Rob Schaffer
Cleared for Takeoff
(Click on the Map to View/Zoom our Flight On Google Maps!!! )This weekend was finally a fantastic weather weekend for the NorthEast, following a long few weeks of rain and down right crappy weather, it was very welcome to see the sun again. Following some picnics yesterday at Becky's Parents, swimming in the pool, and then meeting up with my brother and his girlfriend in Quakertown for the fireworks, Sunday morning rolled around and things still looked fantastic for our planned flight.
Initially, it was going to be my Dad and myself flying to Lancaster (Class D) for breakfast. It has been since December since I've been into a Towered Airport, even though I've had flight following and Clearance through the Philadelphia Bravo, it was good to head to a Towered airport for a radio refresher. As I was working on some flight planning and briefings this morning, Bella snuck down the stairs. Hmm,... W&B is quite fine,.. let's take Bella along for the flight! After a few minutes, Dad arrived and we loaded up in the car to head to the airport.After preflight and getting everyone situated, N2609L came to life easily and we made our way to Runway 24. Climbout was nice and a little more than 500 ft/minute today, with calm winds and 15*C,... it was smooth flying to say the least. We climbed to 2500, then leveled off and headed towards the Pottstown VOR to get us started for the trip out. I setup the radios for ATIS in COM2, Tower in COM1, with Ground as Standby on COM1. I also had PTW in NAV2, MXE in NAV1 for a crossing radial about 15 miles out from Lancaster. This way, when the two needles centered, I knew I was 15 out, ready to call Tower after recording the ATIS. Before we even got to this checkpoint, you could see Lancaster about 20 out, even from this low altitude. We crossed over Morgantown airport, with about half dozen gliders and planes parked on the field, and then the drag strip was in view off the right side. Time to call up ATIS for information. Information Delta had winds calm, and visual approaches to 31 or 26 in effect. We were given the option, and chose 31 in order to reduce our taxi time to the restaurant. We reported a 3 mile right base for 31, and had traffic on a normal traffic pattern ahead of us as well. The controller asked for a S-Turn for spacing, and we complied, following in the light-sport airplane ahead of us to a decent landing. Exited at Delta Taxiway, and switched to Ground Control to get clearance to the Parking Ramp.
Food was good, with Dad having Creamed Chip Beef on Toast with potatoes, Bella having three small pancakes and a single egg, and I had Cinnimon Sugar topped French Toast. Very good all around, with good prices and service. The business picked up as we were getting ready to leave. We taxied down to Airways, but they had holiday hours in effect for opening at 12 noon today,... so no pilot goodies to drool over this time.Ground control allowed us to taxi to RY 31, holding short for arriving traffic. Cleared to depart and make a right turn on course, we moved briskly down the runway and lifted off for a nice flight home with full tummies!! Smooth climbout, and a few low clouds developing,..... Hmm,.. why not make this a nice experience, so we continued to climb away up, up, up. The few clouds were located at about 4000 feet to 4500 feet, and with our VFR direction, we leveled off at 5500 for the trip back home.
Dad really enjoyed this part. He was looking out for other traffic, spotting some here and there, as well as taking in the clear view we had all around us. By the time we leveled off,.. our third passenger wasn't singing any more,.... looking back, and we lost her! She was out cold, sleeping away. The headset was slipping forward, but generally is a good fit.We wondered the blue skies for a bit, loosly tracking towards PTW and the clearly visible smoke stacks at the power plant. Once we started to get near to them, I adjusted the mixture and throttled back a little, starting our 500 ft/minute decent from 5500 to 2000 feet. This provided a nice slow decent that wasn't even noticable at first, but then we turned over the VOR and headed passed Perkiomen, just above the traffic in their pattern while we headed towards Wings Field. No traffic in the pattern ahead of us, but 53569 was departing 24 directly to the West, about the time we were 4 miles out to the West from the field. He leveled off at 1500, we maintained 2000, and we passed one another with no trouble at all.
