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08-31-2015, 03:30 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Martinsville, IN
Posts: 2,326
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Indiana to Maine in a RV-12
My son and I just completed our last long cross country trip of the season. I wanted to go to Maine so I could check off another dozen or so states from my list of visits. We'd been watching the weather for several weeks and the weather in New England just refused to break. Finally on Thursday of last week, it looked like we might be able to make it out and back within the weather window.
Here, my son and I prepared to leave from home. The weather in Indiana has been perfect for almost a week, sunny and no wind. My son is not small, so we were a tad overweight but as the fuel burned off, we remained within the flight envelope.
Rather than take a direct route, we had to angle towards Washington DC in order to avoid mountain obscuration over the mountains in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. Here we are cruising with the cumulous.
First stop was in West Virginia for fuel. I've never landed at an airport that didn't have ANYTHING to drink. Not even a water fountain. Oh well, we'll just push on. Our plan was to cross the mountains then fly up their eastern flank past Philly and into New York to fly up the Hudson past Manhattan. This has always been a bucket item for me. Here we are approaching the corridor from the South over the Verrazano Narrows bridge. Getting a little anxious because the traffic volume is rather significant.
Past the Statue of Liberty. We did not hang out here, lots of helicopter traffic. Snapped a few pictures as we passed by.
Going North we flew up the east side of the Hudson, right past ground zero and the new World Trade tower.
From here, we re-fueled in Connecticut. We were so hungry that we had a local Italian restaurant deliver some sandwiches to us at the airport. We had to snarf them down in order to depart in time to make it to the Knox County airport on Owls Head, Maine by dusk. I've got a neat video of us landing at dusk and I'll try and get some frame snaps from it. We picked up our rental car and went in search of a local hotel. Overall this day we covered over a thousand miles and spent about 8.5 hours in the air.
__________________
Randy Pflanzer
Greenwood, IN
www.pflanzer-aviation.com
Paid through 2043!
Lund fishing Boat, 2017, GONE FISHING
RV-12 - Completed 2014, Sold
427 Shelby Cobra - Completed 2012, Sold
F1 EVO - partially completed, Sold
F1 Rocket - Completed 2005, Sold
RV-7A - Partially completed, Sold
RV-6 - Completed 2000, Sold
Long-EZ - Completed 1987, Sold
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08-31-2015, 03:44 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Martinsville, IN
Posts: 2,326
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In the morning, we headed up the coast from Rockland to sightsee. First on our list was the granite walk, a mile long breakwall that you can walk out on.
As you can see, the weather this day was magnificent. Next stop was the Penobscot Narrows bridge. It has the tallest bridge observation deck in the world.
Next to the bridge is an old fort from the War of 1812, Fort Knox. Pretty impressive building for the time.
From there, we made our way to Bar Harbor. I guess it is a tourist stop that you have to see, but I am not that into trinket and tee shirt stops. What we did want was some fresh lobster. We found a place that the locals eat at. If you are ever in Bar Harbor, I highly recommend this place.
The food was awesome. I have a number of foodie pictures but I'll spare you. The lobster stew was awesome, the fresh lobster was awesome, the fresh blueberry pie was awesome, the blueberry Mojito was awesome.
From here, we made the two hour drive back to Rockland to spend the night. The plan for the next day was to start heading back to the West towards home, maybe stopping at Niagara Falls. We walked a lot of miles today and my dogs are barking.
__________________
Randy Pflanzer
Greenwood, IN
www.pflanzer-aviation.com
Paid through 2043!
Lund fishing Boat, 2017, GONE FISHING
RV-12 - Completed 2014, Sold
427 Shelby Cobra - Completed 2012, Sold
F1 EVO - partially completed, Sold
F1 Rocket - Completed 2005, Sold
RV-7A - Partially completed, Sold
RV-6 - Completed 2000, Sold
Long-EZ - Completed 1987, Sold
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08-31-2015, 03:57 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Martinsville, IN
Posts: 2,326
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Dawn this morning was spectacular so we decided to fly up the coast in the morning light to get some pictures of the coastline and Bar Harbor from the air. The scenery was just incredible. The little knob on the horizon is the Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor sits on the other side of it.
This morning, it would be a 20 minute flight versus a 2 hour drive the day before. I have tons of pictures, here are a few. This is Bar Harbor.
I made a low pass along the coast line. There were some very large estates perched along the shore.
From here we made a bee line for home. We stopped in Rutland, Vermont for fuel and some burgers. Very nice restaurant on the field. Next, we stopped in upstate New York for a quick fuel stop. At this point the weather started to turn into those scattered showers they were predicting.
This was the weather picture for most of Ohio. Our plan was to go as far as we could and stop when we couldn't go any further. We dodged some showers around Akron and made it into Marion, OH for fuel. From there, we flew the remaining 1.5 hours at 2,000 feet. It was very smooth but we had to dodge showers several times. We made it home just at dusk, another 9 hour day in the airplane.
If you get a chance to fly up to Maine, I really recommend it. I found the state to be second only to Oregon in its scenery. We had a great time and enjoyed great food along the way. It was a nice bonding trip with my older son Alex and he's a great traveler as well. This trip was one for the books.
__________________
Randy Pflanzer
Greenwood, IN
www.pflanzer-aviation.com
Paid through 2043!
Lund fishing Boat, 2017, GONE FISHING
RV-12 - Completed 2014, Sold
427 Shelby Cobra - Completed 2012, Sold
F1 EVO - partially completed, Sold
F1 Rocket - Completed 2005, Sold
RV-7A - Partially completed, Sold
RV-6 - Completed 2000, Sold
Long-EZ - Completed 1987, Sold
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08-31-2015, 04:33 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: MN
Posts: 2,269
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Nice!
Great report, Randy! Thank you. I need to get up there now.....
__________________
Cheers,
Pete
Amateur Plane - RV-9A N789PH - 2350+ Hrs
Amateur Radio - KD0CVN
Doggies Delivered - 25+
St. Paul, MN
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08-31-2015, 05:06 PM
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VAF Moderator / Line Boy
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Dayton, NV
Posts: 12,256
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So much for anyone that thinks the RV-12 isn't a cross-country machine....
I only have two states to add to my lifetime collection Randy - Maine, and Hawaii - sort of like a seven-ten split, with the pins in adjacent lanes....would like to add Maine (very nice report and pictures), but man - that's a LONG cross-country from here....
__________________
Paul F. Dye
Editor at Large - KITPLANES Magazine
RV-8 - N188PD - "Valkyrie"
RV-6 (By Marriage) - N164MS - "Mikey"
RV-3B - N13PL - "Tsamsiyu"
A&P, EAA Tech Counselor/Flight Advisor
Dayton Valley Airpark (A34)
http://Ironflight.com
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08-31-2015, 05:17 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Utah
Posts: 8,151
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Quote:
Originally Posted by f1rocket
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If you get a chance to fly up to Maine, I really recommend it. I found the state to be second only to Oregon in its scenery.
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Couldn't agree more Randy. It's just a couple-three hours from me and I use every opportunity to visit Vacationland. Great report thanks!
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08-31-2015, 05:48 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Ellsworth, ME
Posts: 842
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Randy
Sorry it didn't work out when you were visiting and I was out of the state. Glad you enjoyed your trip to Maine
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08-31-2015, 06:33 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Hackettstown, NJ
Posts: 459
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Great summary Randy
I'm embarrassed to say that I've never been to Maine (even worked in New Brunswick Canada for a year and never got around to cross the border) Definitely plan on some trips that direction over the next year.
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08-31-2015, 07:13 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Palmer Lake, CO
Posts: 226
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Great report
Randy,
Looks like you guys had a great time. Sure makes me jealous. My wife and I went to Maine many years ago from Ohio, drove the entire way. I assure you it was a much longer drive than your 9 hour flight!
cheers
Geoff
__________________
Geoff McHarg
2020 dues gladly sent
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08-31-2015, 07:24 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: WV22
Posts: 849
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Nice trip and write up!
__________________
RV-4 0320\D3G 160, Whirlwind 200GA 70".
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