Flight 111
11-19-00

C172M

2N8-MTP-2N8

3.2 solo; 2 landings

"passenger Zannah- OC and haze- returned just after sundown; good nav; good landings"

I met Zannah at work- she was on the administrative staff of a cultural center where I was installing a new A/V system, and was our main contact there.
  I liked her the minute we met: after introducing herself and describing her job title, she added that she really wanted to be a skydiving instructor!

So when I finally get around to asking her out, it seems plausible she would be interested in going for a ride. She definitely is.

She lives in Brooklyn, so I offer to drive into Manhattan to pick her up downtown... she arrives nearly an hour late. Nobody has the plane booked after my slot, so extending it is no problem... but this delay will eat up more daylight.

I've planned for Montauk on this decent but quite cold November day, and as we make our way east, we discover the cabin heat is not working (at least not well enough to notice any effect).

I ask if she wants to turn back; she says no.

I am denied the Class Bravo by NY Approach, but again this is a good excuse to fly low over the Rockaways. The sky and sea are quite beautiful despite the limited palette of grays and silvers, and the air is pretty smooth. I give Z. the controls for a while after climbing again to pass over the Class D at Republic; she does a good job and enjoys it.

The eastern sky is full of deceit again- layers of cloud angling over a hazy ocean horizon. But it is no problem... in fact, the visibility is quite good. Somewhere about halfway down the south shore of the island, we spot another plane, just far enough away that I cannot discern make and model, as it is flying a big loop over the beach. I wish we could do that, too- might take our minds off the cold.

The landing at Montauk is uneventful, and after stretching our legs a bit at the deserted field and crossing te road to greet the horses, we climb back into 3KK for the trip home.

By the time we are scooting under the JFK airspace again, it is obvious that we will be arriving at 2N8 after sundown. I'm confident that we will get there before the "end of civil twilight", as the regulations demand of someone who hasn't flown at night recently, but by the time we cross the harbor, the ground is quite dark, and I begin to wonder if I will have trouble finding the airport.
  So I recruit Z. to assist me, explaining what the beacon should look like. She seems unworried, and is eager to play this little game of spotting the beacon as more and more surface lights appear and the light fades to the west.

-At least the glare of the sunset is gone now, I tell myself as I start setting up to get a fix using the Solberg and Colt's Neck VORs.

-And we have plenty of fuel. Don't worry about the FARs right now; just find Marlboro, or Old Bridge, and land there. And don't frighten your passenger.

Before I finish setting up the VORs, I see the green... white... green of an airport beacon, dead ahead... or at least close enough to the nose that it cannot be Old Bridge. Before I can use the radio to turn on the runway lights, someone else turns them on.

The approach and landing go better than I expect, considering how dark it is on the ground now.

Z. thanks me warmly for the adventure, and insists on giving me more money than I'd have asked for, before I can even broach the subject. She's very insistent. I am thankful for the money, but it takes some of the fun out of sharing the flight... not to mention deflating my notions of chivalry somewhat.

We make tentative plans to go skydiving sometime when it's warmer, but like many such plans, it never happens.