PTW Fly-In

I went to the fly-in breakfast at PTW, Pottstown Limerick Airport Pottstown, Pennsylvania. It was surprisingly well attended – I thought it would be just a little sleepy airport and a few people and planes, but it was wall to wall. Evidently this is their 52nd annual fly-in breakfast!

I went down there because a bunch of people I know from a mailing list have been gathering at this gathering for a number of years. (Pictures from 2003 and 2004 and 2005.) This was my first time going. One of the list members I’ve actually met before, Randy, is based at PTW so his hangar is sort of the center of festivities.

Rochester was reporting a 3000 foot ceiling, and forecast to improve to 4500 feet later in the day. PTW was reporting skys clear, and forecasting that to stay that way. But much of the route was forecasting marginal VFR or IFR conditions, so of course I filed and flew IFR. I was on top at 5500, and flew at 9000 on top of a solid layer all the way down to Allentown. I was actually getting concerned about where this clear sky was supposed to be, because I was listening to ATIS and AWOS all the way down and kept hearing ceilings as low as 600 feet. But at Allentown it suddenly opened up below me and I could see the cooling towers off in the distance that made it easy to find PTW. PTW’s ASOS was reporting winds mostly from the east, so I cancelled IFR and tried to join the pattern for runway 10. But I soon realized I was getting too close to the airport and too far west to join the downwind properly, so I had to turn left 90 degrees and then a steep 180 degree turn to downwind. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t going to win me any awards, but there was nobody else in the pattern or on the radio, so I wasn’t cutting anybody off. If it had been a bit busier I would have turned north and swung around a bit to get a proper 45 degree entry. Then on final I found myself getting slow and low, so I put in some throttle and made a “firm” landing. Thats when I noticed a bunch of people sitting beside the runway in lawn chairs judging landings. At least they didn’t hold up score cards.

There were marshalls directing planes to parking on the grass. I got parked and then started looking for our host, Randy. I couldn’t picture his face in spite of the fact that I saw him in 2002 and 2003, so I tried asking some of the people who worked there. Two people said that he was tearing around on a white golf cart and wearing a bright green shirt. I found him sitting at a table with several other list members who I’ve never met before. I recognized him, though, but not any of the others. We introduced ourselves, and I discovered that although the mailing list is Piper themed, there were two Bonanza drivers, a Skyhawk driver, and Randy owns a Skylane. But at least Piper was represented by Cherokee 180, a Dakota, and I came in a Lance.

After the breakfast, we adjourned to Randy’s hangar for a few soft drinks and an examination of the roominess of a Cessna 182. I eventually managed to get in, and it’s not as roomy as a Lance, but it’s pretty good.

Things broke up pretty quick, because several of the visitors had other commitments. That’s too bad, because I wouldn’t have minded staying around. But I was also getting hungry, and I didn’t want to end up getting the shakes on the way home, so I left as well.

With all the traffic leaving the fly-in, I didn’t want to deal with trying to depart IFR at an uncontrolled field, so I filed to pick it up in the air over ETX (East Texas VOR). On the way in, the last controllers I’d talked to were Allentown Approach, so that’s who I called for my clearance. I was once again over a solid cloud layer in clear skies. At one point they called out traffic at my 12:00, 1000 feet below me. I spotted him, and he was going exactly opposite me on the airway. He passed exactly below me – I guess that’s what happens when people follow the airway with a GPS. The display on my GPS was showing my cross track distance in hundreds of feet instead of the miles you’d see if you follow the VOR only. Soon after passing Elmira they cleared me down to 4000 feet, and by the time I arrived at 4000 I was just about even with the lowest of the ragged bases of the clouds and I could see Rochester airport. 20 miles out I was cleared to land, so I guess they weren’t busy.

After I landed I decided to do the stuff I should have done before I left, but I was lazy. I pumped up all the tires, and replaced one of the navigation lights (yeah, I flew IFR with a burned out nav light. Sue me.) While I was doing that, I dropped the stupid screw that holds in the stupid lens, and I was grovelling around in the grass for it when a cop pulled up at the other side of the fence and asked me where my airport photo id was. PH gave us photo ids at one point, but then took them away and gave us these prox-reader passes that don’t even say our names on them. So I gave her the pass, and my pilot’s license. As she was copying down the information she started telling me she was scared of flying and asking me how long I trained to be a pilot and stuff like that. If I were single and about 20 years younger, I definitely would have asked her if she wanted to come for a ride in my plane, because she was very attractive.

Today was my first time using my new Quiet Technologies HALO headset in the Lance. The Lance is noticably louder than the other planes, so this was the real test. It’s hard to judge, but I felt it was only a little bit louder than my Headsets Incorporated modified Dave Clark 10-13.4s. But strangely enough, the radio seemed clearer. And even odder, when I used my handheld to pick up ASOS and AWOS and ATIS broadcasts along the way, I could hold the handheld up to the tubes and hear it perfectly.

But the really important feature of the HALO headset is when I reached the end of the flight and shut everything down, and I didn’t get that “AHHHHH, thank God” feeling when I take the headset off. It’s just so light you don’t really feel it. It’s nice.