To Schenectady with Ben

Ben and I flew out to Schenectady, NY, today (KSCH). It was about 1:30 flying time, and the first time I've had to buy fuel. I likely could have gotten away without buying any, but I'd end up with less than an hour's worth by the time I got back, and that's too little. That's not a rule I want to break.

The original plan was to stop in at the Empire State AeroSciences Museum that's on the field, but when we got there, we stopped at Richmor, which turns out to be at the wrong end of the airport. We could have taxied over, but Ben wasn't too enthused about walking around the museum anyway, and I just wanted to stretch and get some great vending machine food. ;-}

It's a nice little airport with three runways, one ILS approach, and a lot of Air National Guard activity. When we were landing, there was a C130 landing on the cross runway, so we had to cross "without delay" to avoid them. After we shut down, we watched them practicing in the area, and performing some impressive aerial work -- at least 70 degree bank angle just a couple of hundred feet off of the ground.

We spent some time relaxing in the lobby next to the rental car counter, and then went back out to the plane. The take-off was unremarkable. Switching over to Albany Approach was a bit confused. I expected to go back the direction I had come in, but that's not what they wanted me to do, and they had me head out to the East. Compounding the issue, 13081 seems to have a failing DG; it just wanders all over the place, and I was constantly resetting it to the compass. I ended up flying by compass, VOR, and GPS. The DG was a bit of a distraction. (No, it wasn't a vacuum problem; that was fine.)

Eventually, after a mild scolding, I was left to navigate back home. There was one really good lift-you-out-of-your-seat thump as we were nearing Mt. Greylock, but the rest was fairly smooth. Visibility was great; from about Turner's Falls at 5500, it was easy to see Boston and the ocean beyond.

Coming back into Lawrence, it was very busy. There were two directly ahead of us, and a helicopter and yet another airplane behind. We came into 32 a few knots fast. The landing was smooth, but uncomfortable as I knew I was too fast. We got off promptly at Delta and taxied back to the ramp to shut down. It was so busy that they actually had separate people running tower and ground -- at Lawrence, that's usually just one person talking on both frequencies.

That's another 3.1 for the log book. I think I need about another 10 or so before I can start with real instrument work.