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.

5 - 0 on Mother's Day Weekend

It was a big sports weekend for my daughter Lizzie. In addition to playing spring soccer with the WYSL U14 Travel team, she is playing AAU basketball with the Westchester Hoopers. The Hoopers entered a tournament in Queens, NY -- their first and second rounds were played on Saturday in Jamaica, with the finals schedule for Sunday afternoon in Rosedale. This meant Lizzie had soccer practice on Saturday morning and then had to rush to make it to Queens in time for the first basketball game.

I was returning from a business trip to Houston on Saturday and landed at LaGuardia around 1pm. My cell phone received a text as we were taxiing into the gate: "First game 48 - 22. We won. Lizzie played great!" The car service driver met me at the curb for the 20 minute drive to Jamaica -- the next game started at 2pm. I arrived around 1:30pm to find the girls lounging in front of the church taking in the beautiful sunshine. The afternoon game was a rough one. A lot of pushing shoving and hard fouls. Our girls never backed down and won the game by 17 points. By Saturday evening, she was 2 - 0.

Our soccer game on Sunday morning was against Rye. It was Mother's Day and many of the moms were none too happy to have a game scheduled on their special day, but there was nothing we could do but to make it a worthwhile experience for them by winning. The team had been in a bit of a scoring slump, having scored only 1 goal in their previous 3 games. Karl had worked exclusively on scoring in practice. The Armonk Angels won the game 3 - 0 and Lizzie scored all three goals. She worked hard, put herself in good positions and the ball just went her way. What a start to Mother's Day!!

The semi-final basketball game started at 3pm in Rosedale, NY in a tiny gym with room for chairs only on one side and also at the end up on a stage. Shortly after the start of the game, it became obvious the referees were in the tank for the home team. We were literally playing 7 on 5, but our girls were relentless and never lost composure. We led the entire game and, in spite of the refs, beat them by 12. On to the finals at 7pm against the Royals. We went out to a diner for some dinner and rest. When we returned, the tournament director apologized and informed us that she had gotten rid of the two early refs due to there terrible officiating. By the start of the game, the gym was packed and, other than the 9 parents and our players, everyone was cheering for the home team. The refs were completely balanced, but the competition was much better and we led by only 8 at halftime. We stretched the lead to 10 with about five minutes to go, but then the Royals started a comeback. With 3 minutes to go, we led by 5. Then with 2 minutes to go, we're up by 3 with the ball and get it to our best player in the low post, but her shot rims out. The Royals race the ball to the other end and one of their guards let fly a monster 3-pointer -- I'm talking an NBA-type 3 -- and it's nothing but net!! Game tied with 1:05 left.

The crowd goes crazy and rushes onto the court in their excitement. The clock is still running on the made shot, but our girls can't inbound the ball because of all the people on the court. The refs stop the game, clear the court, reset the clock, but now the Royals are able to set up their full court trap. We inbound the ball to our point guard Ashley who passed up to the 3, Alia, who moves the ball across half court and gets fouled on the dribble. We are in the double-bonus, so Alia gets two free throws to break the tie; there are 42 seconds on the clock. Alia is our youngest player -- she is only 11 playing with 14 year-olds because she such a good athlete she dominates in her age group. So here is this 11 year old with a chance to break the tie with two free throws and the crowd is heckling her mercilessly. She misses her first shot which sends the crowd into a frenzy! Calmly, Alia steps up and hits her second shot. We're up by 1 point.

We press on the inbound play and their point guard tries to split our defenders at half-court but Alia steals the ball!! She passes to Ashley breaking down the right wing who drives for the layup but is fouled hard by a Royals defender and goes to the line to shoot two shots with 25 seconds on the clock. Ashley is a wonderful foul shooter and in spite of an apoplectic crowd, she makes them both. We're up by 3. The Royals inbound the ball, our press makes it difficult for them to get the ball up court and they don't even get a shot off. WE WIN BY 3. The crowd goes silent and I think we might need to hurry out of town. However, the host team was gracious and congratulated us as did most everyone in the crowd as we left the gym. I am very proud of how well these girls played in hostile circumstances and winning the tournament was a fantastic. Lizzie went 5 - 0 for the weekend -- Happy Mother's Day!

A Trip to Washington

I spent the weekend in Washington, DC with a group of Socata owners. As I explained in my last post, there is an active web site for owners and once a year they try and get together. There are 4 meetings annually; one in Europe, one in Australia and two in the United States; a West Coast and an East Coast Fly-in. This year, the East Coast Fly-In was planned for Washington, DC. Since Vince was in town, he came with me as did my favorite co-pilot, my cousin Ken Wellington. We made the southbound flight to Fredrick's Municipal Airport in Maryland on Friday afternoon and the trip was beautiful -- warm, clear air and no turbulence, but a killer headwind. I'd filed to fly down at 6,000 ft AGL, but Air Traffic Control assigned me 8,000 ft. to keep me above the arrivals into Teterboro and Newark airports. At that altitude, we were fighting a 50 knot headwind!! That meant we were traveling at 95 knots over the ground or only 2/3 of my normal speed. I asked for lower and the controller paused prior to his response, "Yeah, I guess 95 knots in a Trinidad is not too good, I'll have lower for you in 5 more miles." Once at 6,000 ft AGL, the headwinds were a more reasonable 20 - 25 knots and we made much better time.

We rented a car and drove to our hotel in Bethesda, MD. Dinner was within walking distance of the hotel at Positano's. We had a wonderful Italian dinner and were serenaded by Vince our very own pilot / opera singer! He is a marvelous singer and everyone enjoyed the performance. Saturday we traveled as a group to the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Air and Space Museum and were provided with a 3 hour private tour because one of our members is a large supporter of the museum. The aircraft on display are simply awesome. It is a worthwhile trip out to Dulles for this unique aviation experience.

Saturday's dinner was held at a DC landmark, Clyde's of Gallery Place. A few of the local Socata owners also joined us and "virtual" friends became face-to-face friends as the mask of the Internet was removed. It was wonderful to actually meet so many people that I'd been conversing with for the last few years.

The group met for breakfast at the diner on the field at Fredrick's and following breakfast we had a seminar on glass panel installations by Landmark Aviation. Informative, but not in my current budget -- I guess I can dream. The trip home was made with a few more clouds and haze than the trip down, but offered a nice tailwind to speed our return to White Plains. It was a fun weekend with nice people all of whom are just as crazy as I am about airplanes.

More photos of the trip

A Visitor from the West

One of the reasons I felt comfortable buying my airplane was because of an owner's web site with forums that discuss all the issues of aircraft ownership and the peculiar nuances of the Socata line of planes. It's a wonderful resource and one of the additional benefits is it gives me friends from all around the world. I've never met most of these online friends, yet I feel like I know most of them very well. Occasionally, you do get to meet in person some of these online pals.

A standing rule on the site, is that if one of the members is visiting your area, you give them a ride in your airplane. I got the opportunity this past weekend. Vincent C., an opera singer from Chico, CA is in New York for a few weeks to work with his voice coach and go on a few auditions. Vince owns a Trinidad TB-21, the turbo-charged version of my plane. This past Saturday, we went for a ride in 242GT down the Hudson River.

It was a fantastic day -- visibility was unlimited and Vince and I had a glorious time heading down the west side of the Hudson, over the Statue of Liberty, across the Verrazano Bridge, a slow turnaround over Raritan Bay, and then a return up the east side of the Hudson.

It was good to meet a fellow forums owner and put a face to the name and online personality I've known for a while.

After the Call Comes the Visit

As you know, last week I got The Call - my father informed me he had cancer. Yesterday, I joined him for his visit to the oncologist. Late last week, he had an MRI and a PET scan to determine to what degree the melanoma has spread to other parts of his body. Yesterday was the meeting to get the results -- I had prepared myself for a dire diagnosis.

It is with great joy and an overwhelming sense of relief that I can report the doctor delivered the best possible news. The MRI and PET scan revealed the rest of his body is cancer free! The only remaining cancer is locally contained in a few lymph nodes under his left arm. The doctor believes it can all be removed in one additional surgery and may not need any post-op chemotherapy. What a relief.

I took him home and we had a chance to talk. He was extremely relieved and as we discussed our fears about the alternate scenarios, he got emotional and glassy eyed. Mind you, Spartacus does not cry, but I think he'd been keeping a lot of fear and emotion bottled up and it all just hit him in that moment. We both let out a big sigh of relief and sat quietly for a while.

So, it looks like he's going to be sticking around a while longer, and for that, we are both extremely happy.

The Call

Well it finally happened. I got the call every child dreads -- my father called to tell me he's been diagnosed with cancer. He was stoic, even detached in his delivery of the information, which I have come to recognize as his technique to cover up his worry. I know he's scared, but he would never let on. And now, everything changes, all because of a single phone call. How many times has this same scenario played itself out in the kitchens of homes throughout the country? And what are the outcomes? The mind races with the possibilities -- both good and bad!!

He doesn't know much, except that it's serious -- doctors removed a swollen gland from his left armpit the size of a golf ball and one from his right armpit that was even larger. Both were biopsied and determined to be malignant with melanoma. He will be having a PET scan and an MRI this week to determine how widespread and at what stage the cancer has developed. We will all be sweating out the next few days.

My dad has been battling skin cancer for many years. Once a quarter he's been seeing a dermatologist to have bad looking lesions removed. He wears protective clothing and a hat and religiously applies sun block -- now. But he didn't always. For years, he allowed himself to be exposed to the sun unprotected and now he is paying for his folly. But this is different -- this cancer has moved inside his body and is in the lymph nodes. All his ailments up to now: arthritis, high blood pressure, neuropathy and heart valve surgery have been light work compared to the big C -- cancer. This is time, I'm scared too.

WOW -- Weekend of Weather

The picture above is representative of what the neighborhoods near my house look like. The wind and rain of Saturday have reeked havoc on trees and power lines. There are 22,000 Westchester county residents still without power 48 hours after the storm. If not for some handy work with a chainsaw by a local resident, this street would be blocked.

We lost power at 4:30pm Saturday and didn't get it back until 9pm on Sunday. It made for a challenging weekend to say the least. I've heard that some Greenwich, CT residents won't be restored until this weekend. I felt like Magellan navigating to my destinations with so many streets closed due to the trifecta of obstacles -- either flooding, downed trees or downed power lines. It amazes me that I live in one of the most affluent areas in the United States and we still can't figure out how to supply our homes with uninterrupted electrical power. Why do we still hang wires on poles just begging Mother Nature to drop trees on them? It seems like a silly game -- one that she is clearly winning.

Jay Peak

This past Friday was one of those perfect days. Everything came together to make a memorable experience that will stay with me forever.

Previous to Friday, I had not been flying since Jan. 31 when I spent 1.4 hours with my CFI getting signed off on my required Bi-Annual Flight Review (BFR). As the name would imply, the government requires all pilots to take a BFR every two years with a certified flight instructor to demonstrate competency. There are two parts of the exam; first is an oral testing on the rules and regulations which lasts about an hour and then a flight portion where the CFI asks the pilot to engage in a series of manuevers which must be completed to the FAA mandated "practical test standards." Basically, the CFI attest to the government whether you are a knowledgeable and capable pilot. I passed with flying colors!!

February turned out to be a "no-fly" month for me. I had a few trips planned, but bad weather and forecast icing conspired to keep me on the ground. Itching for a flight, last Tuesday I noticed that the weather forecast for Friday and the weekend were to be outstanding and that conditions at the northern ski resorts were forecast to be fantastic. I left a message for an old friend, Joe R, that I hadn't seen in a while to ask if he was available Friday. He finally called me back on Wednesday and I pitched the idea of taking Friday off to head to Jay Peak in Vermont for a day of snowboarding. Joe loved it, but was not sure he would be able to get away for the day. He promised to let me know the next day.

Joe and I met in 1994. I actually hired him as a broker trainee while I was at Smith Barney and he was a superstar from the beginning. He has been extremely successful and now has a big time job there. Back in the day, we spent a lot of time together, but then I moved on to the Cape for Smith Barney and ultimately left the company, yet we have always stayed in touch. Joe is the type of friend that I only talk to a few times a year, see only once every couple of years, but when we do get together, we seem to pick up right where we left off and just laugh our asses off! It's always great to see Joe.

Now my experience tells me that when someone does not immediately say yes to an idea like this, but rather tells you they will let you know the next day, it never happens. To my surprise, I received a text message the next morning from Joe that read, "I'm in! Let me know details."

We met Friday morning at 6:15am at the airport. We departed at 6:45am into a low overcast on a VFR flight plan as I'd hoped the weather would improve and the clouds would lift as we flew north. Unfortunately, the weather actually started to get worse and I was no longer comfortable flying VFR, so we called up ATC and air filed an IFR flight plan to Newport State Airport (KEFK) in Vermont. The flight plan had us climb to 7,000ft which put us in and out of thin, whispy clouds. Within 30 minutes, the clouds had dissipated and we were flying in beautiful sunshine. The only problem was a 25kt headwind slowing our progress. We landed at 9:00am exactly after having to make room for a Pilatus PC-12 that was desperate to land before we did. The PC-12 was full of 5 guys with the same idea we had -- skiing at Jay Peak.

Our driver, Richard met us out on the ramp and we were quickly on our way to the mountain. Joe is a snowboarder also, and our abilities were very evenly matched which made for a great day. We tried to experience as much of Jay as we could since it was the first time there for both of us. Jay Peak is a fantastic ski resort with great vertical drop, a lot of difficult terrain and more glades than any resort I've been to in the East. They have a new lodge at the base with two new restaurants, one of which provided me and Joe with an excellent lunch. More boarding in the afternoon under tremendously bright skies with no wind and a temperature near 35 degrees -- it could not have been nicer.

Richard picked us up right on time. It was back to the airport and a quick departure by 4:15pm. The headwind during our flight north was now a beautiful tail wind for our trip home and we were on the ground at 6pm. What a day!! Friends, flying and snowboarding -- a most excellent combination.

Kelsey's Back at UNH

On Sunday, I flew Kelsey back to the University of New Hampshire for the second semester of her freshman year. It was GREAT to have her home. It made for even teams and I was no longer a man without a country in my own home. She'll be home again in March, but only for a few days -- she plans to spend part of her spring break out at Butler University in Indiana visiting her boyfriend Dave Flynn.

We flew to Portsmouth in the morning, landing just before noon. The weather was overcast and grey, but we quickly got above the clouds and it got better as we flew northeast. We landed in clear conditions at Pease International airport. A big storm was due to hit home around 5pm, so I was anxious to get back to HPN as early as possible. Kelsey's friend Kyle met us at the airport and drove her back to campus. I was back in the air within 15 minutes and glad to be heading home. We'd had a 25 knot tailwind on the trip up to Portsmouth, but now I was flying into that same wind so it made for slow going. The weather got progressively worse as I flew southwest and within 30 minutes I was inside the clouds flying on instruments. The temperature was right around 0 degrees celcius so I was concerned about icing. Fortunately, I didn't encounter any and the trip gave me a chance to practice my instrument flying. To my surprise, I was very sharp on the gauges and flew with great control. My Bi-annual flight review is coming later this month, so that bodes well for me to pass with flying colors.

Four hours door to door -- I got home just in time for the AFC Championship game on television. Too bad the Jets couldn't keep their streak alive. It was a fun game to watch and the NFC Championship game was even better. Not a bad Sunday.

Christmas Break in Canada

We’ve never really gone anywhere over Christmas break. Our typical family routine has been to hang around the house and play with our new stuff. Mary Beth usually takes some time off from work and I will usually take the day before or the day after Christmas, but never the entire week. Our big traveling family vacation has typically been during the February school holiday or occasionally the Easter break.

This year was different. Because Kelsey is now in college, she has a different school break schedule than the local school system which makes vacationing as a family challenging. Perhaps because our trip to Mont-Tremblant had been so much fun last year, she wanted to go again with our entire family and her boyfriend’s family as well. Our only option for this was to go over the Christmas break. I found a house big enough for all of us – again using the greatest realtor in the Laurentian Mountains, David Coderre. We planned to leave Saturday, the day after Christmas and stay until the following Saturday, Jan. 2nd; spending the New Year holiday with our neighbors to the North.

The weather was a major challenge to this year’s trip. It rained in Tremblant on Christmas Day and was forecast to rain on both Saturday and Sunday as well. Our Saturday drive to Mont-Tremblant should have taken 7 ½ hours, but ended in Plattsburgh, NY after only 5. David Coderre called to tell us the roads around Montreal and up into the mountains were becoming impassable due to freezing rain and we should not continue over the border. Better to wait until the next day. We found cheap accommodations at a Days Inn, ate at Applebee’s, bowled 2 games at the local lanes and caught the 9pm showing of The Blind Side. We were on our way again at 6am on Sunday and arrived at the house by 9:30am. We skied Sunday afternoon in a light rain and fog. Monday brought temperatures 25 degrees colder with sub-zero Fahrenheit wind chills at the top of the mountain. The conditions were fair, but 1/3 of the trails were closed due to the rain and the glades were all closed off. The weather stayed very cold and overcast for the next 3 days. By Thursday, it warmed a little and Friday was the nicest day with temperatures in the mid-twenties. The drive home on Saturday was relatively uneventful, but part of it was made in a snow storm.

I learned a few things from this trip:

• The week between Christmas and New Years is 40% more expensive than February
  
• In February, U.S. schools have one of two different weeks off and Canadian’s aren’t on break, which helps dramatically with the crowds.
• Reservations at restaurants and activities are nearly impossible during Christmas week.
• A larger crowd makes skiing easier because groups of equally capable skiers can split up without leaving anyone alone.

We skied 5 days, took 1 day off to go snow tubing and went on an evening 2-horse open sleigh ride. In all, it was a good trip but I don’t think I would do it again. For me, February is the best month to be in Mont-Tremblant.

Videos:
The house in Canada
Base Lodge
Snow Tubing 1
Snow Tubing 2
Snow Tubing 3