MikeAdminAlterative to Martha’s Vineyard
Once again everything happens for a reason – we had great plans to visit Martha’s Vineyard and Katama airport -1B2 to enjoy some beach side parking – but the weather didn’t quite cooperate with low ceilings on the island and along the coast all the way up to Maine.
While we could get in – traveling an hour and a half to sit on the beach under an overcast didn’t seem to make sense when the weather was great everywhere else.
So a quick change and almost no planning produced an unexpectedly great day.
Saratoga Springs Airport 5B2 – located only about 4 miles for the Saratoga Springs State Park was a great choice. Jaimie and I invited our friends JJ and Jo Ann for one of our first ever couples trips. Being new to the world of General Aviation travel adding a second couple to be disappointed by our lack of planning added a bit of stress to the day but in the end this proved to be unfounded.
We pulled the mighty RV10 out of her new hangar – and added a few gallons to bring us up to 50 gallons total – double checking weight and balance we were well within CG and 90# less then max weight. Still take-off was a bit of a new experience for me on a hot, no wind day and we took almost 1000 feet to reach 70 kts and rotation. Also climb seemed a bit less rocket like then normal, but the biggest difference was how tail heavy she felt with just the girls in the back until John and I settled into the front seats.
John is an experienced rotary wing pilot with 30 years of experience so he flew most of the way down taking us over Lake Champlain and Lake George to count the boats and see everyone enjoying the great weather. We chose to make the flight down to Saratoga Springs at a meandering 4.5K, 21.7MAP and 24K RPM yielding a LOP 10.6GPH at 150Kts IAS.
Traffic definitely picked up in the vicinity of Saratoga with glider operations based at the field and using the crossing runway 32/14. Despite this – or because of this we chose to take a pedestrian tour over the race tracks and down town before entering a downwind for 5. Not the greatest landing of all time – slightly long and slightly firm – a tad too much speed and we held our aerodynamic breaking wheelie down the runway much longer than normal with the more aft CG.
The team at North Atlantic Flight Service were great – when we had called early in the morning they had offered to setup a last minute rental car but in the end we decided to just borrowing their crew car for a few hours for lunch and a quick touristy driving tour.
We ate lunch at the Bryant House based on the recommendation from the FBO staff – this may have been our only mediocre decision of the day. Jaimie had researched a couple of other restaurants that may have been more to our liking but we (I) was influenced by the John at the FBO. The Bryant House was historic – the oldest building in Saratoga Springs and the food was fine but it lacked a little of the fun vibe we were rolling with.
After lunch we toured Broadway, the main drag and then headed over to the Saratoga Spa State Park. This was great – the park boasts a performing arts complex that hosts big name bands during non-Covid years, but the park was the real stand out. Hiking trails, pools spas, a golf course, tennis courts, fishing streams, spring water and best of all geysers. The Saratoga area has long been known for its healing waters and has been a vacation/rehab location since the time of the Native Americans.
One of the most popular spring pools is named after its most famous visitor the Roosevelt pools. Unfortunately we (I) felt guilty about monopolizing the crew car so after a drive through the park and only a couple of short stops we called it a day. But on the drive back to the airport it was unanimously decided that Saratoga Spa State Park was worth another trip dedicated to enjoying its many offerings. It was great to see so many families out enjoying the outdoors, having graduation and birthday parties under the many pavilions and in the stream side picnic areas.
After our four hour “quick lunch” we took 10 Gallons of slightly overpriced fuel, $5.49/gal so we wouldn’t feel guilty about the Crew Car and headed home at about 1500. Again the take-off was no issue as we sequenced ourselves between the gliders landing on 14 and the tow landing on 5. The take-off was a bit sloppy on my part letting it drift a little left of center as I adjusted to the slightly slower acceleration with 4 adults on board. To hide my clumsiness I quickly passed the controls to JJ and sat back as he expertly climbed us up to 5.5k for the 50 minute flight home again taking in the sights of the lake and people enjoying the New England summer.
As we crossed over into Burlington’s airspace our check in was greeted with a hearty “my favorite RV” call from Rick one of the local controllers and a flying buddy. After a brief on air recap of the day’s events and a promise to take him next time we proceeded to FSO for another no spectacular but fortunately uneventful landing.
Saratoga Springs we will be back – great company – great flying – lots of fun attractions.