Ithaca and Dinner with Pops in ACY

I'm really surprised that I got my homework done as quickly as I did today. Over the weekend, especially Sunday night, I was swamped with various commitments and too much homework. I even spent all of my free time in school on Monday 9/29 finishing an advanced physics assignment that I had begun the night before and was due later that same day!

So, to make up for the lack of posts for the past two weeks, I'll begin by writing about my trip to Ithaca, NY with my Dad, my friend, and my friend's Dad to visit Cornell University. Unfortunately, the schedule called for a 5:45am wake up for myself, and I decided to arrive at the airport at roughly 6:30am to being my pre-flight for a 7am departure. Luckily, the weather was absolutely stunning, so there wasn't any extra paperwork to fill out for an IFR flight. However, one might think otherwise after seeing the morning mist on the way to the airport. Enroute the airport, I was driving along when my Dad and I noticed that the mist was covering only one side of the road! How unusual, right?

So I arrived at the airport and began my standard pre-flight checks. This typically consists of a "walk-around", during which a pilot, even of a jet airliner, will literally take a stroll around the aircraft checking for any leaks, major damage, tire pressure, fuel contamination, and much more. When I speak of fuel contamination, I mean that I actually take a small, fresh, sample of fuel from the wing and check for the following: blue tint (color of the fuel), lack of obvious contaminants (i.e. dirt), and lack of any foreign or clear fluid (clear fluid would indicate water). To see a sample, click here.

Another thing that I always check is the condition of the wheel and tires. I don't check the tire pressure, but I do make sure that it is firm and hard and I also make sure to look over the condition of the brake disc, pictured here. This is what allows me to slow down quickly, so I definitely want to make sure that it is good standing, which means no cracks or other obvious damage.

In addition to a fuel sample and tires, I'll also typically take a look at the pitot tube, which is an instrument on the leading edge of the wing that sends readings to the airspeed indicator. Essentially, all I do is be sure that there isn't any blockage in the tube and, again, that there isn't any obvious damage. To see a picture of a pitot tube, look here.

During my pre-flight of the Cessna 172RG (Retractable Gear), my friend called me to tell me that he had arrived, and I told him that I would be done shortly and hopefully we'd be on our way. Little did I know that a delay lay ahead of us. The airport employees actually show up at 7am, at which time they must conduct a routine inspection of the taxiways and runways for any debris that could be potentially dangerous. This takes about 20 minutes to complete, so I had to wait until that task was done until I could get some fuel. During my wait, I decided to wonder around a little and I captured this shot during that time. After finally getting the fuel required for the round trip, everyone got in the plane and I proceeded to start the engine. However, after sitting on the ramp through a colder-than-normal night, the battery was especially weak and the engine wouldn't start. Now I had to go request a GPU, or Ground Power Unit, to provide some extra juice to the battery during the engine start process. After about another 15 minute delay, I started the engine and we were finally on our way.

Shortly after takeoff, my passengers and I were treated to an extremely rare view. It seemed as though the mist yet had to burn off over the eastern section of the Lehigh Valley and to the north of over the ridges. Therefore, we witnessed some low-level fog and mist flowing through a gap in the ridges like flowing water. It was truly an extraordinary sight.

As we cruised along at 6500ft on a northerly route to Ithaca, we flew over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, PA and the windmills there before crossing state lines into New York. Enroute, we continued to see some more low-level fog/mist which covered some of the numerous Appalachian valleys. For a moment, my passengers and I thought that the fog in this picture was a river! Throughout the rest of the flight, the weather was the clearest that I had seen it in a long time, and the landing in Ithaca was typical.

The return flight was equally labor-free as the weather seemed to be working with us for once. It might explain why the general aviation ramp at Ithaca was unusually busy, according to the FBO employee. Due to the early wake-up call, my passengers decided to take a snooze on the way home to A-Town while I took a self-portrait (also capturing another dozing passenger) and a picture of the GPS (scroll your mouse over the different parts for descriptions). Just as we had on the way to Ithaca, we overflew Scranton/Wilkes-Barre once more and I managed to get a quick snapshot of the aiport there (see side). The landing back at Queen City was also typical, well, maybe a little bumpy. But nothing unusual.

Fast forward one week. It's Saturday, September 27. The weather is horrible, but I still have an urge to get out of the house and go somewhere. What better way to go somewhere than to fly? So, I attempted to fly to Atlantic City, NJ in the early afternoon with my sister, but I was literally at the airport for only five minutes because the weather forecast had actually changed while I was driving to the airport. The weather was bad all day, but it wasn't anything I haven't flown in (low visibility, rain, low cloud ceilings, etc.). However, when the cloud ceilings drop below a certain altitude, or are expected to during the timeframe that I would be airborne or away from Allentown, it would be very ill-advised to fly because I would not be able to return to Queen City because the ceilings would be below the "minimums" for the instrument approach. So, I cancelled this flight, but I re-scheduled myself for 5pm when the forecast was predicting that the cloud ceilings would be higher (hopefully it would be right this time).

So far so good. I checked the weather at about 4pm and the ceilings were well above the legal minimums and my personal minimums. This time, however, I would be taking my Dad because my sister was now busy doing her schoolwork. My choice in destination you ask? Atlantic City, New Jersey (ACY). My Dad and I concluded that, if the weather still looked good enough for later in the evening, we would get out at ACY and grab something to eat before returning. So, I filed the IFR flight plan and we were off in no time. This time, the aircraft in use was a Piper Warrior registered as N8015X, a single-engine, fixed gear aircraft. This is probably my favorite aircraft to fly in IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions) because it has many features that make the workload much lighter, like an autopilot and a GPS just like the one I gave the link to above.

We took off from runway 7 at Queen City Airport, and immediately we were in radar control and receiving instructions from ATC to proceed on our course. Our route of flight took us in a southeasterly direction towards Trenton, NJ and McGuire Air Force Base, circumnavigating the busy Philadelphia Class B airspace, before turning almost directly south to Atlantic City. Once it was clear to the controller that we would not enter the Philly Class B airspace, he cleared us, "direct to Atlantic City VOR," giving us a bit of a shortcut by cutting a corner.

The low weather conditions continued to be ever so present throughout our flight over Trenton and northern Philadelphia. Occassionally, we spotted some gaps and holes in the clouds, exposing the homes below. To the west, my Dad and I could spot some sunlight, but I knew that weather was deceiving because only a bit further west was some thunderstorm activity.

As we came into contact with Atlantic City Approach Control, I was instructed to, "report the field in sight for the visual approach to runway 1-3." I thought to myself that I would, except I'm still in the clouds! I had listened to the Atlantic City ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service) only moments before, which reported clear skies. I thought that the report was either old or the weather was going to clear up very soon. Speak of the devil! I kid you not, but about ten seconds after the controller gave me those instructions, we broke out of the clouds, revealing totally clear skies. Behind us, we left a wall of clouds which were heading north. In unison, the surprise came with a, "Woah!" from both my Dad and I. The clear weather really helped ease the workload for the approach, since I simply flew directly to the airport and essentially flew a straight in approach.

I checked the weather forecast for the next three hours in Allentown after landing, and fortunately, it was good enough so that my Dad and I could hop out and grab something to eat. We took a cab to a nearby sports bar and enjoyed a scrumptuous American sized burger while watching an amazing last inning in the Phillies-Nationals game (4-3, Phillies!). We returned to the airport by 7:30pm, and ten minutes later, the engine was started and we had obtained our IFR clearance back to Allentown. Unfortunately, the weather was still poor in Allentown, so I definitely expected to conduct an instrument approach, most likely the GPS approach to runway 7.


By the time we took off, it was well into the night, which made for an interesting flight in the clouds. With the landing lights on and flying through the clouds, it was very surreal because it gave the illusion of traveling at warp five. To prevent any disorientation on my part and keep my Dad's hamburger where it is supposed to be, I turned off the landing lights. Personally, I like flying at night with all of the lights on. Of course, I couldn't see the lights on the ground, so I had to enjoy the cockpit lights, which also look pretty neat.

Enroute, we were vectored by Philadelphia Approach to the north near McGuire Air Force Base at 4000ft before turning west towards Allentown. Since the traffic was sparse in the area, the controller was nice enough to give us another shortcut, like the previous controller.

Finally, I came into contact with Allentown Approach, who set me up for the GPS approach that I expected to execute. The approach went by flawlessly, if I do say so myself. I came out of the clouds exactly where I expected to (about 200ft above the minimums, or 1100ft above sea level/700ft above ground level) and we had no problem landing at Queen City. When we broke out of the clouds, we were pointing straight down the center of the runway that we were landing on, and the precision of the approach seemed to impress my Dad immensely. He said to me after the flight, "I had no idea where we were the entire flight and then all of a sudden I see the runway lights right on front of us! That's technology at its greatest!"

I'm happy that my Dad was able to come along on this flight because he had never gone with me on a cross-country flight before without an instructor in IFR conditions. It gave me a chance to show him how one flies without looking outside the window (I'm not sure if that frightened him or impressed him. :-) ) and the skills I've acquired over time. Hope you had a good time Dad!

Thanks for reading everyone! I hope that I can keep up with my posts more frequently, and as always, I'll do my best to do so. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at mike_stangy@msn.com. Also, all of my photos here and more are available on my flickr site (see link to the right), and I've also uploaded a new video to my youtube account (also see link to right). As always, comments on this blog, my flickr site, and my youtube site are highly appreciated!