Skydogs Trip Wrapup

Well we finally got a video of the trip ready to post. Sorry for the delay.

Here is the YouTube link

Thanks for following our trip. We had fantastic travels to the northeast. Looks like our trip next year may be to follow the Lewis and Clark Expedition route to the west coast like they did in 1805! (except flying)

May 30 - Press Coverage

This just in from The Quoddy Tides in Eastport ME:

Monday May 20 - Homecoming

Well, I am sitting in my favorite chair after a good home cooked meal and just relaxing.

There is no place like home.

We started the day at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH. What an awesome place. There were 3 large hangers that were divided into sections of WWI, WWII, Cold War, Korean and Vietnam. Each display had the important aircraft of the era. Some of these airplanes I have only seen picture of until today. We started at 9:00 and had to leave to be at the airport at 2:00 so we hustled thru the whole thing and saw most everything. It is a place I would love revisit and spend a few days.

We departed Dayton (Greene County Airport) and headed for Monroe Co TN (1:56  flying time) where gas was at the amazing price of $5.17/gallon. We filled up and blasted off for Mountain Airpark at 5:30 which would have put us home at 6:00 as the flying time was 27:00 minutes. One problem. There was a thunderstorm between us and home so we had to divert west to Lumpkin Co (Wimpy Airport) then turn east to go around the cell. We landed about 6:15 and had many folks come out to welcome us.

Thanks to everyone for turning out.

We had a great trip, made many new friends and enjoyed flying with a great group of guys. Thanks to the Skydogs for making this another memorable trip.

We'll post a wrap-up video asap...

Sunday May 19

Hello from Dayton OH. We left Jamestown and got into Dayton about 1:30. We had to pick our way thru a few showers just outside Dayton but it was a good flight. The weather information available on the GPS is truly remarkable. This afternoon we visited the place where the Wright Brothers perfected their Wright Flyer after their successful first flight at Kitty Hawk. We also visited the outdoor display of Air Force equipment at the Air Force Museum. One of the planes was the C-141 which Mike flew during his time with the Air Force. It is a big, impressive airplane. It has been good on this trip to see the aircraft that Mike, Harry and Jim flew during their service. Thanks guys. We appreciate your service.

Tomorrow the Museum opens a 9:00 and we will be there when the doors open. It is a big place where you could spend days but we want to head home. We will check the weather first thing in the morning and if the forecast does not change, we could make it home tomorrow afternoon late (probably about 6:00). If there is weather, we may post pone until Tuesday.

We will post our intentions in the morning. Come see us get home!

Saturday May 18

Weather looked great from Elmira to Buffalo (Niagara Falls) to Jamestown to Dayton so we filled up the airplanes and departed Elmira for Buffalo. (See course on the Daily Track of Flights).  Mike F. led the way talking to Buffalo Approach and they cleared us directly over Buffalo International Airport and into the Falls Area at 3500 ft. We made 2 orbits of the Falls and our flight track did take us into Canadian Airspace a couple times but we were under approach control at all times so we hope we did not violate any airspace restrictions. Nice job Mike!  Here are a few shots from the area.

 

 

 

 

We departed directly south and landed in Jamestown, NY for lunch and fuel. There is a restaurant at the terminal so we walked over for lunch at a very nice facility. It was about 2:00 and there was one other group of 4 men having lunch. One on the men was Lou Nalbone who owns Jamestown Aviation at the airport. We struck up a conversation with him and he offered to loan us a van for the evening and call the hotel in town for a good rate. How could we pass up that offer?! So we stayed here instead of flying into Dayton.

 

 Lou also recommended a restaurant and said he would call the owner and let him know we were coming. We checked into the hotel and took time to do some laundry or just relax. We went to the Italian Fisherman owned by Dan Dalpra in Benus Point NY. The Italian Fisherman is located on a large lake with a great view and great food.

 We are at the airport here on Sunday morning waiting for the lower ceiling to burn off before we depart for Dayton. As it stands now we will head for home after Dayton but it does not look like we will be able to get into north Georgia until Tuesday at the earliest. We have to see.

Mike and I are excited to get back as we have been asked to be part of the barber shop quartet in the Gainesville Theater Alliance presentation of the Music Man this summer. Should be great fun!

Special - Saturday Morning May 18

We made a special trip this morning. Mike S, Mike F, Bob and myself were not happy with the pictures we got on the Hudson. We are within 200 miles of New York so we did a 2 ship to the Hudson River again at dawn. Winds were calm and there was no one else on the River. It was fabulous!

Early morning departure

 Here is a small sample of what we took this morning.

 

 

 

 

We are back in Elmira and preparing to depart for Niagara Falls.

We'll do another post tonight.

Friday May 17

Good evening. Hope you had a great day!

We spent the night in Newport and were picked up by John Merriman and Harold Yanofsky at 9:00 this morning.

They carried us to the airport and assisted in getting pre-flighted and ready to go. A big think you to these guys and to Rick Klorpel from all the Skydogs. We appreciate your help.

We blasted off for Elmira and flew for about 2 hours in some of the best conditions we have seen. It was a pleasure and the scenery of central New York and the Finger Lakes were fantastic. We landed at Elmira and checked into the hotel and began some sight seeing. First we went to the National Soaring Museum. George was a Trustee at one time and knew everyone on site. Thanks George.

 How about a soaring rating, Mike?

We then drove up the lake and stopped in at the Glenn Curtiss Museum. This guy was a contemporary of the Wright Brother and was instrumental in many of the advancements in aviation and engines in the early 1900's. We got to spent about a hour there before it closed.

We then headed for dinner in Watkins Glen. Some of you will recognize this place as an important raceway starting in the mid 1900s. We went to a popular local Italian restaurant what had a lot of pictures of the history of these races.

Nice scenery also!

 

 

So tomorrow we hope to get some great pictures of Niagara Falls and maybe a surprise stop.

Thursday May 16

What a day! We have found out through experience that the best days are when the unexpected happens. This was proven again today. We cleaned our accommodations this morning, had breakfast at a local restaurant and decided in spite of the winds we would go the Elmira, NY via Newport NH (2B3). We fueled up at Bar Harbor and departed and immediately began to be pummeled by the winds. Our airspeed was about 140 knots but our ground speed was typically 90 knots ground speed. That is a 50 knot headwind and it was not smooth air. We were all uncomfortable for the entire flight. Lots of rough air.

We landed at Newport (some landings better than others) and there was no debate about whether to stop for the day or continue to Elmira. We stopped. The folks at the airport were so nice to call and organize accommodations and drive us to the Best Western about 10 miles away.

Although it was a rough day flying, the camaraderie has been fabulous. We have had a lot of fun sharing the experience and reliving the day. We will be ready to continue the trip to Elmira in the morning. Here are a few pics.

Jim's studio

 in Jim's backyard

Skydog planning

Wednesday the 15th

We woke up Wednesday morning to a BRIGHT sunrise at 5:15am. Take a look at the pictures to see how beautiful the area is both from the ground and the air. Since the weather was so nice and the rain was supposed to hold off until the evening, we decided to fly up to Eastport for lunch. We departed Bar Harbor and flew up the coast with Jim pointing out all the point of interest along the way. Thanks Jim for the history and geography lessons along the way.

We arrived in Eastport in formation and attracted some attention. We parked the airplanes on the ramp and there was no one around… for a few minutes. A vehicle came roaring up and out popped the couple. Mary and Pete Repole introduced themselves. Mary is the current Chairperson of the City Council. They saw us fly over form the house and they came right over to the airport.

Harry, Darrell, George Pete, Mary, George, Mike and Bob

They offered take us into Eastport and recommended a lunch spot. They were really interested in the airplanes and our trip. Mary called the local paper and had them come out and take our pictures and do an article on our trip. We requested copies The Quoddy Tides. We can also see the paper online.

After a good lunch Mary and Pete took us back to the airport and we returned to Bar Harbor for our second night.

Here are some shots of the day.

Tuesday the 14th

So our first stop after departing Westerly RI was Biddeford Me. We had reports that there were a few RVs at the airport and it was time for a stop. No RVs in sight. We left Biddeford and flew to Owls Head ME into the Knox Co airport. They provided us a crew car and we went to lunch and returned to tour the Owls Head Museum on the Knox Co. Airport property.

 This museum is unique in that most of the airplanes, automobiles and machines dating back to 100+ years are still in working condition! During the summer they actually fly these airplanes from time to time and on the weekend of July 4^th they fly a lot of the really old airplanes. This would be something to experience.

 We left Knox County about 5:00 pm to Bar Harbor, ME.  George had organized a car and Jim has a cottage in Prospect Harbor.  Things worked out perfectly and we all got a good nights rest and are ready to go for Wednesday.

Tuesday Update Pending...

Sorry for the delay. We got into Bar Harbor ME yesterday afternoon and got situated at Jim's cabin at Prospect Harbor. What a great location! The only problem is we are having problems finding any internet connection to update the blog. We have some great pictures and video but will post as soon as we get a couple hours free.

We are at the airport now and are going to fly the coast up to Eastport (Furthers point east in the US).

Full update to come.

Monday - New York

This has been one of those days when you sit back at the end of the day and start to think of everything that happened and say “How in the world did we do all that?” We departed Reading PA at about 9:30 this morning and flew northeast to fly down the Hudson River to New York City. The FAA has very strict control of this airspace and we were limited to flying over the Hudson River at an altitude of between 1000 and 1300 feet. The video you see is from George’s camera mounted under his wing. The wind (20-30 mph) made the trip pretty rough and it was a big challenge to hold altitude and stay on course.  and not hit anybody and look at what was going past your cockpit.

We flew down the River and turned around and flew back north. Big landmarks were the George Washington Bridge, the Trump Tower, The Statue of Liberty, Verrazano Bridge, New York Freedom Tower (World Trade Center Memorial), Intrepid Aircraft Carrier (Mike’s Dad was transported to Hawaii on the Intrepid),  Central Park Lake, LaGuardia Airport and much more. This is a short clip.

 

 

Here is the youtube link (we are trying to fix the apple products play this).

From New York, we flew out to the end of Long Island and across the bay to Rhode Island. We landed at Westerly State Airport. Impressive things were the farm land on Long Island and of course the Homes that lined the shoreline.

Here are some shots of the day.

 

Harry flew this airplane in the Navy. A lot bigger than his RV4 in the back.

 

This is George's favorite!

 

 This is Donald Trump Building on the NJ side of the river.

 

 

 Departing New York up the Hudson.

Flew over this submarine leaving the Bay

 



 

Great Clam Chowder! I am a big fan now.

 

Tomorrow, north to Maine. It is only about an hour flight.