On July 3rd, I got to do some flying with Dan and Jill in a CAP Cessna 182 with glass cockpit (all the instrumentation is displayed on 2 computer screens, rather than the traditional round "steam" gauges). Jill was working on practicing her skills on the autopilot in preparation for an upcoming check ride. They very graciously (especially with the killer holiday afternoon traffic) picked me up at KBDR.
I took the backseat while Jill flew us to Linden, NJ (KLDJ)(just south of Newark) and watched over their shoulders as Dan walked Jill through the autopilot functions. Dan added some additional challenge to the mix by requesting from ATC permission to fly the Throggs route through the Class B airspace around NYC. The Throggs route (coming from the east) takes you over the south tower of the Throgg's Neck Bridge, straight over the old tower at LaGuardia, over the north tip of Roosevelt Island, straight across Central Park and then over to the Hudson River.
The visibility was amazing. Withing seconds of taking off from Bridgeport, the Manhattan skyline was crystal clear on the horizon. As we made our way west over the north shore of Long Island, I was picking out landmarks, even pointing out the church where Dan and Gloria got married and where Aidan was baptized. Heading over Central Park we could see sunbathers out catching the last rays of afternoon sunlight. Then we were southbound along the Hudson River, past midtown and then downtown, the construction pits at the World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty and numerous boats in the harbor, including a very pretty two-masted tall ship working her way north.
Once past the Verrazano Narrows bridge, we headed west towards Linden Airport. As the sun was sinking lower, it was a little tough to make out the airport, which is nestled smack in the middle of industrial parks and large low oil tanks--in fact, the only reason I was able to spot it was the absence of oil tanks! But it has a good runway--4137-feet running east/west. Jill set up for a left base and made a very nice landing.
We spent a little bit of time visiting with Dan's new airplane--it was Jill's first chance to meet "Gigi". Despite her stripped nose (see Dan's previous post), she was beautiful. Jill was duly impressed. I thought she looked very good too, since they had cleaned up her panel a little bit since I had seen her with Dan up at Glens Falls a few weeks ago.
Jill offered me the front seat on the leg back to KBDR, which was very sweet of her. Not having flown the glass cockpit in a while, I took my time going through the pre-flight and setting up the panel to get it right. As we launched back into the air and skirted the southern shore of Staten Island, the sunset glow was fading and the metro area lights were glowing in the crystal clear night.
We reversed our earlier route and Dan had Jill direct me on how to use the autopilot. As we headed north up the harbor and the Hudson, we started to see fireworks shows starting--all over NJ, Long Island and Westchester. Then as we crossed Manhattan and Queens, we were treated to amazing fireworks displays all along the Westchester and Connecticut shorelines, as well as the north shore of Long Island. It was an amazing sight, seeing all the colorful bursts from a totally different perspective.
The shows were in full force, with some impressive finales starting, as we headed across Long Island Sound back to KBDR. With the Stratford/Bridgeport show going on just at the northeast end of the airport, we made our landing on runway 6 as giant balls of color went off over the water ahead of us. A thunderstorm, some 50 miles to the northeast, added her own impressive fireworks as occasional bursts of lightning would illuminate the cloud formation.
What a great night to fly! A terrific reminder of the incredible freedoms we enjoy living in America, the responsibilities and price that comes with that freedom, and the celebration of what we hold so dear.
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