For the 2008 Alliance Taylorcraft reunion, I decided to go out early enough to help Forrest Barber get his field ready for the fly-in. I took off from Norridgewock on the Wednesday morning, July 9th. Weather was initially good, but started to deteriorate as I approached the Green Mountains in Vermont. I got a little off course in threading my way through the mountains, and when I emerged in the Hudson River valley, I wasn’t sure where I was in the poor visibility. I eventually identified landmarks that indicated I was headed towards Sarasota Springs, so that’s where I landed. While waiting for a rain shower to pass through, I snacked on some of my provisions.

Soon I was underway again. This time I got to Hamilton, NY ahead of another band of approaching rain showers. While waiting for the showers to arrive, I had plenty of time to walk a half mile down the street to McDonald’s for lunch. By mid afternoon I had gassed up and was off again. With the compass pinned the big W, I hit the finger lakes dead center, where I altered course a little to the north to go up to Geneseo to check their air show preparations. Geneseo has a 4700 foot grass runway which seems vast. I made the mistake of landing too soon, and having to taxi forever. The parking rows were all staked out and there were people on the job, directing ground traffic. After parking I wandered around. In their huge hanger, there’s a decrepit C119 Flying boxcar, and undergoing restoration, a rare A20 Havoc. I cooked supper on my tail before retiring for the night.

I didn’t want be trapped at Geneseo when they closed the airport for the weekend air show, so I continued on to Alliance. I flew to the nearby deserted airport at Perry for a pay-at-the-pump fill up.

This new course to Youngstown took me over a western New York wind farm that I hadn’t seen before.

As usual I threaded the needle at Youngstown by flying between the two 2500 antennas on the south side of the city. This put me just under the controlled airspace.

From there it was a short flight to Alliance, where I was one of the first arrivals.

It was hot and muggy, so I pitched my tent in the shade of the woods.

Forrest Barber didn’t seem to want to relinquish a seat on any of his mowing equipment, but I did help parking new arrivals.

A rare Taylorcraft model A was on hand. I think this was s/n 25. The Lambert powered Pietenpol was still there. A lot time was spent trying to get it to run properly, without success.

Saturday I participated in a mass fly out over the retirement home in downtown Alliance where a lot of the former Taylorcraft employees were spending their twilight years.

There was also an extensive tour of the inside of the former Taylorcraft factory. The assembly floor was immense. It is now being used by an abrasives manufacturer.

I would have departed on Sunday morning, but a deluge had passed through on Saturday night. The tie down area was like a rice paddy. I didn’t want to catch up with the rain as it continued east, so I just hung around all day Sunday.

Monday morning dawned clear. I made a early departure straight out to the east. Navigation was fine to Youngstown, but after that, all the lakes and rivers were covered by thick fog. Landmarks were hard to distinguish, so navigation was strictly by compass. I didn’t know where I was all morning. I think I flew over Warren, PA and also over the nearby reservoir, judging by the fog. After hours of flying blind I hit the southern end of one of the finger lakes, but which one? It must have been Watkins Glen, because shortly after I identified the controlled airport at Ithaca under me. This is the first time I knew for certain where I was since leaving Youngstown. I picked a new compass course, and managed to stumble back into Hamilton, NY for a gas and food stop. I borrowed the airport clunker, and drove into town for a much needed meal at a restaurant.

By now there was no more valley fog, and navigation was easy. I overflew Glens Falls, where I spotted the canal between the Hudson River and Lake Champlaign.

Continuing over Rutland, VT and Lebanon, NH, I turned off the radio, and stomped my feet to the sounds of rock and roll from my MP3 player, as I flew on between the mountain peaks. Life is good.