www.brantly.info

Helped deliver a B2 from near Pittsburgh, PA up to Haverstraw, NY (above New York City) this past weekend. Just about 300 miles for the trip.

The flight album can be viewed here.

Very cool photos! Tell us about the flight. We'd all love to hear the details.

Tom

The helicopter has been here in PA for a while, waiting for avionics to be installed and some other maintenance to be done, and for me to do some training with the new owner. We decided it was time to get it to its new home before it got too much colder, since it has no heater in it.

Saturday's weather wasn't so great. Low ceilings and visibility all morning. By mid afternoon it improved enough that we could start the trip, and planned on making it to the second fuel stop, half way. I planned the trip on 1-hour legs due to weight and fuel limitations, and to give the owner more practice.

Not long after we departed we did run into a little rain, and with the completely overcast sky and no heat, it was pretty cold inside the cabin. We also had to monitor the cylinder temp because of carb ice conditions, and we did end up keeping the carb heat partially on for almost the entire trip.

We made it to Lock Haven just before dark. I had already checked for hotels and the guy working there took us the 1 mile to the hotel once we were fueled up and secured for the night.

Sunday morning we were completely fogged in. Half mile visibility and 100 foot ceilings. After a weather briefing and checking several other sources, we headed to the airport around 9:30 to get the preflight done, then to wait out the sun burning off the morning fog. By 10:30 or so we were seeing patches of blue sky through the fog and by around 10:45 it was clear enough to continue the trip. The rest of the day Sunday was great visibility and no clouds. The sun definitely helped some in the cabin but it was still cold.

As you see in the pictures there were lots of mountains, trees, leaves. A very pretty day for flying. The B2 ran very good. No problems and very smooth up to 100 mph. I think we averaged right around a 12 gph fuel burn.

The heliport is surrounded by trees and a bit tight getting in to. Then we headed down to LaGuardia so I could get a flight back to Pittsburgh.

Sounds like fun!

Thanks for the debrief.

Tom