I ended day 8, Sunday, June 7th, in Long Island with the Spaeth family. That evening , we had a little jam session: Pete on lead guitar and vocals, his son Jonah on bass, and I sang harmony. Despite not having played together in quite a while, we sounded great. We’re ready for the next gig. After that, we hopped into the hot tub for a nice therapeutic session. I have been battling a cold since Martha’s Vineyard and the hot tub came as a welcome relief.
During the day on Sunday, I had noticed my left eye bothering me a bit when we went to the Martha Clara Vineyard. That night, it really began to become irritated. I spent much time trying to see if there was a foreign body in my eye, only to discover that I have viral conjunctivitis. This, in addition to a cold, bronchitis, and sore throat that I’m battling. After a restless sleep, I got up early so that I could continue the trip. There was much planned for Day 9.
The itinerary for Day 9 called for breakfast in Bridgeport, CT, lunch in the Poughkeepsie area, and dinner in Manhattan. The plan was executed without a hitch. I began by flying VFR from Mattitituck, Long Island to Bridgeport, CT. I told everyone to meet at 8:30am. I arrived at 8:20am.
I was to meet up with members of the Northeast Pilots’ Group (NEPG) , a flying club I belong to that has members scattered throughout NY and New England. The group maintains a calendar of fly-in events through which we all meet up throughout the year. Typically, these trips are within the confines of New England, NY, or NJ, but sometimes extend as far as Maryland. The group was formed in CT, so there are several members near Bridgeport who were able to come out to join me for a sendoff breakfast. Picturedhere, from left to right is Roger Ameden, Tim Dillon, Ed Haddad, me, Julia Ryan, Clark Burgard, and John DePalma. We had a great breakfast at a restaurant close to the airport. It was really great that so many came out to be a part of my trip that morning, even though many had to rush off to work afterwards. The NEPG is a great organization and I’ve met a great bunch of new friends there. Yes, this is the third time I’ve seen Ed on this trip. If he could, I think he’d join me for the whole trip.
After spending some time chatting with John DePalma at the Bridgeport airport, he decided, I needed a new hat to replace the old worn out Martha’s Vineyard hat I was wearing. Despite my old hat having a certain sense of character, he figured that a cleaner hat with an airplane on it made more sense.
The next stop was Randall field, 06N, located in the town of Middleton, NY. I took off for Randall to meet up with a longtime friend from RPI who I haven’t seen in quite some time, perhaps ten years.
I knew Mike Djirdjirian (pronounced deh-jeerian) from the amateur radio club at RPI, whose call letters were W2SZ (pronounced Whiskey 2 Sierra Zebra, or Whiskey 2 Stuck Zipper). I had once been the President of the club and he was the Vice President. The club had a ham radio shack, which was housed in a building on Sunset Terrace behind the Houston Field House. In the “shack”, we had shortwave, VHF, UHF, and satellite ham radio gear. We also had several towers and antennas, including a 120 foot tower with some massive directional antennas on top. The club also participates in a national UHF/VHF radio contest from atop the highest peak in Massachusetts, Mt. Greylock. The group is headed there to participate this weekend, as they have since the 70’s. Mike lives in Wappingers Falls, NY and now works in Middleton for a company that specializes in industrial UPS’s. It was good to see him after all this time and we discovered that we share a passion for sushi. He’s also very much into snowmobiling and ATVs. Note: take a look at my left eye in the photo with Mike.
This marathon session of flying was by no means over. Luckily, I had filed an IFR flight plan from Randall to Linden, NJ, my gateway to Manhattan. In deciding which airport to land at in order to access Manhattan, I found that Linden was the best choice for me. Obviously, I didn’t want to land at either of the big three airports: LaGuardia, JFK, or Newark, because I would be charged outrageous landing and parking fees. The jet traffic and congestion doesn't bother me; I've landed at Philly International and Honolulu International before. Teterboro is considered a good destination for general aviation, but they too have high fees for keeping your aircraft there overnight. Farmingdale on Long Island is another choice, in which you can take the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) into town. Linden only charges $10 / night to park the plane, which is surprisingly inexpensive, considering that you probably can’t park you car there for less than that. The NJ transit train will take you from Linden to Penn Station in 35 minutes for only $6.50. This turned out to be an economical and convenient option. Here, you can see my airplane parked in Linden, NJ.
New York airspace is busy and complicated. By filing IFR, I let the controllers navigate me via their preferred path into Linden. There were some special procedures for approaching Linden, that I was unaware of, but the controllers briefed me before I got close to Linden. The problem with Linden is that it is only about 5 miles to the southwest of Newark and is right in the approach/departure corridor for their largest and most-used parallel runways. Controllers vectored me to the south of Linden and turned me north to approach Linden, following a published GPS approach. Their non-published procedure required that I had to have Linden in sight 4 miles from the final approach fix and that I had to cancel IFR while still in the air. I am assuming that the reason for this is that if I had to execute a missed approach procedure, I might interfere with traffic for Newark. I was able to land there, and actually landed in parallel with a helicopter that was landing on a taxiway. Linden is also a busy heliport and it appears that the major New York TV stations base their helicopters here, or at least refuel here. My official welcome to Linden and the NY Metro area was banging my head into my propeller while placing wheel chocks on the front wheel. Several people have commented: “At least the prop wasn’t turning at the time!”
I was met at Penn station by another RPI friend, Joan Bomfim. She has been living here in NY for the past three years, teaching chemistry at an exclusive high school on the upper east side. I caught Joan in NY just as she is packing her bags to head back to the Boston area. She has graciously let me stay at her apartment while I’m here in NY, but she’ll be on her way to Boston in a week.
Soon after meeting up with her, we headed out to Rosa Mexicano to enjoy Mexican fare with Nick Maddix, another friend from RPI. I know Joan and Nick from the ham radio club, and Nick is also a pilot, although he hasn’t flown in a while. Nick is a technology entrepreneur and also a popular DJ at some local clubs. He has developed software called Anagram, which intelligently parses email messages, websites, or documents to automatically extract contact information and appointments. For example, if I emailed you and simply said: “Meet me at Rosa Mexicano next Thursday at 9pm for half an hour to discuss your project”, his software would parse that and automatically place an entry in your calendar from 9pm – 9:30pm on next Thursday’s date that would say “Meet Joel at Rosa Mexicano to discuss your project”. He has now ported this powerful software over to smartphones such as the Blackberry and iPhone.
We all had much to catch up on. I discovered that Joan and Nick happened to be moving from Boston to New York around the same date three years ago, so they were able to share a U-haul to bring their stuff out. Unfortunately, life gets busy and they hadn’t really had a chance to see each other in some time, so it was nice to be the catalyst that brought them together before Joan left town.
No, Day 9 was not yet complete, although my dry cough, runny nose, sore throat, pink eye, and the propeller-induced gash on my head were all telling me that it should be. I had scheduled a meeting with yet another RPI friend, Vijay Battu, at 10pm. Vijay actually grew up in Troy and attended RPI as part of the six-year biomed program. This involved two years of biology and sciences at RPI and four years at the Albany Medical College. Vijay now has his own practice in Manhattan as an ophthalmic surgeon. Three years ago, he moved to an amazing penthouse suite across from the United Nations building. His balcony features an almost 360 degree wrap-around view of the entire city. We had a great time catching up and he enjoyed some of my card tricks. We used to play poker at RPI, but after seeing these card tricks, I’m not sure he’ll ever play poker with me again. When I return from this trip, Vijay said that he might be brave enough to take a flight with me!
Now, it’s midnight in Manhattan, I’m still wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts, it’s raining out, and I need to find 
my way back to Joan’s. Despite not really feeling all that well, I decided to give the subway system a whirl, since there were stops close to Vijay and Joan. Joan told me which trains to take, and I also just downloaded an iPhone app with the New York City subway system maps on it. The only snafu was that the “S” train, which is a shuttle between Grand Central and Times Square shut down at midnight. The “7” train runs the same route, so I hopped on that, then changed to the “2-3” train and got off on 110th – Central Park North. A short walk later, I arrived at Joan’s. Pictured is the platform in Times Square still bustling with people at midnight. Interesting that everyone in the foreground is looking away from me.
I really want to continue on this journey, but I need to get well. Being a little bit under the weather and doing all of that in one day was draining. By the end of the day, I was feeling pretty ill. It seems like my eye is better today (Tuesday) and I’m not coughing as much. I’ve spent this morning and afternoon at Joan’s apartment relaxing and writing this blog entry, which has given me a chance to recharge a bit. At 6pm, I will be meeting up with Ken Silverman, a close childhood friend of my brother’s. Ken is now a broadway producer, dealing mostly with broadway touring companies. He now works on one of the touring companies for Wicked, an amazing show based on the Wizard of Oz. More on that later.
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