Running and Laughing through the Garden State
Over the past month, I started biking for a specific event. A triathlon of some sort, but not that triathlon you’re thinking. After flying and walking to a diner, my husband and I had the crazy idea of flying then biking to a diner. With the pandemic, taxis and Ubers are no longer something I want to do, so biking seemed like a safer and fun thing to do.
It’s been a couple of months since my husband, and I flew anywhere substantial. A few weeks ago, we were discussing possible things to do on Labor Day Weekend. I always wanted to run the 18.12 Challenge Race. My husband was not as keen on spending over 14 hours, driving to a race and coming back. I guess I can’t blame them.
He asked if I wanted to private fly. I’ve never private flown to a destination with a time limit. We’ve flown around the state and Northeast on our own time, but we’ve never flown somewhere to do something. I didn’t know how my body would handle flying the day before a race. Private flying is loud, bumpy, and you get sick a lot easier. But it sounded like a fun adventure.
What most people don’t realize is Private Flying, and Air Force Flying is entirely different. Just because you are an Air Force Pilot, does not automatically make you qualified to fly private planes (and just because you fly Private Planes does not make you qualified to fly Air Force Planes.) They are similar but separate entities. You must have different certifications for both. My husband has both and instructs and teaches people how to private fly. So if you, random internet person with no flying experience wanted to learn to private fly, he could teach you. He likes to fly, and it’s become a hobby of his. Anyway, I get a lot of questions about that, so I thought I would answer.
We also rent airplanes (We don’t own any LOL). First, we can’t afford to buy an airplane. Second, my husband prefers to fly a few different types of planes.
Here are a few photos from our flight up to Watertown:
In all, it was a lot of fun.
Flying through the Hudson Exclusion and NYC
Question for you: Have you ever privately flown?
Before joining the Air Force, my husband got his privates pilot license. Then a few years ago, he became an instructor so he is able to teach people how to fly (yes, even you!).
While we didn’t fly as much last year, we do privately fly together from time to time. A couple of weeks ago, we decided to fly to my 250th diner. It wasn’t because the diner was special or even that we couldn’t just drive there, but it’s fun to fly.
Like running, sometimes private flying is more about the journey than the destination. When we flew, it was windy and turbulent. In fact, when we made the approach into Essex County Airport, we had to change runways because it was too turbulant to land from the direction we were coming. Unlike commercial flying, private flying isn’t quiet. You hear a lot of things.
This was one of our shorter flights and it was nice to get a scenic view of all of western NJ.
It was a lot of fun. It will be a while until we get to fly again but I can’t wait. I always tell people, that the plane we fly in can fit four people so if you are local and interested, you’re always welcome (no one seems to take me up on it!).
Flying through the Hudson Exclusion and NYC
Questions for you:
Do you like flying?
Have you ever been private flying before?
Last week my husband and I took a flight up to Northern New Jersey. As I mentioned last time, if you have a pilot’s license and are qualified on the plane, you can rent an airplane. So that’s exactly what we did. It’s like renting a car except you rent a plane.
Throughout the years, LOLZ blog has taken many different turns about life and other random topics. Most recently, flying has seen its way into my life. Like going to diners, it’s a fun hobby that both my husband and I enjoy doing so it makes sense to blog about it. Since I’m not running much, I need something to talk about right?
This time, we decided to fly up to Pompton Plains, New Jersey. Neither of us had been to that general area of New Jersey, so we thought why not? We also wanted to check out the Pompton Queen Diner. It was recently ranked as one of the top diners in New Jersey, and I can see why! That deserves it’s own post for another day…
We flew out of Southern New Jersey and headed north along the Delaware Riverfront overlooking Philadelphia. We saw a prison from above which I thought the design was neat. Not neat enough that I would want to be behind bars though…
We flew over Princeton. It was so neat to see it from an aerial view. I thought I might even see some of my friends doing a track workout or something.
Next, we saw New York from afar. As you can see, there is a layer of smog there. For our next flight, we want to fly to either Long Island or somewhere out that direction. For security reasons, you aren’t able to fly too close to New York.
Where we landed, in Pompton Plains, is a hilly and wooded area. The runway sort of appeared out of nowhere. 
Once we landed in Pompton Plains, we headed to the Pompton Queen Diner, which was only a few miles away. In fact, we ended up walking back from the diner to the airport. It was a fun little adventure.
It was a beautiful walk back to the airport, and I’m glad we did.
I enjoy flying and checking out various places. Both my husband and I enjoy flying around and exploring new areas of the tristate area. I’m not sure where we will go next!
Incase you missed the Flight to Cape May.
Questions for you:
Have you ever flown in a private plane?
Do you have any recommendations of places to fly?
Last Weekend, my husband and I decided to travel the state of New Jersey together.
By car? By taxi? By uber?
Actually by plane!
For those who don’t know, my husband has his pilot’s license. In the few years, we’ve been together; we’ve never flown in a private airplane together. I never knew that you could rent planes and fly them around. It makes sense, I just never thought about it.
We decided to fly to Cape May, grab dinner and fly back.
I was so nervous to go up. It’s one thing to trust someone driving a car, but flying was a whole different ballpark. It was thrilling to sit in the cockpit and watch the takeoff and landing.
I’ve only traveled through commercial flights so before last weekend; I’ve had never flown on such a small aircraft before. It was a two-seater, and we were squished together. Many private planes are smaller and weigh less than cars.
We flew above 1000 feet over the ground so we could notice different sights and areas we had driven through. I tried to find my friends houses that live along the shore.
We will be doing it again and who knows maybe the theme of this blog will become running, planes and diners.
For my first flight, I did pretty well. I thought I might get motion sickness but didn’t. It was a lot of fun, and we will fly more together.
Questions for you:
Have you ever flown in a private airplane?
Do you like flying?