A Flying Trip to the Empire State

“Do you want to go on an airplane ride?”, my coworker, Jen asked me a few months ago. “Clinton,” she said, referring to another colleague, “needs to get his flying hours in. We could go together sometime.”

Although I have been on plenty of commercial flights, the last time I had been a passenger on a small plane was years and years ago. “Sure. When?” I replied.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving was clear and calm. I met Jen and her friend Sharon at the Lancaster Airport at eight in the morning. We followed Clinton through the gate to the hanger where his airplane is kept. Clinton’s instructions had included the line “planes have the right of way” so we watched for taxiing aircraft but we drove to the hanger and parked in the grass without having to dodge any wings.

At the hanger, Jen introduced me to her friend, Sharon, who’s a nurse. While Clinton did the routine safety checks and cleaned the plane’s windshield, Sharon entertained Jen and I with a story about an octogenarian patient of hers who “has a history of attacking people with combs”.

Clinton pulled the plane out of the hanger and handed us life vests. “We’re going to be flying low over the Hudson River and if the engine dies, we’ll have two minutes before we hit the water. So you’ll have put on your life vests now.” We all obediently put on the vests and then it was time to board!

After buckling in and putting on headphones, we listened as Clinton radioed the tower and soon we were on the runaway. A short time later, we were soaring above the farms of Lancaster county. I saw Sharon using her phone to track where we were going, and I pulled up Google maps and did the same thing, watching as familiar roads and rivers flowed below us.

Our plan was to fly over the Hudson river in New York City and then stop at a small airport for brunch.

We flew low and slow over the Hudson, and I tried to get some pictures. Seeing the city from a bird’s eye view was amazing!

We landed at the Sky Acres Airport in Lagrangeville, New York and ate brunch at the small restaurant in the airport. After such an exciting morning and having gotten up at 4:00 a.m. (see the reason why here) I was pretty hungry and ate my avocado toast and then finished off Sharon’s salmon toast that she didn’t want.

Then it was time to fly again. This time I got to sit in the front passenger seat.

Riding in the front was a lot of fun— you can see more and watch all the instruments. Clinton asked me if I want to try using the passenger controls. I tried for a few minutes but it was scary to feel the wings tilting as I tried keep things level. Plus, by this time I realized eating the salmon toast might not have been such a good idea. I usually don’t get motion sickness, but unpleasant memories of a 12-hour bus ride in Alaska and a rocky boat ride in Ireland were re-surfacing, so I asked for a barf bag, just in case. Happily, I didn’t need it, even when Clinton did some dips and dives much to Sharon and Jen’s delight. (I’ve been on rollercoasters that were worse.)

One thing that definitely made the trip more fun was that I was at Kitty Hawk a few months ago, so the plane ride helped me remember some of the information I had learned there.

Soon we were descending over the Lancaster farmland again. The entire trip had taken less than four hours.

Planes really are amazing!