We all know the old saying: flying is hours and hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. What rarely gets mentioned are those other times, when we pilots get that uneasy feeling. Many of you will know what I’m talking about. For instance, you’re flying above inhospitable-looking terrain or in solid IMC when suddenly a low fuel pressure warning annunciator blinks on. You’re not terrified, but you’re certainly not bored any longer, either.
Something similar happened to me on a VFR round-robin flight in the New York metropolitan area recently. Touching down at my first stop, Sky Manor Airport (N40), and taxiing clear of the active, the pilot of a Cessna Skyhawk announced his departure from the runway on which I’d just landed. A moment later a helicopter pilot in the pattern keyed his mic and asked if the Cessna pilot was “aware of the TFR.” The departing pilot said affirmative, but he was eastbound and so the temporary flight restriction would be no factor.
