out of them. Soon I hit the Finger Lakes, and I start counting them off; Penn Yan Airport is at the head of the last lake. I lose count of the lakes and inadvertently fly directly over restricted airspace over Seneca AAF, but not to worry; this base is also defunct, and the air strip is X’d out. There is steady traffic departing runway 19 and landing on 28 at Penn Yan. I find out later that the local flying club is hopping rides for the populace.

Tach 366.2

I land and gas up. It’s 12:45, so I snack on crackers and an apple. Menacing clouds start drifting in from the west, so the FBO opens his beautiful big hanger and invites me to push my plane in. I look right at home parked between a Citation and a Sabreliner; all three planes are painted white. After two hours the sky to the west looks clearer, so I depart at 2:45. It’s hot and bumpy flying over the hills until I reach flat land by Youngstown. I let down from 4500’ to 2000’ for the last leg in Barber Field in Alliance. My course takes me right into downwind for runway 9, so I take that runway with a slight tailwind.

Tach 369.4

It’s 6:15. I land and pull up beside Mike Sargent’s Taylorcraft.

He’s the only other plane tied down out in the grass. He had flown out a day ahead of me from Phillips, Maine, with Glen Thompson as a passenger. We’re early for the party. I’ve flown the last three hours with a loose oil filler cap. There’s an oil streak down the right side of the fuselage and a film of oil on every leading edge, but I still have two quarts of oil in the sump, and the pressure never faltered.

The weather turns cooler, clearer and drier for the next two days (July 5 & 6), and everybody gets sunburned.

The under-the-wing gab fests are great, and at Saturday night’s club meeting, Mike and I each won a trophy, he for oldest Taylorcraft in attendance (1938) and me for longest ownership (35 years). The longest distance this year goes to Steve from California.

The forecast is for deteriorating weather on Monday, so we plan for an early Sunday departure. This will be a flight of four planes going back east: me in N44184, Mike Sargent and Glen Tompson in N21231, Jon and Jason Timlin in N94952 and Fred Rex and Robert Lees in N43624. The Timlin and Rex planes take off first for a breakfast stop at Jamestown, NY. Mike, Glen and I partake of the EAA Chapter 82 breakfast in the hanger, then wait for Forrest Barber to come and turn on the gas pumps. My starter is dead, so I need a hand prop. Also, my generator is only putting out 12.5 volts, so my battery is not getting charged either.

Tach 369.7

Mike and Glen roll down runway 9 and I follow. It’s 7:45 and very hazy. The windshield is covered with dew and condensation, but I can follow the runway edge by looking out the side window. The windshield soon blows dry, and I fall into position at Mike’s 4:30 low. We plan to arrive at Jamestown about the time the first two plane loads are finishing their breakfast, but approaching the NY border, we hear them turning back five miles short of Jamestown due to two-mile visibility in haze and smoke from Quebec forest fires. They are doubling back to Corry, PA, on the NY border. We arrive there from the west at the same time, and we land, one right after the other, pull up wing tip to wing tip on the ramp, and align our propellers at the same angle.

The lady at the FBO runs out with her camera and takes our picture. We look like a crack outfit, even if we don’t know where we’re going.

Tach 370.9

It’s now 9:10. Folks from the first two planes bum a ride into town for breakfast, then gas up. We all depart together, and overfly Jamestown on the way to Penn Yan, but 25 miles beyond Jamestown, we run into the thick smoke again and have to turn back. By now the batteries in my handheld radio are weak, and I can’t transmit, but I can listen. I’m up at 5000’ looking for the top of the haze when the turn-back order goes out, and I dive and catch up with the rest in time to land at the grass strip at Randolph, NY.

We park in echelon formation and align our propellers, so we’ll look good in the pictures we take of our debacle. It’s now 12:10.

There is a 4-bay T hanger and a ranch house beside the runway, but no signs of life. I pull my radio and put it on its charger at a receptacle in the hanger. We all take our tents out and set them up to dry out. After about an hour, the retired couple in the ranch house realize they have company, and invite us in for the run of their house. Jon and Fred give the owner and someone’s visiting grand child a ride. By 3:15 the sky is looking brighter, and we all take off again.

Tach 372.2

We’re back in the crud, and we all land at the hilltop airport at Olean at 3:45. I get one wing tank topped off. The guy manning the pump runs 0.1 gallon of gas down over the wing and puts my gas cap back on backwards, but other than that he is congenial enough. He has pilot reports that we’re right in the middle of the worst of the smoke, so Jon Timlin, who has the best GPS, flies out to the next airport to the northeast at Dansville, and calls us back on the phone that he made it. We all launch at 5:00 for Dansville. The air is pretty thick, but we keep each other and the ground in sight.

Tach 372.7

We enter downwind at Dansville in single file, land and join Jon Timlin on the ground. We wait while Mike fuels his plane, then we’re off for Hamilton, NY, where there’s a pizza joint near the airport. So far we haven’t passed over very many airports, but we’re having fun.

Tach 373.9

We make our grand entrance at Hamilton, and land in rapid succession at 7:40. We pull our planes into a line on the grass and set up our tents. Two local pilots clean the airport junk off the seats of their cars and give us a ride over to the pizza joint where we have a feast that can’t be beat before waddling back to our tents. We all immediately crash for the night. It has been a long day, with a lot of ups and downs, but the flying part has been real smooth. There have been no thermals in the haze and smoke.

On the morning of July 7th, there is some question as to whether I have enough gas left to get to Glens Falls, so we wait for the FBO to open up. At 8:15 we depart. As soon as we get off the ground, my radio goes dead for good. I don’t really need it. I just keep my place in formation and follow the crowd. As in the day before, Fred Rex brings up the rear, which is good, because he seems to be in the best mechanical condition, and has 85 hp, and will be able to see if anyone else drops out. Jon Timlin’s 75 hp T-Craft in the lead is slinging oil out the front seal.

Next, Mike Sargent’s 75 hp T-Craft with exposed cylinders is the pace setter. Then comes me, leaking oil from the crankcase, dead battery and dead radio. The morning air is real smooth. Life is good.

Tach 375.0

At 9:30, we descend on Glens Falls, disperse around the ramp and make a beeline for the airport restaurant for breakfast. Afterwards everyone fuels up except me; I have plenty. At this point we break up into two elements, with the two flat-lander T-Crafts heading towards Hampton, NH, and the two Mainiacs heading to Phillips by way of Berlin and Bethel. We get going at 11:10. The flight is uneventful until Mike thinks he has lost me over Berlin. He descends and circles until he sees me up above. When he resumes his course, I take up position again off his right wing.

Tach 377.4

We come over the last hill and land on the grass strip in Phillips at 1:50 to a welcoming committee which includes a Sun Journal reporter. After picture-taking and debriefing, I hop over the next hill to Norridgewock and land at 2:40.

Tach 377.7

It is just as hot and humid as the day I started.