My old friend Bob Button, of Jersey City, NJ, is a retired journalist and former public affairs officer for such outfits as NASA and Grumman. An active pilot, he flies his and other airplanes largely for his own amazement, but also as part of the Coast Guard Auxiliary. Bob keeps in frequent touch by email and some of his 'musings' are so interesting that they deserve to be read by others. So consider these two communiques the first in a series of "Letters from New Jersey."

June 16th, 2003

Well, it's nearly sundown after a pretty nifty day that started much too early. Had to get up at 5 for a 6:30 takeoff, and I wasn't even flying as pilot--was copilot for my flotilla commander, Frank. We flew the Activities New York patrol, from about the Statue of Liberty up to the Indian Point nuclear plant and back, and forth, etc. Mostly, I just sat there and looked out the window, but for a half-hour or so I flew Frank's 4-seater (much lighter and easier to fly than mine--enjoyed it). Later we flew down the coast of New Jersey to an airport halfway to Atlantic City (Allaire) because we get a Coast Guard discount on fuel, and that's worth an extra half-hour's flying time.

Turns out President Bush was gonna land at Newark this morning so we had to be on the ground by 9:40am according to a TFR (temporary flight restriction) that grounded all aviation except airlines, rescue and military in a radius of 30 miles around Newark Airport. Actually, we coulda stayed airborne because we use a Coast Guard call sign, but we didn't wanna get checked out and scared spitless by some child in an F-16 so we finished the patrol and landed at 9:37am back at Caldwell (12 miles from Newark).

Flying up the Hudson is kinda weird nowadays. We usta cuddle up to those twin towers that were the World Trade Center; (Picture taken in passing, 2000..)
now we pass over a big hole in the landscape surrounded by skyscrapers that once were just dwarfs alongside WTC. We can see lots of activity down there so I guess something's gonna happen on that site--God knows, the New York papers talk about a new building complex and WTC memorial and such.
Not much can be seen yet, though--bulldozers and plywood are the primary view.

The WTC Site that Bob sees today.

That huge city is really beautiful from the air. Folks could be robbing fruit stands, killing each other, but from a mere 1200 feet it sure looks nice. At night it looks even nicer from that altitude: every street light is a diamond glistening down below, and the cars are like little light beams flitting hither and yon. Of course, some of them are hit and run drivers who just killed somebody, others are fleeing a crime scene of one kind or another, but from where we sit they're really kinda pretty. Sometimes aviation seems the epitome of 'ignorance is bliss.'

I'm thinking maybe tomorrow I'll load Regina into the plane and fly her up the Hudson so she can see what I see three or four times every week. Regina's never seen Manhattan close-up from the air, and for awhile after 9/11 nobody could fly up the Hudson or anywheres near Miss Liberty. But with a clearance in advance we can fly the river again for awhile--'til somebody in Knee-Jerk City gets a bug up his butt and keeps us out.

Hey, I don't know what makes me start these things. Maybe the Rob Roy sittin' half dead at my elbow--who cares? Just wanted to share my day and keep in touch..

The next day, Bob sent the following:

As promised, I loaded Regina into Ol' Two Niner Romeo for a trip past the Statue of Liberty and up the Hudson alongside the the usta-be World Trade Center so she could see a new perspective of the Manhattan skyline. Our round-robin took just under an hour, but I think I still owe her a sight-seeing tour of NYC.

We took off about 1pm and got cleared by Newark directly over Newark Airport to the statue, then got handed off to the LaGuardia controller for the trip up the river. Regina took her camera, but the visibility was awful, like flyin' through white cotton candy. The farther up the river we got the worse it became until just past the George Washington Bridge near Alpine we were pushin' aside cottony wisps and had to go down. We were cruisin' at 1400 feet so 'down' doesn't leave much room, of course, and sight-seeing is no longer high on the menu. Nonetheless, Regina kept clickin' away with her Minolta, not knowing she's taking close-up pictures of fog and haze, which hardly ever come out. We'll see! After we landed we headed home, and dammit if the sky hadn't turned blue. Looking out the car window, we said, "Jesus, where did that come from?" I could swear I heard a voice reply, "Exactly!" (I guess you had to be there... )

bb
June 17th, 2003

We'll pass along other flights of Geezer Airlines from time to time. Bob's a prolific writer.