A Flight through the Finger Lakes at 1,000 ft AGL and 75 KIAS...A Reminder of Why

I spent the first 10 years of my career at Schweizer Aircraft in Elmira, NY, working for Les Schweizer, the most talented and practical engineer I have ever had the privilege of working with. Looking back, he was an outstanding mentor and, while there have been others along the way, Les is the one person who is most responsible for any career success I’ve had. His technical achievements are exceptional. Equally important is his character, the demonstration of which had a more profound effect on those who worked at Schweizer Aircraft than any of his technical accomplishments. 

One of the absolutely best benefits of working as an engineer at Schweizer Aircraft, especially as a young, single guy with virtually no other responsibilities at the time, was sailplane flying at the Schweizer Soaring School. The Schweizers felt it was important for their engineers to know how to fly, so important that they would pay the bill for them to gain a real appreciation for what the end user of their products would experience. I took full advantage of this benefit and have more than 600 sailplane sorties in my logbook.   

Late last year, Les made me an offer to go flying in his Schweizer 2-37 motor glider from the grass strip on his farm in Cayuta, NY. His farm is adjacent to K&L Soaring, a business he and his son, Kyle, successfully run to support the many Schweizer sailplanes still flying today. Les made good on that offer on Friday afternoon, a beautiful day in the Finger Lakes of Central New York with blue skies and plentiful cumulus clouds. It was an unforgettable afternoon, especially considering I have not flown up front and been responsible for manipulating the controls in quite a while.

We pulled 2-37 S/N 2, N32AF, an aircraft that spent the better part of 25 years training cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy, from its hangar on the edge of the strip. The 2,800-foot strip sits atop an undulating knoll and is more or less straight...just a little bit of a dogleg...between two ponds. When we pushed the power up at the end of what I estimated to be Runway 31, all I saw was the top of the knoll with the hangar off to the right. Over the top we went and within a few seconds we were airborne and climbing northbound between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes on the way up to Finger Lakes Regional (0G7) just south of Seneca Falls to shoot touch and go’s. Cruise speed was a leisurely 75 KIAS.

We arrived over Finger Lakes Regional to discover the windsock straight out and perpendicular to the single north-south runway. Runway 01 or 19? Did I want a left or right crosswind? Did I tell you I haven’t done this in a while? Did I tell you the 2-37 is a taildragger with a 60-foot wingspan? I picked Runway 01 with a left crosswind. I followed Les through on the first approach and then it was my turn. I proceeded to make three reasonably decent approaches, all of which terminated in a touch... on the hard surface as intended with descent rates that were less than bone jarring...followed by a go and climb back into the pattern. I have to be honest. The fact that I could land a tail-dragger in a 15-knot crosswind after all this time left me sitting just a little higher in the cockpit. 

The pattern was getting busy so we headed northwest to do a little “soaring”. We found a cloud street forming between Seneca Falls and Geneva and headed upwind, pulling the engine back to about 1,200 RPM. We started low, low enough that I would have been looking for a place to land if we had been in a sailplane without that little Lycoming turning up front. We found some lift over the Waterloo Outlet Mall adjacent to the New York State Thruway and started to work it. Around and around we went, 60 to 70 degrees of bank feeling comfortable once again. The mental picture and feel of where the thermal was and how to work it came flooding back...500 feet/min...good, good...starting to lose it...tighten it up...back into it...OK, flatten it out a little bit...roll back in...and on and on. We gained 3,000 feet in the next 10 minutes or so, clearing the engine occasionally. Man, what a blast! We pushed the power back up and set a southwest-bound course for Keuka Lake, the Y-shaped lake in the Finger Lakes chain.

We flew down the eastern shore of the lake receiving plenty of arm waves from boaters and vacationers getting an early start on the last weekend of summer. Passing half way down the lake, we headed west in search of Point of the Bluff Vineyards where Les’ daughter, Tambi, works as Director of Brand Development. We found it and spiraled overhead, receiving waves and raised glasses from those imbibing below, before heading back to the Schweizer farm.

In addition to the pure beauty of the Finger Lakes, both on the ground and from the air, it is just really difficult to get lost flying over this area of New York State. Each lake is a different length and shape with large farms dotting the landscape. Yes, we had a moving sectional map display but I was only using it to find towers that might be inclined to reach up and grab us. A large neighboring farm adjacent to the Schweizer’s stood out like a beacon from 15 miles out. We flew over the field to determine wind direction and set up on a left downwind for Runway 31. As if to say, “Hey, it’s 2020 you know”, my cell phone started ringing as we turned base to final...yes, I know I should have had it in airplane mode and, no, I didn’t answer it. I can’t make this up...turns out it was work calling. Les gently set the 2-37 down between the ponds and we rolled to a stop after a 2.0 on the Hobbs.          

Those two hours in the air on Friday afternoon were so good in so many ways. After three decades in the industry, my daily management responsibilities include profit and loss statements, intellectual property, organizational and business development. On the technical side, it is about implementing the latest technology in airborne testbeds with altitudes reported in Flight Levels, speeds in Mach, and tactical decisions made by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in fractions of a second. I embrace all of these responsibilities but Friday afternoon’s flight was a reminder of why I got into this career in the first place. The pure joy of flying, low and slow over a beautiful patchwork of lakes and farm fields with a good friend and mentor, was re-invigorating, especially in a year like 2020 when the world seems to have spun off its axis. Les, thank you for a memorable afternoon of flying. I can’t wait to do it again!