Flight up

The weather over our area and much of Pennsylvania could have been better, but it was still VFR so we took off amid light rain showers and overcast. Had a bit of a headwind, so it was slower than I cared for, making about 90kts groundspeed (roughly 100mph) but eventually we broke out into sunshine in New York State, just shy of Lake Erie and Buffalo.

I made contact with Buffalo Approach, even though I planned to stay out of their airspace. Always a good idea to let them know who I am and where I'm going since I was going to be flying close to their airport. Then it was up the shoreline and along the Niagara River.

Oh, look at that...it's the USS Little Rock (CLG-4).

She's a guided missile cruiser that is one of three ships at the Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park, and one of the other reasons for this trip. There are two other ships there, too, the Destroyer USS The Sullivans (DD-537) and the submarine USS Croaker (SSK-246) but they are inboard of the cruiser and not visible here. I wanted to orbit and photograph all three from above but the buildings on shore and Buffalo International's airspace above prevented that so I just kept on. But it's ok...I'd already reserved a rental car to let us come back and see these all up close.

On up the river we went, enjoying the scenic views.

A neighborhood in Buffalo below.

And then there it was. The Falls are visible ahead.

Alas, here I had to turn in to land at Niagara Falls International. They brought me in on Runway 24, telling me to hustle it up as this Air Guard C-130 was waiting to depart.

Afteer landing, the nice folks at Calspan took care of us and the plane, and we were soon shuffling off to Buffalo to go see those ships.