Flying with Photographer in SE PA.

[Rob Schaffer]

Tomorrow night, I'm taking up another friend of mine whom I've worked with for about 5 years doing wedding photography. She's been up in a small plane before and taken photos, and I'm hoping she can get some nice ones of me taking off or landing as well.

Any ideas of places to fly over in SouthEast PA, (Bucks, Montgomery, Lehigh Counties)?

Any photo ideas of the plane and I? What you have seen or have had done for you?

I was thinking,... Along the Delaware River in Eastern Bucks County near New Hope/Lambertville,... The marina at Lake Nockamixon,...?

Whatever photos we get,.. I'll post a few here to share.

 

[Steve]

How about the mothball fleet ?

 

[Shipoke]

Well Rob if you want to go alittle farther fly around TMI but don't linger or they get nervous. then over Harrisburg and take pics. of the capitol buildings.you could also go over Hershey Park
Dave G

 

[Rob Schaffer]

Unfortunately, don't have that much time to take that trip out to mid-state, but that would be cool. I may see if she is up for landing at ABE, that's always neat and ATC has been really nice each time I've been in their airspace. Usually, I land, taxi to Hangar 7's ramp and quick pull a U-turn at the edge of the ramp, call clearance delivery, and work my way back out to the assigned runway. Good radio work, and fun to go into a big runway like that. Then we may be able to be near Dorney Park on departure over Queen City. We'll see.

 

[AdamZ]

Well I'm taking a friend up flying tomrrow eveing so you can take photos of me

Seriously if you want photos of yourself taking off or landing just do it at N10 or LOM. If you want shots from the air then Nock-a-Mixon is nice as is scudders falls on the Delaware. Also even though trenton is a dump from the ground it looks pretty nice from the air and if its nice you can see both Philly and NYC at the sametime. Have a safe flight.

 

[Rob Schaffer]

I'll be departing UKT about 6:15 after I pick my friend up,.. maybe you'll pass me again like the other thursday. (remember, i'm in the 152, so even birds pass me sometimes )

 

[OtisAir]

ROB,

Somewhere in the area West-Southwest of Quakertown (UKT) is a large wooden ship that I've seen in the past. It's land based and I've been unable to find it again the last few times I've been up that way. It may be part of an amusement park as I've no other explanation of why a large "ship" would be sitting in the middle of nowhere - on land.

Hope ya'll enjoy the flight!

Shane

 

[Anthony]

Delaware Water Gap. Be sure to take her to Blairstown, NJ (1N7) for lunch.

 

[Nav8tor]

How about my house

 

[Rob Schaffer]

I know the wooden ship,..its actually a house. When I was younger, I used to go to a church camp and that was on the road to get back there. Follow 29 north out of Pennsburg, to Rte 100 North,.. you'll see a camp on the south side of Rte 100, and then there is another on the North side with a pond. Between the two, should be the Ship House. Maybe I'll try to find it tonight. Here's an image of it from Live.Local maps


Lee,.. between 6:30 and 7,.. if we are circling, you have to wave , then we'll take a photo

 

[dmccormack]

The strange thing about taking picture sin flight is that real soon you realize:

• It's hard to capture the view in a single image
• Most things on the ground -- unless they are REALLY big or you are REALLY low -- don't look as cool in the picture as they did from the air
• Air-to-air photography is VERY hard and should not be attempted unless both pilots are experienced in formation flying and know each other.

I used to take a camera on every flight but soon grew tired of my own ineptitude.

 

[AdamZ]

The strange thing about taking picture sin flight is that real soon you realize:

• It's hard to capture the view in a single image
• Most things on the ground -- unless they are REALLY big or you are REALLY low -- don't look as cool in the picture as they did from the air
• Air-to-air photography is VERY hard and should not be attempted unless both pilots are experienced in formation flying and know each other.

I used to take a camera on every flight but soon grew tired of my own ineptitude.

Dan you are right on on all accounts!

Short final is the only exception where things come out pretty well.

 

[Gary]

Well I'm taking a friend up flying tomrrow eveing so you can take photos of me

Did you get to go? Visibilities looked pretty good on the flight back from Denver and it seemed pretty nice on the ground at home.

Gary

 

[Rob Schaffer]

Yes, tonight was great for flying, and we had a good time. Actually, I prepared the plane and was able to depart Perkiomen about 5:30, ahead of schedule. So, I flew out around Limerick power plant and up around Boyertown, crossing over Green Lane from the west. At about 10 minutes to 6, I was closing in on Quakertown and decending to pattern altitude before crossing the Northeast Extension at the RC Plane field.

I entered the 45* for RY 29, and everything was going pretty smoothly. I turned final and the airspeed came down to 60 Knots, full flaps,.. looking good. Began my flare,.. and things looked a little high,... ballooned a little, and then WHAMO Let's just say, the trap wasn't there and my tailhook wasn't down. I was upset with that one, and thought about going around again if my friend wasn't there. But whom do I see as I taxi back,.. AdamZ,... oh no,... I knew he saw that one. I stopped on the ramp, and shut-down. As I got out, I waved, and he expressed,...
"This isn't a carrier deck" from all the way across the ramp, in a humorous tone...

Ah well,.. that was my first hard landing in quite some time. I met my friend, and went over the plan of where we would go on the chart. Loaded up, passenger breifing, and then startup. Climbout was sluggish, then we turned and departed to the East, up over Richlandtown. Over to Philipsburg NJ, and followed the River south to New Hope and the 202 bridge. Turned back North West, crossed DYL and then headed to the marina at Nockamixon. Paralleled the lake to Pennridge, then turned up 309 and went back to UKT. This landing was nice, and there was a slight crosswind component. Still not as smooth as I would have liked, but good.

I then stayed in the pattern twice with another trainer, and tried to figure out what I was doing wrong. Checked my decent rate, airspeed, glideslope, everything seemed correct, but I was flaring a little early for some reason. After the second time around, the landing was much better and I was happy with it. Time to depart back to N10. AdamZ wasn't back yet, he had mentioned going to LNS, so I presume he wasn't far behind. Now, about 7:30, I worked my way back to N10.

Announcing my 3 Mile North of N10, I see a plane moving on the ground. Oh no,.. Lee,... my AOPA Mentor,... better get this landing right. I announce Crosswind intent for 27, and Lee Say's "Hi Rob" over the radio, and announces he is crossing the active. I follow through, and things looked good. Wind was 230 @ 8 knots, and my landing was looking good. Crossed at 60 Knots, and landed fairly smootly Lee said it was good,.. so I guess that counts.

So,.. good night overall, and gives a good meaning to the POA Forums being the front-porch of Aviation. Yesterday and today I post and talk to people online, and tonight, I see them as I traverse the area,... that's great!

 

[Nav8tor]

Your landing looked great Rob.

 

[AdamZ]

Heh Heh Heh Carrier Deck heh heh. We've all done it Rob so don't sweat it. I just couldn't resist ribbing ya. We'll just say the wheels firmly met the ground. It was solid but no bounce you I wouldn't sweat it. I wish we could have chatted longer but I needed to get the plane unwrapped and preflighted and I too was taking a buddy up flying.

I'm glad you said you were a little sluggish getting out. the Wind was about 260@6 and on climbout from 29 I'm saying to myself hmmmm is this plane going to climb DA was 2000 so its not that bad but it definitly took some omph to get the plane up. I pushed the nose down at about 100'AGL to pick up some speed.

We headed west and out to LNS at 4500' where I had a greaser. The purpose of the trip was to take my colleauge to Airways to go shopping for his 6yo son and me well FOR ME. I wanted to get the large Skyhigh flight bag as an Early B-Day gift for myself. Alas Airways was closed bummer. So back in 65W and back to UKT. RDG app guy was nice we chatted about 60s era cherokees. I flew a not so pretty base to final at UKT but my pax thought it was awesome so that what matters. I had another greaser at UKT but the dag nam runway really needs to be repaved so many cracks grabbing you. Gary you have to do something about that. Anyway then we put the plane to bed. ( I actually got it aligned perfectlty in the spot something I'm not to good at) and grabbed dinner at a biker/nascar/country western bar. good time.

BTW I think it was really neat how all us Philly area POAers got to bump into each other in one night while flying at different fields.

 

[Rob Schaffer]

Yea, the DA hurt me, and I was 25 lbs below gross weight when we tookoff. I was holding 400ft/min at 68-70 knots,...

Later, after I dropped off Stephanie (the photographer), I was 1000+ ft/min at 70 knots, but I was also about 8.5 gallons lower on fuel from the flying we did + no passenger.

Glad you had a good flight, bummer about Airways. I was going to try SkyManor (N40) for a evening snack stop, but while checking the times before I left work, I realized they closed at 6 during the week. Looks like a good place to take my wife for dinner or lunch though, a nice short hop.

No flying for me now for 2 weeks,... need to keep that $$ for the 172 checkout at Wings.

 

[Nav8tor]

Adam, Airways closes at 5:00 everyday ... but you probably know that now.

http://www.flyairways.com/dsp_fbo_hours.asp?nav=Shopping

It was still a great night too fly so I guess all was not lost. As for me, all I did was taxi across the field to get fuel in preparation for todays flight to the shore. Oh yeah and to rate Rob's landing back at N10 (I'll pm you his score )

Lee