Cross-Country to Teterboro (KTEB)

On Monday, I flew to some BUSY airspace. From Coshocton, OH, which gets about 20-30 aircraft per day (on a good VFR day), I flew into Teterboro, NJ (KTEB), where it seems that the entire concentration of corporate jets in the continental US resides. According to AirNav, they average something close to 600 aircraft per day. Given 12 hours of daylight per day, that's about an average of 50 aircraft per hour, which means a launch or landing about every minute. If you go on a 24-hr day, it's still one operation every two minutes, which is pretty exciting for a small town airplane geek like me.

Dad & I flew out for a trade show, and since this one wasn't over the Rockies, we could reasonably fly out to NJ without taking days and days. I woke up bright and early at 4AM, to get to work, make some copies, and pour some samples prior to leaving for Teterboro, before the winds picked up too much. The TAFs forecasted 20-24kt winds, gusting to 30 kts, so we were a little worried and thought that maybe we should leave early, so as to arrive before 8 AM and avoid some of the nasty winds. So, I got up super-early, went to work to get a few things done before we left, and then Dad called at 4:30AM to say that the front we were looking at was dipping further in central PA and we would probably be better off waiting later in the day for the front to blow through. Well, that was just great. Here I have just drunk a couple of cups of coffee, and I could go back to bed for another 3 hours. Well, that wasn't going to happen, so I just came home and fixed a bang-up scrambled-eggs-n-bacon-n-toast breakfast for me and Beth. Since this was the beginning of her "hell week" with adminstering all the state testing, she appreciated it, and I got to watch the Drew Carey show early in the morning (on at 6:30AM on TBS). Good stuff:).

Well, we waited until the last possible minute to leave, so we finally headed up to the airport around 3PM, preflighted the aircraft, got topped off with fuel, and made our way west. At 9000ft, there was an AWESOME tailwind of 50kts, almost headed due east, which made the trip very enjoyable. It's really cool to see the countryside slip by as you're logging 180kts groundspeed. It felt like I was in Steve's RV-6! Well, except that I had a sweet GPS screen in front of me and more than 3 pairs of underwear packed behind me. I didn't get a picture of the 180kt groundspeed, since I was talking to Center at the times when I noted it, but the highest I saw was 183kts at 9500ft. It was a sweet, fast ride from Coshocton to Teterboro, only 2hrs 20mins to travel 367NM, which translates to an average speed of 157kts including take-off, climb-out, and all the pattern work at KTEB. The visibility enroute was simply amazing, 150+ mile visibility and virtually no turbulence. We experienced some clear air turbulence over State College, PA, and some during our descent over the Delaware Water Gap, but it was really smooth otherwise. The only real problem with the flight was that I only logged 2.6hrs on the hobbs because of the tailwind. Must....build....more.....time. The radio work was fairly stressful, but with Dad there to change frequencies, it made it totally manageable. It was a good introduction, because as you flew further towards NYC, the controllers talked faster and the traffic got more intense. At one point, the controller kept asking "Do you see the sob?" I'm sitting there thinking "What the heck is a sob - some kind of landmark?" when a SAAB 340 goes whizzing by about 1000ft off my wingtip. "We see the Diamond" I hear on the radio. Sheesh! I'll bet you do!

Powerplants on the Ohio River up at the WV bend

Hey dere, yinzers! Picksburgh from 9500ft - Go Stillers 'nat!

Over the Alleghenys in Central PA - CAVU!

Happy Valley, State College, PA - Go Nittany Lions!

A nice bluff overlooking the Susquehanna River, near Hazelton, PA

A gap in the Allegheny Moutains on I-80, near Wilkes-Barre

Delaware Water Gap, with Stroudsburg, PA in the foreground - That's where my ancestors settled!

Approaching NYC from the west, about 50NM out heading to the Sparta VOR (SAX)

About 6-8NM from Manhattan looking over Teterboro and the Meadowlands at NYC

Short final for Runway 1 at KTEB

Check out the jets! We were only one of 2 single-engine piston aircraft parked on the ramp. Ramp fees were $75/night!

Enjoying the sunshine after a successful trip!