Our alarms woke us dark and early in the meeting room of EAA Chapter 5 in Geauga, Ohio. We packed and prepared for a day of eastbound travel, hopefully dodging some weather to make our break for the cool and clear upper northeast.
Staying low, flat Ohio farm country slowly yielded to rolling hill farmland. A line on our GPS signaled our crossing into Pennsylvania. The rectangular tracks of fields cut into the Pennsylvania forests slowly grew rugged. Hills rose in low mountains and valleys. Beautiful little farming communities sat nestled in the valleys and along rivers and lakes.
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| Pennsylvania |
Soon the mountains grew in
elevation. The haze increased and clouds started to come down to meet us. We
pressed on through some occasional turbulence to St. Mary’s Airport, the
namesake of the nearby town. The winds were stiff but, thankfully, right down the
runway. We taxied in and shut down right next to the fuel. Climbing out onto
the windy ramp, I was hit with cold for the first time. My unpreparedness also hit
me. No long sleeves or winter clothing had been jammed into my bags. Thankfully,
Lars was doubly prepared.
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| Downwind at Saint Mary's |
An open hangar housing some
Stearman biplanes beckoned and we made our way over after fueling up. Two guys
were working on a wing and they stopped to introduce themselves. It was only
7:30 in the morning but they were already busy. We hadn’t eaten anything
leaving Geauga so we asked about a crew car. Unfortunately, the airport’s car
was down for maintenance but one gentleman kindly offered us his truck and a
recommendation to drive into town for some breakfast. We gratefully accepted!
Climbing into the loaner
pickup, it suddenly hit us–we were borrowing a chain smokers ride! But beggars
can’t be choosers so we attempted to make our way into town. My directions
weren’t the greatest and Lars had to make a few U-turns before we finally made
it to Monica’s, a local diner.
A big breakfast was enjoyed
for a reasonable price and then we made our way back to the airport. Weather
was looking tricky at this point but we knew we could make it into middle New
York before we would get stuck for several hours waiting for a front to pass.
We chose our next fuel stop directly east of us and we continued our jaunt over
the Poconos to Seamans Airport.
The approach into Seamans is
quite beautiful over a little river valley with a town tucked against the
water. We landed, gassed up, and looked around for an FBO. Nothing looked very
FBOish so we continued walking around, looking. A house right on the ramp
looked like the closest thing to an FBO so we made our way up the stairs to
find it closed.
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| '903 at Seamans |
The only folks around were
two guys talking in a maintenance shed. I made my way over and stood by as they
had a lively discussion. After a few minutes, one of them turned around and surprisingly
asked, “What do you want?” Shocked, I told the man I was looking for a restroom
and he said he would be with me in a few minutes.
A little while later he hopped
into his truck and drove in reverse at high speed over to the little house and
let us in. From the looks of it, this was his combination house/FBO. We thanked
him and he warmed up to us a bit. We checked the weather and found our gap. Two
big bands of storms were moving west to east with one just passing over Rome,
New York. The second one was about an hour out from Rome and later that
afternoon it would all pass over and be VFR again.
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| Pictures Don't Do Upstate New York Justice |
The scenery of upstate New
York was captivating. The lighting was perfect and the colors were alive in the
fields, forests, and mountains. We beelined for Rome and made it in just as the
winds started to pick up from the next oncoming band. The 12,000 ft runway, huge
hangars, and static display B-52 quietly made mention of the airport’s heritage
as a SAC bomber base.
Taxiing in to Million Air,
we found a spot right between the building and a Cessna. We waited for a
lineman but no one ever came, so we shut down and chalked the Luscombe. Just as
we were getting ready to walk in, a lineman ran out and yelled out, “You can’t
park that close to the building, you’re going to have to move!” Thankfully, he
helped us push back and tie down well away from the building, even though we
weren’t really that close to begin with.
We got a courtesy car and
two amazing ten-dollar coupons for lunch and made our way into town to eat.
Raspberries Café was quite good–complete with cheesecake for dessert. Heading
back to Million Air, we prepared to hunker down and wait out the weather.
Thankfully, Million Air had some five-star crew rest rooms complete with
recliners and freshly washed blankets. I was dead to the world for the next two
hours.
Waking up, we found the
weather to be marginally agreeable. We called ahead to the airport manager at
Swanton, Vermont and made arrangements for the night. He was kind enough to
arrange a hangar to stay in and a truck for us to use for the evening.
Our route to Swanton took us
over the Adirondack Mountains, a largely wilderness mountain range which stood
firmly in our way. Departing Rome, we stayed under a broken layer and headed
into the Adirondacks. It didn’t take long for the clouds to start to lower and
the sense of desolation to settle in. We decided to try to climb above the layer
but just as we made it around or above one cloud the next one was higher and we
had to go back down.
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| The Start of Our Broken Layer |
Looking around, we saw that
the holes were closing up. This wasn’t a fun situation to be in. Thankfully, we
found a good hole and made our way back down. We were now firmly in Marginal
VFR, in the mountains with no survival kit, no flight plan, and no radio
contact. The cold was also creeping in and I was greatly mad at myself for
removing the cabin heater hose which had been spewing heat on my feet back in
toasty southern Mississippi.
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| Marginal VFR in the Adirondacks |
The only savior we had was
our SPOT satellite locator. The ceilings were angling down to the mountain tops
on our right but were higher to our left. Thankfully, we had an out if needed.
We stayed at mountain top level gently weaving through the valleys.
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| Mountains and Moisture Meet |
Finally, the valleys opened
into flatter lands around Adirondack Regional and the ceilings lifted into
clear skies! We breathed sighs of relief and continued on. Soon, Lake Champlain
came into sight and we were agog with the view. As we continued toward the lake,
strange transmissions started coming in over the radio. They were muffled at
first but we could tell they weren’t English. Suddenly, we got a clear
transmission and realized they were French! Turns out it was the French
Canadians on the other side of the border making their normal CTAF calls on the
same CTAF frequencies used in the U.S.
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| Clear Skies Ahead! |
Lake Champlain passed
underneath sparkling and clear. We made our approach and tied down as a golf
cart came out to meet us. Mr. George, the gentleman who was going to let us
stay in his hangar, waited for us to arrive. He showed us to the truck and then
took us to his hangar for the tour. He had quite the little apartment in the
back. We unpacked a little and then took the truck into town and ate at the
Swanton House of Pizza. Being from the south, I found the high prices and little
soda cups to be out of whack.
After dinner, the sun was
almost to the horizon so we spent the rest of the light at a pier on Lake
Champlain before driving around the shore and through
some farm country. We retired not long after sunset, excited to make it into
Maine the following day.
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| Lake Champlain |
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| Swanton Scenery |
7G8-OYM-9N3-RME-FSO, 6.5
Hours, 4 Landings
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