Hudson River Tour

On Friday afternoon, I took a client of mine on an aerial tour of New York City. He is from Miami, but we met for the first time a few months ago in Los Angeles as we were both visiting the brokerage firm for which he works' headquarters. Over lunch, I learned he had recently sold his boat and he was considering taking flying lessons. We had a fantastic time discussing all aspects of my initial training. I offered to take him flying the next time he was in New York.

That trip to New York happened yesterday, and so, we went flying. We left HPN at 2:00pm and climbed to 1,500ft MSL. New York departure gave us permission to fly the corridor at 1,500ft, so as the Tappan Zee bridge passed underneath us, I banked left and headed south down the west side of the Hudson River. NY departure turned us over to LaGuardia's tower as we passed over the George Washington Bridge (GBW) and headed towards the Lincoln Tunnel venting towers. Then LaGuardia's tower turned us over to Newark's tower for the rest of the trip south. There were numerous helicopters in the area, but most were 1,000ft below us -- they look like oversized bugs darting about. Next was the Statue of Liberty which I kept off our left side -- a steep bank of the wings and "the Lady" came into full view in all her glory.

The next landmark was the Verrizano Bridge then out into Raritan Bay. A long, slow left turn over Sandy Hook and it's back towards the Verrizano. The entire time we had been with the Newark tower controller, he had been upbeat and joking with other pilots on the frequency. Not typical of New York ATC personnel, but I figured I shouldn't waste this opportunity. I asked if he could arrange with LaGuardia's tower for permission to fly up the East River. The East River airspace has been highly restricted since Cory Lidle's accident, but today we were in luck, LaGuardia granted our request! Up the river we went at 1,500ft, over the Brooklyn, Manhattan and 59th Street bridges until we reached 96th street where we turned left 90 degrees and traversed Manhattan directly over the reservoir in Central Park. A view of Central Park from this altitude is something to see!

Once we reached the Hudson, it was a turn north up the river to the Tappan Zee Bridge. LaGuardia tower turned us back over to New York ATC and we returned to HPN. There is no better tour of New York than the one provided by a small plane!

Pony Farm

My youngest daughter Elizabeth has just returned from 2 weeks at Pony Farm in Temple, NH. To say she had a good time is the understatement of the year! I don't remember an experience she's had where she's returned more positive. Everything about this camp was great for her. It rained almost everyday – she didn't care. Her pony lost a shoe and she had to ride another horse – she didn't care. The overnight was canceled due to rain – she didn't care. Who is this child? Certainly not the one that causes everyone in our house to run for cover when things don't go exactly as she'd like. Great credit must go to the Pony Farm's owner and director for the last 30 years, Boo McDaniel -- she obviously knows how to keep girls and horses happy.

I'm glad Lizzie had such a fantastic time, but next year it's going to cost me twice as much – she wants to go back for a month. Ouch!

Flying like the big boys!

This past Wednesday, I had the thrill of getting to put a new model type in my logbook. Until now, it had been all C172's for my training and brief rental flying, then TRIN TB-20 since my purchase of the Trinidad in August 2007. (There was one flight in a Piper PA-28 Archer during training).

Well not anymore. While on business in Houston, a new friend agreed to fly me from Hobby airport (HOU) to San Antonio (SAT) in his Piper Malibu. He flew the takeoff, but at 200ft AGL, I took the controls and flew to 14,000 feet. I was PIC for the next 1.2 hours and finally return control to him at 500ft & 1 mile final on the ILS 12R approach to KSAT. What a fantastic airplane. My first flight in a GA pressurized plane and my first time as PIC above 11,000 ft MSL. So now, in the model column of my logbook is "PA-46 "-- very exciting! Another great logbook memory topic has to be that first flight in a new model. For me, this flight is one I will not soon forget. Can't wait to find out what the next model will be!