jpower
Cleared for Takeoff
A friend and I flew down to Fishers Island, NY! I think it was the best flight I've ever taken. It reminded me of some of the reasons I love to fly, so I figured I'd share it here.
First of all, the video. Sorry that the prop is a little distracting. Oh well!
The day of, I was nervously looking outside, because there were low clouds that weren't forecast. I formulated a backup plan to fly over to Hartford and (depending on how nice the tower controller was feeling) fly up the Connecticut River to see the city. When I got out of work, though, everything had cleared up. I stopped at home to change and get a weather briefing and pick up a friend and we were on our way.
We took off right around 6:30, and I was really surprised at how hazy it was! I hadn't noticed it from the ground. Anyway, we could see Hartford from the plane, the Connecticut River, a huge quarry, lots of trees, etc etc. The usual stuff. We picked up flight following with Bradley Approach and cruised at around 3000'. They dropped us about 20 miles from the coast, at which point I called Groton Tower for a Class D transition through their airspace to Fishers, which they gave us. We descended into Fishers Island over the Long Island Sound, and ohhhhh my gooodness was it pretty. We overflew the airport to check the windsock and landed on the shorter of the two runways, 7/25, to the west, almost directly into the sun.
We parked, jumped out, and looked for someone to collect the landing fee ($8, apparently), but the airport building was closed. I peeked inside, and it looks like they have bikes pilots can take. A little research suggests that you get one free bike with the landing fee and that additional bikes are $10 each.
At this point, we walked across the airport to the approach end of Runway 7, where there's a gorgeous rocky beach. The waves were lapping at the pebbles, making a sound not too unlike a rainmaker as the waves washed back out to sea. We could see someone fishing off in the distance, and we could hear a few boats coming and going into New London.
All too soon, we had to get back in the plane and fly back. I'm not night current right now (I need to get on that...), so we had to get back before dark. It had gotten even a little hazier by the time we flew back, but it was no big deal. Groton Tower gave us the transition again and we were on our way...right into the sunset. It was pretty amazing, actually. Landed back at Robertson and put the plane to be for the night.
All in all, probably the most fun I've had with my pilot's license. There's no way I would have done this without it. The gorgeous approach to the island, the walk to and along the beach, the water and the sound it made on the pebbles, and the beautiful departure from the island made it an incredible experience.
Here are some pictures. I posted these over in the Daily Pic thread, but figured it wouldn't hurt to put them here again.
The approach end of Runway 7 on the right and the beach and the Sound on the left.
Looking back from the same(ish) place:
Looking east with 7/25 on the left:
My magnificent parking job:
And a few nitty grittys for those who might want to fly there. The runways are pretty short. The longer of the two, 12/30, is 2300x100. The shorter one, 7/25, is published as just shy of 1800x75, but in reality, it's a little smaller, because sand encroaches on the approach end of Runway 7. I measured it on Google Earth and it came out to about 1650'. Wind for me was reported as 220@10 at Groton, and though there's no AWOS at Fishers Island, that seemed about right. It made 25 a real cinch. I was taxiing after about 800' of runway had passed below me. There's apparently an $8 landing fee, but nobody was there to collect it at 1915 ish on a Friday, even though airnav says they should be attended until 2000. I called before I went (at roughly 1715) and there was no answer, so maybe today was an exception. There was no dropbox either, so I just left. There's parking for 7 airplanes on the ramp, but we were the only plane there when we went. To get to the beach after you land, you can either walk down the "path" that's been made by lots of cars, which puts you at the approach end of Runway 12, or you can walk down to the far end of 7/25 on the side and cross to the beach, which is what we did. Just make sure to keep your head on a swivel
.
First of all, the video. Sorry that the prop is a little distracting. Oh well!
The day of, I was nervously looking outside, because there were low clouds that weren't forecast. I formulated a backup plan to fly over to Hartford and (depending on how nice the tower controller was feeling) fly up the Connecticut River to see the city. When I got out of work, though, everything had cleared up. I stopped at home to change and get a weather briefing and pick up a friend and we were on our way.
We took off right around 6:30, and I was really surprised at how hazy it was! I hadn't noticed it from the ground. Anyway, we could see Hartford from the plane, the Connecticut River, a huge quarry, lots of trees, etc etc. The usual stuff. We picked up flight following with Bradley Approach and cruised at around 3000'. They dropped us about 20 miles from the coast, at which point I called Groton Tower for a Class D transition through their airspace to Fishers, which they gave us. We descended into Fishers Island over the Long Island Sound, and ohhhhh my gooodness was it pretty. We overflew the airport to check the windsock and landed on the shorter of the two runways, 7/25, to the west, almost directly into the sun.
We parked, jumped out, and looked for someone to collect the landing fee ($8, apparently), but the airport building was closed. I peeked inside, and it looks like they have bikes pilots can take. A little research suggests that you get one free bike with the landing fee and that additional bikes are $10 each.
At this point, we walked across the airport to the approach end of Runway 7, where there's a gorgeous rocky beach. The waves were lapping at the pebbles, making a sound not too unlike a rainmaker as the waves washed back out to sea. We could see someone fishing off in the distance, and we could hear a few boats coming and going into New London.
All too soon, we had to get back in the plane and fly back. I'm not night current right now (I need to get on that...), so we had to get back before dark. It had gotten even a little hazier by the time we flew back, but it was no big deal. Groton Tower gave us the transition again and we were on our way...right into the sunset. It was pretty amazing, actually. Landed back at Robertson and put the plane to be for the night.
All in all, probably the most fun I've had with my pilot's license. There's no way I would have done this without it. The gorgeous approach to the island, the walk to and along the beach, the water and the sound it made on the pebbles, and the beautiful departure from the island made it an incredible experience.
Here are some pictures. I posted these over in the Daily Pic thread, but figured it wouldn't hurt to put them here again.
The approach end of Runway 7 on the right and the beach and the Sound on the left.
Looking back from the same(ish) place:
Looking east with 7/25 on the left:
My magnificent parking job:
And a few nitty grittys for those who might want to fly there. The runways are pretty short. The longer of the two, 12/30, is 2300x100. The shorter one, 7/25, is published as just shy of 1800x75, but in reality, it's a little smaller, because sand encroaches on the approach end of Runway 7. I measured it on Google Earth and it came out to about 1650'. Wind for me was reported as 220@10 at Groton, and though there's no AWOS at Fishers Island, that seemed about right. It made 25 a real cinch. I was taxiing after about 800' of runway had passed below me. There's apparently an $8 landing fee, but nobody was there to collect it at 1915 ish on a Friday, even though airnav says they should be attended until 2000. I called before I went (at roughly 1715) and there was no answer, so maybe today was an exception. There was no dropbox either, so I just left. There's parking for 7 airplanes on the ramp, but we were the only plane there when we went. To get to the beach after you land, you can either walk down the "path" that's been made by lots of cars, which puts you at the approach end of Runway 12, or you can walk down to the far end of 7/25 on the side and cross to the beach, which is what we did. Just make sure to keep your head on a swivel
.
