29 Apr 2006: Boston City Tour in a G1000.

I decided to check out in a G1000 glass cockpit Cessna 172SP. Except for the checks around the two electrical busses and arming the backup battery, the preflight was very similar to the steam gauge 172's I've flown before. Winds today were from the north which meant that Logan airport would be landing to the north with approaches over the bay....a good day to buzz around downtown. Since there was plenty of frost on other aircraft at Bedford and I was already deiced, it meant that htere wouldn't be much traffic heading the same direction. I called Boston Tower on their landline number and reserved a slot at 0800 to enter the BOS class bravo.
Takeoff was on Runway 5 and it was pretty weird trying to hold Vy on the climbout using the rolling airspeed tape. It took a couple of minutes to get used to it as we banked toward Boston's downtown buildings and I called up Boston Tower. Clearance was immediate at or below 1,200 feet, not a lot of leeway to maintain minimum ground clearance. I headed across Arlington and Cambridge, overflying Harvard University stadium. built in 1904, it was the U.S. first collegiate sports stadium. After crossing the Charles River, the turbulence began to pick up a little making good photography a challenge. Opening the window didn't make for any better picture taking, just a lot of wind, noise and some seriously cold fingers!
The next Stop was Fenway Park. I banked east beyond first base and got a good photo of the "Big Green Monster". Pity it wasn't Tuesday night when the Yankees would be playing.
Out of the left window was he Prudential Center, Boston's second tallest building and a nice view of back bay.
Another left turn pointed me amost due east, right at Logan Airport so I throttled back to about 90 knots to slow down the ride and take in more of the view. Passing by the Prudentia Ceter from the south, you can see 111 Huntington Ave., still within the Prudential center complex. Just beyond it is the Harvard bridge which connects Boston to the MIT campus on the far shore of the Charles river.
Continuing east, I passed the John Hancock building , New England's tallest skyscraper at 790 feet (60 stories). Next to it is the rectangular "Old" John Hancock building, built in the 1940's. The colored light on top changes every three hours according to the addage: "Steady blue, clear view.Flashing blue, clouds due.Steady red, rain ahead.Flashing red, snow instead." During baseball season, flashing red means the Boston Red Sox game has been called off.
About the last point I took a picture was Fort Point Channel, an industrial waterway separating Boston and "Southie. The rectangular building is the Boston Federal Reserve Bank. The channel was drained during the Big Dig to build a section of tunnel which now underwater, leaks about 20 gallons per minute. This is the furthest point east I could proceed and turrned toward the north after passing over the World Trade Center and Boston Harbor. Any further east wuld be over Logan Airport itself!
The bank north alows a nice downward view of Rowes Wharf and the Boston Harbor Hotel although turbulence from the building did pose a challenge to get a steady photo.
The flight then passed over India wharf and the New England Aquarium with great views of the old Cabot headquarters on State Street. The large brown building is the Marriott Hotel on Long Wharf. The Custom House clock is in the center of the picture.

Keeping slightly offshore, I passed over the North End, home to Boston's "Little Italy" just a short walk from Faneuill Hall.Just to the left of the wing strut, you can see the Zakim Bridge and the former Fleet Center immediately to the left of it.
Near the center of the North End is Christ Church or the "Old North Church" where the two lanterns were hung on the evening of 18 April, 1775 signalling to Paul Revere that the British were to march on Lexington and Concord by sea.
A final photo of the Boston Museum of Science with the Longfellow and Harvard Bridges in the background and I called Logan Tower to let them know I was going to track I-93 North at 1,200 feet to get out of the class bravo airpace. Once clear of it, I contacted Beverly tower for permission to cross their class delta airspace and head out east, toward Cape Ann.

21 Apr. 2006: Boston City Tour

There was a pretty nice onshore wind today so I decided to try for a city tour of Boston. Called Logan tower from Bedford letting them know we would be penetrating their airspace at 0800 and from the northwest. They told us to contat Logan tower directly on 128.8 when asking for permission to enter the class bravo airspace and maintain altitude 1300 to 1100 feet MSL, pretty low indeed! After taking off from Bedford, I aimed the nose of the plane directly at the Prudential tower and slowed to 90 knots while contacting Boston Tower. They were pretty busy handling traffic arriving from the south but that gave us the advantage of clear navigation over downtown without the danger of crossing an approach path. Finally..."Cessna 21693, cleared into the class bravo, maintain at or below 1,500.
I trimmed the plane out at 100 knots and 1,200 feet altitude and proceeded across Arlington, Belmont and finally across the Charles river turning left after passing abeam the Prudential tower and John Hancock building. The downtown skyskrapers were about 1,000 feet off of my left wing amd I passed over Ford Point Channel and banked left again over the World Trade Center. The view from over the harbor was spectacular.......Fanieul Hall and the Aquarium out of the left window and I could practically touch the heavy iron landing at Logan out of the right. Another left bank over the Zakim bridge put me right down the Charles River with great views of the BostonCommon, Espanade and Kendall square. Finally, after passing abeam of Fenway Park, a gentle roll to the right allowed a departure over Harvard's scarlet spire and a view of Cambridge. I tuned northeast and parallelled I-93 to get out of the class bravo before turning to the east and heading out to Cape Ann.
Boston Tower told me to squawk 1200 terminated radar service so I contacted Beverly to penetrate their class delta airspace at 1800 feet, dodging a pesky helicopter that was reporting traffic over I-93. Once clear of Beverly's airspoace I decented back down to 1200 feet and flew about 1/2 mile off of the southern shore of Cape Ann. The surf was pretty rough with the onshore wind but ot did meake for some dramatic effects as the waves broke around the lighthouses at Gloucester and Rockport, keeping clear of Thacher Island National Wildlife refuge. I cut across the peninsula just west of Pigeon Cove and across Lanesville and flew about a mile offshore north, past the Parker River National Wildlife refuge until Plum Island and the mouth of the Merrimack River. A left turn over Newburyport for a quick jaunt upriver gave pretty views of the U.S. 1 bridge crossing the river. I turned left to course of 245 degrees and headed back to Bedford.
Coming back I flew under Boston's class bravo airspace and just skirted Lawrence's airspace as I passed over Boxford, perfectly set up to enter a 45 degree left downwing for runway 11 at Bedford. Landing was uneventful and total time was about 1.4 hours on the Hobbs. This is a circuit to be repeatedagain and again.....what a great diversity of views and airspace. It was challenging to keep it all organized and keep up with Boston's communications but well worth it! Next time, I need to bring a photographer!

8 Apr. 2006: IMC at last!

The weather this morning was light rain and overcast at 2,000 feet, the perfect weather for a little indoctrination into IMC flight conditions. Obtained an IFR clearance at Hanscom and ATC told us to climb to 3,000 feet and proceed direct to the Lawrence VOR. We popped in and out of clouds around 2,000 but by 3,000 feet we were right in the middle of it. Windows were whited over and here was a fair amount of turbulence. Crossed LWM VOR at 3,000 and then started the descent to 2,000, breaking out of the clouds just as I started the procedure turn to reverse course back to Lawrence. Flew a VOR approach and executed the missed approach.

ATC gave us delaying vectors to the north and east and I switched on the autopilot to hold heading and altitude as I pulled out my next set of approach plates....the GPS approach into Beverly. Passed through some more low level clouds and started the approach into Beverly without incident.After the Beverly missed approach, ATC gave us vectors to Bedford but brought us very close to Boston and Logan airport. The view of the Boston skyline was phenomenal from over I-93, looking down over the Zakim bridge to downtown. I finally intercepted the Bedford localizer and shot the ILS for runway 29.

What a good time.....doubly so since there was no one else up in the soup today.

2 April, 2006: GPS Approaches

Pretty windy today. Bedford was 14 gusting to 28 so I knew we would have some bumps. Departure was smooth and I set up for the Lawrence 23 VOR approach. Flew right to the Lawrence VOR and then turned outbound followed by a procedure turn to intercept the inbound radial. I was OK but there was considrable changes in crab angle needed during descent to hold the VOR course. At the missed approach, we were directed south by ATC and I set up for the GPS 16 at Beverly. We were prectically at the LADTI IAF so I barely had time to fly to LADTI, execute a course reversal and start the GPS approach. I was descending a about 700 fpm but with a 40 knot tailwind, we wound up pretty high at the MAP. After that, a turn to the south set us up to intercept the ILS for Bedford runway 29. With all the gusting crosswind, I only used 10 degres of flaps and carried a little extra speed into the landing. Good day but need more practice on pre-briefing and set-up.