River Ride - Susquehanna

[RVDan]

For some crazy reason, I have decided to do flights tracing rivers in the Mid-Atlantic region. The first is the Susquehanna which has a lower section that dumps into the Chesapeake Bay, then upstream splits into 2 main branches. For this flight I am beginning at the outlet at the Chesapeake east of Baltimore and flying lower section and the West Branch. The flight is generally northwest bound.

Morning departure from Frederick (KFDK)- That?s Pablo in the RV4 heading off for the day.

Origins of the Chesapeake Bay. No man?s land off the wing. Strange things fly in the air over that island.

Havre de Grace and the Susquehanna. 2 rail bridges and 2 road bridges. The farthest one is I95.

This is the extent of navigable (tidal) waters. A dam in the distance stops the ships and fish.

The river drops over the ?fall line? at this Dam, the first of many dams. The Conowingo is a hydro plant.

The waters backed behind the Conowingo provide drink for the next generator.

Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant. 2 reactors, a very early plant still in operation. Helps keep the lower Susquehanna warm.

Next up Holtwood Dam another Hydro plant. But wait what?s that lake about? They pump water up to it?

Muddy Run Lake is an ?Off Peak Storage? facility. They use excess power at night to pump water up and drain it to generate power during peak power demand. There is a 400 ft drop from the lake to river.

More to come

 

[scrollF4]

Keep 'me coming, Dan.

 

[RVDan]

River Ride 2

Continuing up river....

Safe Harbor Dam- Another Hydro dam

First spotting of the dreaded three armed airplane snatchers.

Notable Bridges- The original wood and stone bridge in this location was strategically important to the Civil War. At over 5600 ft long it was longest in the World at the time. Both sides burned their sides down without crossing it. The current bridges carry rail and US Route 30. Colombia, PA on the far side.

2 more power plants-

One fire breathing

And one 3 miles south of Harrisburg on an island. Can you say China Syndrome?

Harrisburg Intl KMDT

And right next door (in the foreground) KCXY

Then the only state capital to go bankrupt in recent times. At this point the river has gained 295 ft in elevation over about 50 NM.

more to come...

 

[RVDan]

River ride 3

Harrisburg and north...

Enola, the largest rail yard in the world up until 1956. All east-west rail traffic went through here.

North of Harrisburg, the river has many ?water gap? cuts through the long ridges of the Allegheny Mountains. This is the first ridge and the start of the mountains. The bridge is I81. From here on I would have liked to have been lower but the winds were 20G30 or so. Gliders often fly this ridge and jump the river here.

The second water gap, only about 3 miles north of the first.

Another gap with the junction of the Juniata River. The long even ridges really showing up.

The confluence of the east and west branch. This is taken over the east branch, looking back at the lower section (straight up) with the west branch off to the right- Another water gap, although less obvious in this pic. Can you identify the airport just showing out from under the wing?

KSEG and the town of Selinsgrove.

A town with a well-known University

And a high security Federally funded hotel, that has hosted guests like John Giotti, Paul Vario, Enoch Johnson and Jimmy Hoffa. Guesses at the prison?

more to come...

 

[RVDan]

River ride 4

Continuing northbound from Lewisburg

I80 crossing. The river is getting smaller

The last of the ridges. What?s behind that last ridge?

Let?s find out

It is the birthplace of most of our engines. KIPT and the city off in the distance.

Williamsport and the river runs through it. Big dikes keep the river out when it floods. Lycoming is down there somewhere in the city on the far side of the river.

The next city after Williamsport is Lock Haven, birthplace of Piper. We decided this was a rest stop, and in our excitement to get on the ground and to a rest room forgot to take pics from above. Taxi to the Museum on Taxiway Foxtrot. After a 1 hr visit to the museum, we were on our way.

Done with Ridges and off into the Allegheny plateau. For the most part the plateau is around 2300 ft with gorges cut through it by rivers.

You can see the plateau better here. Lost of trees, starting into the Moshannon State forest.

The Susquehanna gorge and town of Renovo.

Lots of twists and turns. Starting to get boring...

Almost there...

 

[RVDan]

River ride part 5

OK so I have more pics in a one day flight than Vlad had in his cross continent flight, but you can just gloss over if you don't find it interesting.

On the Allegheny plateau...

Let?s have some fun. The gorge is wider and nowhere to land above or below the rim.

This rail line follows the river and west branch it?s entire length of 243 nm.

What we just flew through. Nothing like out west but beautiful. I would have liked to go lower, but the winds were over 25 and gusty.

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River bends- and what another powerplant!

Another fire breather near Clearfield, PA

KFIG

Clearfield and the last lake- or at least some say.

Depending on whom you believe, this is the source of the river. Some sources say it is a nearby lake, but I followed the river here. It doesn?t come out of these woods as a single stream. Elevation of the river here is about 2000 ft.

Yes, the RR is still there.

Next.. the epilog.

 

[RVDan]

River Ride 6

Epilog. The lunch and home.

On to KAOO, our lunch break. More of those 3 armed airplane catchers. I understand they were bred in the deserts of California and have spread here on the wind.

Lunch and then back into the ridges at KAOO. Being glider pilots we couldn't resist running the ridges at 300 ft down to Cumberland, MD and WV before heading home. I could maintain 140 kts on about 16"mp when on the ridge.

The Potomac west of Frederick, almost home

The total trip was about 490NM and 3.9 hrs of flying and 3 states. Good fun. The lower river and west branch drop about 2000 ft in 243nm, has 4 hydro dams (5 counting Muddy Run), 2 nuclear plants and 3 coal fired power plants. There are low dams to numerous to count. Prior to the dams shad (fish) ran up to the source.

Hope you enjoyed this. Flying it was fun. Next I will do just the east branch which ends in Cooperstown, NY
I need to credit my PAX/photog- Jeff Rose.
The End.

 

[Vlad]

Dan what a great ride! I tracked only 1/3 of the river will do all length soon.

That island is Sunbury 71N with a nice grass strip on it. In my collection already.

What river will be next?

 

[RVDan]

Dan what a great ride! I tracked only 1/3 of the river will do all length soon.

That island is Sunbury 71N with a nice grass strip on it. In my collection already.



What river will be next?

Correct on the airport and the east branch is next. I will just start at Sunbury and follow to Cooperstown. I'd like to get the Delaware, and Schuykill but the Phila. portion might be tough due to the Class B.

 

[gc1016]

You have to put the Monongahela to the Cheat on your list. Vlad and I started it in the "Local Fun" write-up, but we started to run out of time, so we didn't finish it. I was navigating and thought I had followed the Mon the whole way, but having verified on the map at home I realized we took the Cheat, it may have been an error, but it was definitely not a mistake! The Mon river system is the largest northward flowing river system in the western hemisphere I believe.

Great write-up too. I love following rivers, not crazy at all.

 

[chazking]

Thanks

Dan, great narrative with the pix. Thanks. Having spent time in Harrisburg during the '70's floods it was instructive to see the river overall.

 

[jrs14855]

River

Skyvector says that Sunbury dates to 1938, I think it is much older than that.
Evelyn Sharp was a WASP pilot form WWII, from Ord NE. I learned about her the first time I landed at Ord. She was killed at Capital City Airport, Apr 3, 1944, age 24. She was taking off in a P38 and had an engine failure at low altitude.

At Williamsport PA, 1 Dec 1959, An Allegheny Airlines Martin 202 crashed into the mountain south of the airport. The airplane was maneuvering for landing in low visibility in snow. The accident report blames the Captains slaved compass inadvertently being placed in the free mode, resulting in the airplane being on a south heading when the Captain believed he was on a west heading. In the jump seat was a young man from Rochester NY who had owned and raced the original "Shoestring" midget racer. He had just been hired by Allegheny and was traveling to ground school.