Thanks for the weather, Jay!

Because Jay put his plane in the shop, he's been seeing great flying weather.
That's trickled down East by now.

Today was in the 40's and CAVU. I dug the Maule out of the snow last weekend, so
I knew that all I needed to do was to top off the tailwheel tire. After that was
accomplished, she started right up. I had been a bit nervous about that, since I
haven't flown in a while.

I was second for departure behind a school Tomahawk. With the chilly air, the
Maule got off the ground like an advertisement. By the time we got to pattern
altitude, I was rapidly overhauling the Traumahawk, so I turned east for the
coast. When I got there, I ran towards the city about 1500' up. The inland
waterway was mostly ice, and it was fun to see the beaches nearly empty. Most of
the boats were shrinkwrapped in cradles on the shore, but a few were still in
slips. With the ice, they weren't going anywhere. I was pleased to see the oil
temperature reaching the green; sometimes it doesn't in the winter.

When I got to the hook, I was surprised to see a few people on the beaches. I
also started wondering about the lack of company in the air - maybe I missed a
TFR?

Dialed in 121.5 and heard nothing, but I decided not to make a run up the Hudson
anyway. I turned inland and made my way over to the Parkway to head home. As I
passed a couple of Navy installations, I felt fortunate that we in NJ don't have
to deal with the clowns they have in the Portland area.

All too soon, Lakewood was in sight and it was time to pull the plug. The
landing turned out to be a real nice one; another nice surprise.

I shut down in front of my tiedown and climbed out. I beautiful yellow Pacer
turned in right after me, so I hurried to push the Maule off the taxiway. It
didn't take long to put her to bed.

Tomorrow I'll fly her to Pennsylvania to meet her new owner. The weather's
supposed to be good for that too.

George Patterson
He who would distinguish what is true from what is false must have an
adequate understanding of truth and falsehood.