Looks like another gorgeous day. There was a little mist over the beaver ponds down by the river but blue skies overhead. Picked up coffee, tea and muffins en route and arrived at the airfield just before 9. Cheery welcome from Marylee complete with black stetson. Had a good chat as they were running a little late with the 8 am flight. Discussed their issues with trying to keep a small airfield open and how few there were left.
Ken arrived back from the 8m and he is an ex Delta airline pilot who had a cabin in New England for years as a holiday home and eventually retired to New England buying a house right next to Tanglewood and keeping the cabin to rent to the Boston Symphony Orchestra (or at least some of them) for the summer. He and his wife volunteer at Tanglewood so get to see most of the shows.
Into the Archer, after a brief inspection and a few photos. Start up by Ken and then I taxied across the runway and up to the threshold for power checks. Line up, clearance and full power for the v short runway with trees at the end and off into the blue skies. Beautiful views of the trees immediately and the air was as calm as still as I've ever flow in.
We flew north and up over the ridge and hill we had climbed, over the big lake, yoga centre (massive building), over many famous people's 'cottages' (aka mansions) and Tanglewood seeing Ken's house on the way. The scenery is spectacular and the colours bright and at their peak that very day. Once when circling we suddenly hit turbulence which surprised us all including Ken and he realised that the air was so smooth that we had flow back into our own wake! A rare thing and only days as calm this will it persist.
We could see for miles and miles. The Catskills mountains in the far distance (of 'My Side of the Mountain' fame). A snake of fog over the Hudson river and if we had climbed a little higher we would have seen New York.
After landing, which was done by Ken as is a v low approach though a break in the trees and wheels nearly brushing the crops I bought the t-shirt, got my logbook signed and off we went to finish packing and check out of the Hotel.
What a lovely flight.
Light lunch in a small cafe followed by a drive into a lesser known state park and a walk around a lake (made by the CCC during the great depression as part of the employment programme and improving access to nature). The top end of the walk is part of the Appalachian trail so we have done a bit more of it! So only about 2,200 miles left of it to do.
Then time to drive to Boston. Decided to go for a countryside route to next junction, was very pretty but took a lot longer than we were anticipating and went off the google maps download we had so it was a bit of an adventure! Got to the airport on time (thanks to heavy traffic on the Interstate) rather than early, dropped the car off and through security into the small airport that is Boston Logan.
The Virgin Atlantic flight was ok but unremarkable and uncomfortable, did not sleep much at all but the flight was just under 6 hours so not too bad and then down through the cloud and into the grey drizzle of London.
A short <£10 taxi ride back to the Renaissance Hotel (the overnight plus car parking worked v well and cost effectively) to pick the car up and off home via Waitrose.
'finals' down between the trees
Tanglewood
Ken's house
Appalachian Trail
Beaver lodge
