It's Been Too Long

Wow!  I have let way too much time pass since my last post.  There have been many things that were worthy of a post, but I just didn't make the time.  So, in bullet form, here's what's been going on since my last entry:

• Jack applied to 7 colleges: Rochester Institute of Technology, Drexel, SUNY Albany, Champlain, University of Hartford, Ithaca,    The only one he was really excited about was RIT - he applied early decision.
• Lizzie made the JV volleyball team as a freshman.  The entire team improved dramatically throughout the fall.  See has also joined a league team, Downstate Volleyball, to continue to practice and play throughout the year.
• In December, I was approved as an Angel Flight pilot.  This means I can fly humanitarian aid missions in the Northeast with my airplane.  It's mostly taking people in remote areas to urban airports so they can get treated at the better hospitals.  I've flown 4 missions so far and it is very gratifying to be able to help people in so much need.  It's one of the reasons I wanted to become a pilot was to do this type of volunteer work.
• Lizzie made the JV basketball team as a freshman.  See started every game and she always defended the other teams top scorer.  She would usually shut them down and she never fouled out of a game.
• Kelsey was accepted into a prestigious summer internship at the Mianus River Gorge.
• Jack was accepted at R.I.T. as a Digital Cinema major.  We was also accepted at all his other schools except Ithaca were he was wait-listed.  Impressive.  He has committed to R.I.T. and leave August 31.
• In January, Mary Beth's mother fell on ice in a supermarket parking lot and fractured two vertebrae in her spine.  She is currently wearing a full upper-body brace, has limited mobility and is in tremendous pain all the time.  Mary Beth has been doing a lot to help her parents out.
• Our February ski trip took us to Jay Peak in North Troy, VT this year.  Fantastic glade skiing!  We had a ski-in/ski-out condo and had a great time.  It's Official:  Jack is a better snowboarder than me on both the soft-boot board (has been for years) and the alpine board (surpassed me this year).  He just rocks!
• In February, Mary Beth's younger sister Kate had her first child - a girl named Zoe.  In March, MB, Kelsey and Lizzie flew to North Carolina for a few days to visit with Kate, husband Jason and Zoe.  They did not want to return!
• In March, Kelsey received word that she had been accepted into the EcoQuest program at UNH which will take her to New Zealand for her spring semester next year.  This program is the most competitive of all the semester abroad programs for science students and she is thrilled she was accepted.  Congratulations Kelsey!

That's a recap of what I should have been writing about.  Now I hope to get back to a more regular updating of this blog.  Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Alumni Rubgy Weekend

I made it back to Middlebury, VT this past weekend for the third annual Alumni Rugby Game.  I attended the inaugural Alumni Rugby Game in 2008, but was unprepared to play. My hip surgery was too recent and I was not mentally prepared to step onto the field. This year was different. I'd found out that in addition to Brian Napack, a classmate that attended and played in 2008, 4 other early '80 teammates would be attending and 3 would be playing.  I decided I had to give it a try.

Obviously I survived, but more than that, we actually thrived. As a unit, my '80's era alumni teammates played well together and for a few brief moments we were transported back to our glory days.  I loved stepping onto the rugby field with these men then and I was honored to do so in the present.  Tremendous bonds are formed playing violent, team sports like rugby -- it requires a swarming style of play to be successful -- and these bonds run very deep.

The other nice discovery of the weekend is that many of our traditions endure and are even being enhanced by the current members of the team.  They are all SO YOUNG, but they understand the history of the game and the history of this team.  They were marvelous hosts and it made for a fantastic weekend. I want to make this an annual tradition.

There is more detail on the weekend at the Middlebury Rubgy Blog.

Go West Young Man

As readers of this blog may remember, I attended a "fly-in" of Socata airplane owners from the East Coast back in May. On the trip, I was joined by a Socata owner from California, Vince Chambers, who just happened to be in New York that weekend. We'd had such a good time together, we agreed that I should try to attend the West Coast fly-in scheduled for October.  Since I usually travel to California 4 or 5 times a year anyway, and I had 4 months to work on my itinerary, it was not too hard to schedule a business trip around the same time as the West Coast Fly-in.

The plan was for me to fly to Santa Rosa airport (STS) in northern California via Seattle out of JFK on Friday, October 1st.  Vince, with wife and youngest son aboard, would fly from Chico, CA to Santa Rosa to pick me up. From STS, the plan was to fly about an hour south to Monterey, the site of the West Coast fly-in. Since Monterey usually fogs over in the early evening, I was Vince's back up plan.  He is only halfway through his instrument training and is not able to fly into IFR condition (i.e. fog), therefore, I was going to be PIC to ensure we could land at Monterey on Friday evening.  On Sunday, I had arranged to catch a ride to L.A. from another Socata owner who was flying up to Monterey from Redlands, CA. and my business trip would begin on Monday morning in Los Angeles.  What a great plan: a weekend with pilots, a chance to fly a different airplane, a private ride to Los Angeles and all this combined with a business trip which helped keep my expenses low.  What's the expression, "the best laid plans of mice and men........"

The weather on the Thursday evening prior to my trip was conspiring to ruin my weekend.  It was pouring rain and the wind was howling and gusting to over 50 mph. As I went to bed on Thursday night, I was resigned to not making it to the fly-in and having to reschedule my commercial flight directly to LA on Sunday evening. In the morning, I left the house by car service at 5:45am trying to catch an 8:15am Delta flight to Seattle.  I was surprised the flight was still listed as "on-time" and even more surprised the driver had made it to my house on time in spite of the continuing rain and wind storm.  As we left the driveway, I still had very low expectations of making to the airport in time for the flight as I was sure there would be downed trees or closed roadways or severe traffic that would prevent us from getting there, but I was up already, so why not try. We indeed were delayed for about 10 minutes on the parkway with massive flooding causing a single lane of passage, but to my surprise, we arrived at 7:15am for the 8:15am flight. Check-in was a breeze and I found myself at the gate at 7:25am and the gate agent assured me the flight would leave on time and we would be boarding shortly. Holy smokes, I thought, this may actually all work out. Hope was beginning to replace dejection.

During our taxi out to the runway, the pilot advised us of a potentially bumpy ride up to altitude, but then surprised me by saying we were #2 for departure! No ground delay at all! The climb out was indeed bumpy, but when we leveled off at 38,000ft the ride was smooth and soon the movie began. We'd left on time, I had a 2 hour layover to make my connection out of Seattle, the weather on the west coast was perfect -- for the first time, I said to myself "Wow, this is all going to work out great!" At that moment, the captain interrupted the movie with the following announcement, "Ladies and gentleman, we're experiencing a slight issue with the #2 engine so we're going to land in Syracuse and check it out. Stewards, please prepare the cabin for landing." WTF?? Landing in Syracuse?? How badly do we need to be on the ground for the captain to want to land a fully loaded 767 in Syracuse? This is not good!! Damn you travel gods -- why would you head fake me like this?

The landing was made onto a runway lined with fire trucks and reverse thrust and hard breaking was employed to keep us from running off of the end.  It was 9:15am as we deplaned in Syracuse -- I quickly realized my connection was never going to happen. Delta said they were sending a replacement plane and it would be in Syracuse by 1:30pm. There were later connections for Santa Rosa, but Vince could not wait. I now needed to get myself to Monterey. The replacement 767 was now due at 3pm. I decided to get out of Syracuse in favor of a Delta hub, so I booked myself on the 3:30pm flight to Atlanta and then onto the 7:15pm flight to San Jose arriving at 9:45pm local. A very nice west coast Socata owner who lives in San Jose offered to pick me up and drive me down to Monterey.  Originally, he was not going to go until the next morning, but he was kind enough to collect me at the airport and head down Friday night.  We arrived in Monterey at about midnight local (3am by my body clock) so I'd been traveling for 22 hours straight.  What a day!!

Vince was also affected by my travel delay because he was unable to land at Monterey airport due to fog and had to divert to Salinas airport (SNS) and rent a car.  This had a knock-on effect for Sunday's departure because Salinas was hosting a large Airshow and the airport was closed to traffic from 11am to 5pm.  Since Vince wanted to leave around 2pm with the rest of us, we needed to reposition his airplane to Monterey before 11am on Sunday. The weather was an overcast layer at about 1,400 AGL, so he couldn't do it himself, so I went with him and got to fly my first TB-21.  The extra power from the turbocharger is fun, but the plane basically flies just like mine.  20 minutes after departing SNS and climbing up through a layer, I was shooting the ILS10 approach into Monterey in N20FR.  We followed the ILS down below the clouds and broke out to find the runway right ahead of us and I made an acceptable landing.  There was a treat waiting for us on the ramp at Monterey.

The star performers of the Salinas airshow, The Thunderbirds, were staging at Monterey prior to their 3pm performance. WOW is all you can say.  Everything about them, the planes, the pilots, the ground crew, are all awesome.  They do everything with military precision and perfection. I had a blast on the ramp checking them out!

It came time to leave, but Vince had another problem.  The cloud layer had not lifted, so he could not leave to fly home. The prospect of a 5 hour drive home without the airplane was not very appealing, so the Socata owners huddle to come up with a plan.  We knew the cloud layer was only on the coastline and that 10 miles inland the skies were basically clear.  We decided that I would fly N20FR with Vince and his family out of Monterey on an IFR departure plan, as would the other plane that was taking me to Los Angeles, and we would land at King City, CA (KKIC) for me to switch planes and continue south while Vince would take control of his plane and fly back home in VFR conditions. The plan came off without a hitch and 30 minutes later, with 0.5 more time in a TB-21 in my logbook, I was climbing into a 1986 TB-20 to make the 2 hour flight down to Santa Monica, CA. The 2 hour trip south was beautiful - California coastal topography is so different than what I'm used to on the east coast.  It is inspiring.

My business trip began Sunday night with a dinner with a customer and his wife and the rest of the trip was uneventful, but the chance to experience G.A. on the west coast and make a few new friends in the pilot community was well worth the difficulties that plagued the start of my trip.

An Unplanned Adventure

This past weekend turned out to be a blast, yet nothing that happened had been planned.  My original plan was to drive up to my father's house in the Catskills to visit with him and my sister Carole who is in America for the month of August from her home in England.  I took a suit with me as I planned to drive my father down to Summit, NJ on Saturday to attend a funeral and then drive him back up the Catskills the same day.

Well, my father wanted none of my assistance.  Even though driving is a struggle for him, and a round trip drive to Summit and back with a funeral in between would make for a very long day, he insisted on doing it himself.  He fears that if he starts giving in to offers of driving assistance, he will quickly lose his mobility entirely.  He left Saturday around 11am and Carole and I just crossed our fingers that everything would turn out OK.  She and I decided to run to town to get the fixings for a gourmet dinner -- swordfish steaks, fresh corn-on-the cob and Russet potatoes.  We got back to the house around 2pm and the afternoon was spent reading and reminiscing about our childhood.

As we were beginning to get dinner started, I received a phone call from my partner telling me he was done with the airplane for the weekend.  Due to unfortunate timing during her previous visits, Carole had never gotten a chance to fly with me.  I asked if she would be interested in taking a flight the next day and she jumped at the chance.  We decided to eat and then drive down to my house in Bedford that evening, take a trip in the morning on Sunday and then I would drop her back off in the Catskills in the afternoon.  Our meal was fantastic and we hit the road about 7:30pm.

The sun was low in the sky as we left, but it was still quite warm.  I had the top down on the M3 as it was a beautiful summer evening for a drive.  The road along the Delaware River from Barryville to Port Jervis is a two-lane winding affair that is wonderful at highlighting the superior handling of the BMW M3.  Since we were not in a hurry, I decided to avoid highways as much as possible and take the scenic route home. After a brief ride on 84 East and 17 East, we took the Bear Mountain Parkway to the Bear Mountain Bridge and then route 202 and route 35.  Traffic was light and we made it home in about 2 hours.

Kelsey and Dave Flynn at Sand Bar & Grill

My daughter Kelsey and her boyfriend were there when we got home and the four of us decided that a day trip to Martha's Vineyard was in order.  We left the airport around 11am and arrived at MVY around noon.  The flight was made in "severe clear" conditions with unlimited visibility.  I think Carole truly enjoyed the ride.  We took the public bus to Oak Bluffs (only $2) and had lunch at the Sand Bar & Grill. We toured the streets and shops and got ice cream at the Carousel Ice Cream shop where a "child size" cone is two large scoops -- I can't imagine what the "large" must be.  It was time to head back to the airport for our trip to Sullivan County Airport (MSV) to drop off Carole. My father and about 25 locals met us at the airport.  The locals were a Hasidic group that come up to the Catskills from the city on weekends and enjoy bringing the children to the airport to watch planes. They get very excited about arrivals and they made us feel like we were important!  Very funny.

We arrived back at White Plains airport around 6pm and headed immediately to a neighbors barbecue for some of the best pulled pork and spare ribs I've had in ages.  It was the perfect end to a fantastic weekend!  And totally different than I'd thought on Friday -- perhaps that added to my enjoyment.

Oshkosh 2010

For the second time in two years, I went to EAA's Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  It was fantastic!! Airventure is the largest gathering of airplanes and pilots in the world.  It is always the last week of July and since 1974 has been held at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, WI. What makes the experience so special for me, other than seeing every type of airplane in the world and seeing every vendor of pilot supplies and seeing every big-time airshow performer, is the people.  Everyone at Airventure "gets it."  It is the only place where I don't feel like I have to explain why I fly small planes; where everyone stops talking and looks up when they hear an aircraft engine; where the entire population (this year estimated at 535,000) is just as crazy as I am about general aviation.  It's my Mecca.

Last year, I camped with my aircraft in the "North 40" at Wittman Field.  This year, a group of Socata owners got together to rent 2 adjacent houses in a nearby neighborhood.  Having a private home instead of a tent as my base of operations made this year much more pleasant. As readers of the blog know, the Socata Owners Forum is a very active web site with members from all over the world.  Well this year at Oshkosh, I got to meet many more of them from around the globe.  Five of our Australian owners came as a group and three members from the United Kingdom came as well.

The Aussie's are a raucous bunch -- both on the web site and in person.  They love to laugh and are quick to start ribbing each other or anyone else they encounter.  Much alcohol was consumed, many stories were told and all the friendships were strengthened. One Brit came by flying commercial to Washington, DC and then joining a DC member in his TB-21 for the flight to Oshkosh, but the other two Brits had an extraordinary adventure getting to Airventure.  These two flew their TB-20 from Nottingham, England to Oshkosh, WI via Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and Canada without any ferry tanks!! That's 5+ hour legs over the open Atlantic Ocean!! What a tremendous testament to their piloting skills and to the capability of the Socata TB-20 aircraft. You can read about the entire trip at www.nottinghamtooshkosh.com

My own trip to Oshkosh was not nearly as adventuresome but was still a thrill for me.  I left White Plains airport around 8am on Tuesday, July 27th with my friend and fellow pilot Rick Felty. Our flight plan took us northwest across New York to Dunkirk and then directly across Lake Erie into Canada.  We proceeded across Canada, flying over the southern tip of Lake Huron and then into eastern Michigan where we landed in Marlette.  The trip to Marlette took 3:20 were we got some fuel and some lunch.  We then took off heading due west over Michigan towards Ludington and crossed Lake Michigan at 8,000 feet into Wisconsin.  Our arrival into Oshkosh was made in marginal VFR conditions so since we were on an instrument flight plan, we were able to proceed directly to the airport and land.  Rick is a professional videographer and photographer and had all his equipment with him.  Below are two links:  The first is Rick's pictures from the week and the second is a video of our arrival into OSH.  He used three separate HD cameras and an audio recorder to capture the arrival and then edited the material all together into an extremely professional video.  I hope you enjoy watching as much as we did being there!

http://rickfelty.squarespace.com/oshkosh-2010-pics/oshkosh-2010/

http://bit.ly/9SX9hP

A Trip to Houston

 

I made a trip to Houston in May for business to meet with an Advisor from one of my top broker/dealer clients.  He is a southern gentleman, born and raised in Texas and he wanted to show us some good 'ol Texan recreation.  After spending an appropriate amount of time in his downtown office discuss business related topics, we headed over to the Greater Houston Gun Club for some clays and skeet. For the uninitiated, that's shotgun shooting at ceramic disks called  "clay pigeons."  In Skeet, targets are thrown in singles and doubles from 2 trap houses (the low house or the high house) situated some 40 metres apart, at opposite ends of a semicircular arc on which there are seven shooting positions.  The closer you move to the center position, the more difficult the shots become.  In Sporting Clays, or clays for short, we moved out into the woods to a series of stands where the clays are released from behind trees and shrubbery and sent over greater distances and at different trajectories. All in an attempt to simulate actual hunting conditions.  It was very loud (even with protection) and the recoil made my shoulder sore, but it was fun.  Even with expert coaching from a Shooting Champion, I only hit a little better than 50% of my targets -- our host hit almost 90% of his.

The next day was much more to my liking -- golf at the Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity, TX. WPGC has been rated as the #1 course in all of Texas and it did not disappoint.  The course was fantastic, there was no one there, the staff could not be more helpful and the weather was fantastic!  The coolest part of the day (pun intended as it was 95 degrees out) was the mango dipped iced towels available on every sixth hole.  I had never experienced an iced towel on a golf course before, and a "mango dipped" iced towel is just the best!  The slight citris content of the water provides additional cooling from the towel, leaving the skin tight and refreshed.  In spite of the heat, I played a pretty good first round of the season.  The scenery and company where outstanding -- a good day was had by all.  As we drove back to Houston that afternoon, the skies opened up and we were enveloped into one of the most intense thunderstorms I've ever experienced.  The rain was falling so hard and fast, driving became treacherous.  Fortunately, we didn't have far to go and we arrived at our destination safely.  The next morning, we all caught flights for home.  It was a wonderful trip to Houston and I feel I had a real Texas experience.

The Eagle Has Been Awarded

This past Saturday was a very proud day for me and my wife, Mary Beth.  Our 17 year-old son, Jack was awarded the highest achievement in Boy Scouting -- the rank of Eagle Scout.  Less than five percent of all boys that join scouting attain the rank of Eagle. It is a very difficult journey that takes commitment, perseverance, organization and leadership skills to accomplish.  The actual construction phase of the project was completed in the fall and since then Jack had to raise the funds to pay for the materials, write up the project using the Eagle Project Workbook, and lastly, defend the project to an Eagle Board of Review.  It's taken over a year from start to finish but now it is over.

On Saturday, a ceremony was held at our parish hall for Jack and ten other scouts from his troop that have earned the Eagle Rank over the last 3 years.  The were presented with proclamations from the U.S. Congress, the State Legislature and the town of Armonk.  Each had a day named in their honor in the county of Westchester.  Each young man received his official Eagle Neckerchief and the all important Eagle Pin.

Many people believe that the Eagle Award is a predictor of future success.  While less than half of 1 percent of all men become an Eagle Scout, many highly successful men are Eagle Scouts:

• William Bennett, Former Secretary of Education
• Bill Bradley, Pro basketball star and U.S. Sneator from New Jersey
• William Dannemeyer, U.S. Representative from California
• Arthur Eldred, (First Eagle Scout)
• Gerald Ford, 38th President of the U.S.
• Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Governor of Louisiana
• James Lovell - Astronaut
• Richard Lugar, U.S. Senator from Indiana
• Sam Nunn, U.S. Senator from Georgia
• Ellison Onizuka, Challenger Astronaut  
• Samuel Pierce, Former Secreatry of HUD
• William Sessions, Former FBI Director
• Steven Spielberg, Film Director/Producer
• Wallace Stegner, Pulitzer Prize winning Author
• Percy Sutton, Chairman of CBS
• John Tesh, TV Celebrity
• James Stewart - Actor
• James Brady, Former Press Secretary to President Reagan
• William C. DeVries, M.D., Transplanted first artificial heart
• Walter Cronkite - Journalist, T.V. commentator
• J. Willard Marriott, Jr., President, Marriott Corporation
• H. Ross Perot, Chairman, EDS Corp.  

So Jack's off to a great start and his parents could not be more proud of him.  I want to congratulate him for a fantastic accomplishment.  Well done son, well done.

Check out this site dedicated to the project.