Sylvia's Journal

Before we each headed out for the airport, Bill and I conferenced over the phone, sitting in front of our computers, studying weather maps on NOAA’s extensive Aviation Digital Data Services maps. There’s more data there than you can wave a stick at and weather enthusiasts can poke around for hours.

The movements of clouds and tree branches outside made us pay particular attention to the wind and temperature maps which you can arrange by altitude. I like the wind maps; the small wind arrows swirl elegantly around the US. They make me appreciate the larger pattern that makes the trees in my yard sway this way and that. You can see where the winds come from and thus can guess something about the temperatures that come along with them. Yesterday’s southwesterly winds actually brought cold air from the Great Lakes as they undulated down in enormous circles from the north west.

I had to study weather for my private license and am a little wiser than before, but I still don’t get the stuff of fronts, when warm air wedges under or over cold air. One day, when I have nothing else to do I will study ‘Weather for Dummies.’

We decided to fly south, where the winds were slightly less powerful and the clouds high enough. I flew the outbound trip, around Boston to Chatham on Cape Cod. It was very bumpy to Bedford; surface winds tend to flow from all directions especially over heavily developed areas because of obstacles in their way. Holding steady at our assigned altitude was a lot of work. After that the winds were more manageable making the rest of the trip, over Norwood, Plymouth and past Hyannis more enjoyable for sightseeing. We admired the cranberry bogs of the south shore, their color a deep Bordeaux red amidst the otherwise colorless landscape that showed few signs of spring.

Traversing from the mainland to the Cape was spectacular as we flew over the steep sand cliffs just before the Cape Cod Canal and watched the traffic heading out over the two bridges in both directions. Despite the clouds above us, visibility was unlimited. Throughout the trip we could see Logan airport, the White Mountains in the north and Buzzard Bay to the south. After the Cape Cod Canal the Cape was lying wide open in front of us.

Few people were flying in little planes like ours and so it was quiet among most airports along the way, except for the big planes that come and go high overhead and move fast. On the way back, Bill was given the option by Boston Approach Control to fly straight back to Beverly over Boston as long as we would stay at 3500 feet. Such permission is rarely granted as we little folks create extra work and a distraction for Logan’s busy airtraffic controllers. Unfortunately the clouds were also at 3500 feet, probably with ice in them, and in order to stay VFR we would have to remain well below them. So we circled back around Boston at 2500 feet, the way we came. We landed in Beverly exactly 3 hours after we left.

We have been making plans for two long trips in the near future, one to Montreal and one to fly around the Statue of Liberty. We were quickly talked out of the Montreal trip because of the hassles with US immigration and customs. If your timing is off you can end up sitting at Montreal airport not even being allowed to open your door. The image of having to spend the night in our little Piper was frightening enough to scratch that plan. But the trip down the Hudson Corridor, past the Statue of Liberty and back via Long Island still stands. We are planning it for the end of May, when the weather is better and we can fly a stretch around Kennedy airport over the sea.