Day 10 - Bangor ME to Columbus OH

The cold front which had been ahead of me into Bangor had now 'stalled out' and was stretched right across the direct flight route from Bangor to Columbus OH. As I was now a 'veteran' of flying in Canadian airspace a talk with flight service gave me the opportunity of another 'venture north'. This time the route would take me back to Massena and across the same wonderful scenery of New Hampshire and Vermont, but would then go south west towards Toronto and back into the USA around Buffalo and Niagara Falls - the only drawback was that it involved a lot of 'over water' flying. Fortunately I had come prepared for this with the regulatory US Coastguard approved life vest.

In the end an unforecast severe storm cell over Peterborough (another English city name) in Canada meant that I had to divert south along the northern shoreline of Lake Ontario. Not a problem, or so I thought, until ATC cleared me direct to Columbus OH some considerable distance away - one of the benefits, and drawbacks of an approach approved GPS. As a result I was over Lake Ontario and Lake Erie for longer than I had anticipated. I had heard so many stories about engines sounding 'rough' when flying over water and it was certainly 'erie' when flying over Lake Erie - but the dreaded engine roughness did not appear and 'GOOFY' slipped through the air without any disturbance whatsoever.

Storm cell developing over Canada

                                  

The amended route certainly saved time, and instead of crossing back into the USA at Buffalo NY, I ended up passing south of Toronto and London (Canada) catching a glimpse of the spray plume high above Niagara Falls, far in the distant south. Lake Erie goes on forever at a groundspeed of 130 kts, but the route was for the better as storm cells could be seen far in the distance right along my route from Buffalo to Columbus.

Flying across Lake Erie, storm cells in the distance

      

With 50 galls of fuel on-board, giving an 8 hr range, 'GOOFY' can certainly cover distance so flying over the lakes was not a problem endurance wise. I had scheduled a fuel stop short of my destination of Columbus OH, and soon I was approaching Marrion County airport (MNN) some 30 miles north of Columbus. Fuel here was almost $1 per gallon cheaper than at Columbus so filling the tanks at this point made sense as I would then have enough fuel on-board to go right through to Oshkosh, including flying in the AirVenture Cup air race.

A reception committee from EAA Chapter 9 based at Ohio State University airfield (OSU) was awaiting my arrival along with a Young Eagle ready for flight. Despite a strong crosswind, OSU was still using their main runway so the flight gave this prospective pilot, a Scout studying aviation, an experience of how effective the large rudder is on 'GOOFY', as it was designed for seaplane use.