Speaking of Idiots, I was one of them yesterday. Did you happen to see
all of the CAP aircraft that were flying cadets in and out. One of them
was me.

Yesterday was one of the rare ones at ZER. We us it allot because of the
light traffic and we have a glider based there to us. Normally the fog is
the biggest issue in the morning, but the wind were weird yesterday. I
came in from Lock Haven in a 172, we came out of LHV direct to ZER. from
3500 to 5500 we had a 40kt tailwind. We indicated 120kts (180 HP 172) with
a ground of 160 at 3500. Then climbing to 5500 we indicated 100kts with a
ground speed of 135 to 140. Pretty fast for a 172 and this wind was
heading straight to ZER.

I made 3 landings there yesterday and while you needed to be on your toes
and use the proper gust and crosswind technique, it was not all that bad
for me. However it was interesting to see that on final I'd be at 90kts
indicated and 57 to 65 ground speed. Our first landing coming in we made
a short field and stopped at the first taxi way with only a very light tap
on the brakes.

This is a nice quit place but If you try it again just check there weather
report first for the fog and the winds. The grass strip is in good shape
if you need to us it, just be sure you are familiar with grass strip
landing especially if it is wet or has been very wet for a few days
earlier.

We also had a group of EAA show up for a picnic flying in with I think old
Stinsons. For the worst day I've seen there, it was one of the busiest
ever.

Ron Gardner

Richard Russell wrote:

I'm a low time pilot (77 hours). In the interest of expanding my
comfort zone and accumulating the cross-country hours required for an
instrument rating, I decided that instead of boring holes in the same
sky every flight that I woud try to go at least 50 miles away when
possible.

Yesterday, I decided to fly to Joe Zerby (ZER) in Schuykill County,
PA. I have been flying a 172N since my checkride in July but I
decided to take 152 and save some bucks. Started out from N10 in
winds that were about 12 knots. After passing RDG I flew over two
ridge lines and encountered a lot of turbulence, well at least a lot
of turbulence for a 152. After passing the second ridge, the
landscape looked like a huge bowl with a plateau in the middle with an
airport on it. This created two situations for an experienced fellow
like myself.

First, was the strange sense that I was too high even though I wasn't.
The valley around the airport was lower than the airport and it took
more concentration than I expected it would to focus on the airstrip
and not the surrounding terrain. Secondly, I encountered winds like I
have never seen before in my long ten month flying career. While
trying to land on this aircraft carrier looking runway I encountered
wind shear, updrafts, downdrafts and a major crosswind blowing at
about 25 knots. Fortunately, the runway is long (over 4k). After an
ugly and scary approach the landing was actually very smooth. No
bounce, no perceptible side forces on the gear, no injuries.

After landing, I had to taxi a considerable distance to the ramp which
proved to be even more difficult than the landing. At least my
instructor drilled the proper control inputs for taxiing under these
conditions into my head.

After changing my underwear, I watched a few other idiots come in and
their landings looked a lot like mine. My big question is this: is
this airport always like this because of the interesting topography
around it or was this simply a tough, windy day? I would like to go
back sometime with the wife but I think a landing like that would
scare her away from flying forever.

Rich Russell
P.S. The take-off was just as adventurous. Once beyond the runway
and the cliff, all hell broke loose and it felt like I was in a
hurricane until I gained some altitude. Oh well, I wanted to expand
my horizons and I did.