06-24-00

C172

N07-N89-N82-N07


1.9 solo; 3 landings

"short & soft; pilotage; traffic pattern ops. Nice afternoon but hazy"


Hi bkn cirrus, warm, hazy

Today I plan a trip that will take me to the northern limit of the lower half of the NY sectional.
Resnick and Wurtsboro are two airports I haven't been to yet either, so this should be fun.
The mount for this morning's adventure is 15L, looking game as usual when I first spy her on the ramp.
The wind is nearly calm, and the air is stagnant, but not too warm yet.

I use 01 to launch northbound, and as 15L and I putter towards 4N1, I squint around at what could be a lovely morning scene were it not for the gray sheen of mist hanging below me, dulling the greens of late Spring and turning the horizon into a faint smudge.

No matter. As long as I can see the runway at Resnick, I'll be satisfied. Not up here for sightseeing, anyway.

My planned course takes me in a straight line to Resnick, and it goes very well. There's a moment of doubt as I approach the ridge south of the field... I should see a small lake near the modest 2000-foot summit. Eventually the tower beside it comes into view, and as I realize I'm dead on course- the jewel-like lake reveals itself among the trees.

Cresting the ridge, I watch the valley walls fall before my airplane, and there, right over there, is the town of Ellenville, and beyond it, Resnick Airport.

The runway here is luxuriously long for an old 172 (3300 ft), so the landing is not worth mentioning. I deplane long enough to use a musty bathroom near the office, then I blast out of there, following the valley towards Wurtsboro.

The approach there is a bit trickier; the hills are much closer, and flight over the prison north of the runway is discouraged, according to the AFD. I decide to use a RH pattern to avoid the hills, but before I can enter, I have to turn around. As I complete the turn and make my way to DW on a 45, I notice a Piper on downwind...on the other side, over the hills.
Whatever... his choice. I prefer to keep over more level ground. There's a highway on the east side, but in the pattern, it's the runway you should choose as a landing site if all hell breaks loose when you are as low and slow as you're gonna get on this trip... not a twisty strip of asphalt at the foot of some steep, wooded hills.

The Piper is rolling out as I turn base. I can see the prison quite clearly off the left wing- it's a large, old-fashoned-looking edifice, and I shudder at the thought of being locked within those walls.

I wonder: would I, as an inmate there, take pleasure in watching the passing aircraft, or would it be torture?

I am free, and carefree, so I turn my attention to making a relatively flatter approach, in attempt to break my habit of coming in steep and hot. I must sufficiently trust myself and the old Cessna, and I just let her down into a fine, smooth glide to the runway. Someone on the CATF advises me to watch out for two buzzards, last seen dining on a deer carcass close to the runway, about midfield. I thank him and continue to a very adequate landing. The nosewheel is just coming down as 15L trundles past the two large winged scavengers, but they are too busy to even notice us. I eye them warily, though: still near 40 knots, and they might take wing at any time.

  The clock is ticking, so I taxi around and bid Wurtsboro au revoir. The leg home is uneventful, and the outcome of the approach to N07? Well, I'm writing this a month later, and I can't remember.