Chester (Connecticut) Airport was out of character this morning: the wind was calm. There was a high overcast which kept the turbulence to zero. It would be perfect for flying.
Today would be the most complicated flight so far. It would require lots of radio work, tricky navigation with lots of chart changes, very congested airspace, low level flying, and some great scenery to distract me from taking care of business. On top of it all, Art's second radio was unusable, so he couldn't monitor a second frequency and that meant that I was going to do all the radio work and fly the lead plane. After yesterday's screw-up, I was a bit apprehensive about all this workload, but I was determined to do my best.
The plan was to fly south from Chester direct to the water, then head west along the southern coast of Connecticut passing through three different Class D airspaces, then cut northwest (inland) to the Hudson River, then south again following the river at 400 feet, keeping to the right to avoid oncoming traffic, then popping up to about 800 feet to get over the George Washington bridge, then back down again on the deck until we reach the Statue of Liberty, circle her clockwise, continue south and pop up over the Verazano Narrows bridge and cross the water into New Jersey, down the coast to Allaire airport near Sea Girt, and land.
This is some of the trickiest airspace anywhere, and if we could make it through without breaking any laws or FAA regulations it would be a major accomplishment.
I'll save you the boring details and simply tell you that it was certainly the best flight of the trip so far. The air was calm all the way, and the flying was silky smooth. The scenery was incredible, starting with the flight along the coast, but the best part was the flight down the Hudson River. Flying very low (below the level of the cliffs on the river bank) we were awed by the magical sight of New York City's skyscrapers close very close by on the left. Virtually all of the buildings towered over us as we passed by, just a couple of hundred feet above the huge tankers and freighters on the river below.
As we reached the river mouth, we passed within a couple hundred feet of "The Lady" as local pilots refer to the Statue of Liberty. I have to admit that I got a little choked up upon seeing it up close like that. It was the first time I've ever seen it, and the tunes of "The Star Spangled Banner" and "America The Beautiful" were playing in my head along with thoughts of how this wonderful gift of the French has inspired millions of immigrants to America.
Art stayed close on my right wing the whole flight and helped a lot by calling out traffic alerts.
When we finally got on the ground at Allaire in New Jersey, Art and Les and I were ecstatic about the incredible flight we just had. Art was really bummed that he didn't remember to get video tape of my plane with the Statue of Liberty in the background, and the skyscrapers of New York City. Les was bummed that he had run out of film for his 35mm camera the day before. The only memories of this flight will be purely mental, but I could replay them in exquisite detail a hundred years from now.
At Allaire, we met up with more of Art's favorite relatives: his mother, a sister, cousin, cousin's wife and daughters, daughter's boyfriend, two dogs, and spend the next 5 hours in a family reunion with lots of hugs and stories and laughs and tears and kidding around.
Tomorrow we fly south to Ocean City New Jersey to visit my parents!
Families! Where would we be without them!