Thanks again guys.
Hey Alpha.
Hey HiTech,
I own a 152 I bought to get my license. There were about 5 of us that were supposed to get our PPLs. So I figured by the time we all did it we would have bought the 152 twice. I lease it back and it just about breaks even. It taught me the lesson, "If you want to fly get your PPL. If you want to own you better get your A&P." lolh. One of my eventual goals.
I did all the 100hrs on the 152 the first two years, that included a few jugs as well. It has been a great experience.
98R is my second adventure into ownership, I just hope the software market doesn't go totally soft lolh or I'm in deep cheese.
Hey Slimm,
The flight back was awesome, to say the least. Knowing the weather was going to marginal in some places we wanted to get an early start. So we got to the hanger at Spruce Creek before sun rise. We rolled the plane out under one of the hanger lights as the sun started to come up. By the time we started the engine the sun was breaking through.
We took off at 6:40 on a cool, FLA, Sunday morning, a light haze quickly burning off with every passing minute. It was nice and clear so we made our way at 5500 ft, with a sleight westerly wind.
We made our way up to Brunswick/Golden Isles Georgia in about an hour and a half. The winds were out of the west and pretty much down the active runway, so I took the first landing and got her down with about a 10 to 12 knt headwind. We stopped there for 19 gals.
Our next leg took us to Grand Strands North Carolina. That was another hour and a half and 20 gals. Half way to Grand Strands the clouds were starting to form a broken layer at about 4500 so with the short legs of 98R we decided to go under the clouds at about 3k. As some can imagine it was a bit bumpy, but made the ride all the more fun. The winds were blowing down the runway at 17 mph gusting to 20 so I decided to let Ron take it in, as he would do the rest of the way due to the heavy gusts.
Our third stop was Suffolk Virgina. At this point we were 2k feet picking our way through spaced out rain cells and a ominous looking overcast around Kingston Regional. Again it was about an hour and a half and 20 gals. Suffolk was a few miles south of Norfolk VA so as soon as we got up, we contacted Norfolk Approach and transitioned the area. It was cool flying over the bay. Seeing the ships and carriers at the docs. The overcast turned to a broken layer and the sun was starting to break through. A welcomed warming.
We made our way up the north east coast, over the Delaware seashore. As Cape May, NJ came into sight we knew we were homeward bound. Over Atlantic City to Toms River NJ. Our last fuel stop and winds gusting up to 26 mph.
After fueling up and taking off we could see the mouth of NY Harbor off in the distance. As we neared the Verenzano, we tried to contact NY approach, but they would not respond. Too busy for a Pitts I guess. LOL. With a ***** Yankees game going on the VFR Hudson River Corridor was closed so my home coming past the Lady and up the west side was lost. Our route home would be the 300 feet off the water a 1/4 of a mile off of Atlantic and Long Beach. Only a few miles south of JFK. You could see the heavies lined up an inbound as we passed under the final approach for JFK. The southern route takes you east to the Jones Beach memorial, a left turn North, a transition just outside of Republic airfield, a short hop across the Long Island Sound, due north strait into Danbury.
It was a total of 4 fuel stops, 6.7 hours on the tach and 8.5 total hours in route.
Definitely a trip not to be forgotten!!
Hey LePaul,
I lucked out with the insurance, lets just say it's under 5k, with high deductibles and 90k hull.
. I dont want to jinx myself.
98R at Danbury after we taxied home.
A good friends wife and kids infront of 98R
