Lacoina New Hampshire

Hey guys i flew into Lacoina New Hampshire on Tuesday>Staying with friends of the family. They live on Lake Winnipesaukee. My dad grew up in this town years ago. in fact his name is still listed as the yacht club commodore back in the 50's. I have been hiking, Kayaking and there is a Styx/Boston concert this Saturday nite. It is nice just to relax for a few days before i venture to Maine. The plane has been running really good., so i will be off again soon next week. Hey it looks like a made the local news paper here. This storey was in the Laconia Daily Sun----

GILFORD — When Steve Kramer was 11, his
step-grandfather took him for a ride in a Piper Cub
airplane that had been fi tted with fl oats where the
wheels once were. It was slow, very simple, and
small. Kramer was hooked.
Kramer, a Floridian since birth, has always
Puddle jumping from Florida to Maine,
pilot of small sea-plane stops in Gilford
enjoyed water, and the ability to take off from one
lake and fl y directly to another water body 200 miles
away made an impact on him as a boy. Kramer said
to himself, “I’ll own one someday.” It took about 30
years, but he realized that ambition a few years ago
when he took ownership of a 1946 J-3 Piper Cub.
This summer, Kramer is making the most of his
plane, fl ying from his home in Sabastian, Fla. up
the coast to Moosehead Lake in Maine, where a seaplane
fl y-in will be held in September. This week, he
stopped in Gilford, parking his plane on Lilly Pond
and visiting friends on Governor’s Island.
Gilford is only one of the many stops he’s had to
make on his journey. The Piper Cub has a top speed
of about 80 miles per hour, and a range of about 200
miles. If he lands, he can retrieve fuel stored in the
fl oats and transfer it into the fuselage for another
150 miles, but then he’s got to fi nd a body of water
with fuel pumps.
The plane had wheels instead of fl oats on it when
Kramer bought it, but that didn’t last too long. He
knew from the beginning that his Piper would be a
seaplane.
Piper Cubs are especially suited to seaplane conversion.
The 108-horsepower engines aren’t too powerful,
but they’re quiet, which allows him to take off from a
populated lake without disturbing nearby eardrums.
The design of the plane, with its wing span and unusual
amount of weight it can carry for its size, make it especially
well suited for seaplane duty.
Because it’s a relatively slow plane, it generates
more “lift” at slower speeds than other planes do.
This means that it only needs to speed up to about
45 miles per hour to take off from a lake, a speed it
reaches within about a quarter of a mile. Surprisingly,
swapping wheels for fl oats doesn’t impart too
much of a speed or drag penalty. Kramer said he
might be able to go a mile or two faster per hour, but
not more than that. The fl oats are aerodynamically
designed, so they provide a bit of lift to make up for
any drag they add.
His Piper Cub is a study in simplicity. A handful
of dials adorn the dash, and simple, mechanical controls
manipulate the rudders and fl aps of the plane.
The small vehicle is constructed using an aluminum
frame, with a painted fabric stretched over it.
The most high-tech tools of Kramer’s trip will be
found in his pockets: his cell phone, a video camera,
and a hand-held Garmin GPS unit with the satellite
weather radar option. “That’s saved me a few times,”
he said.
At times the trip has been comfortable, staying in
bed and breakfasts, or the homes of friends along the
way. However, the fairly limited range of the Piper
means that he has had to stop at some less-thanluxurious
locales, such as early in his trip when he
had to spend a night in Lake Seminole in Florida.
Kramer has been keeping a blog of his trip — stevebuzzmelater.
blogspot.com — and his account of that
stopover describes how he had to keep an eye on the
resident alligators while hopping into the water to
get fuel out of the fl oats. He spent that night camping
in the swamp at the edge of the lake. “That was
out in the sticks,” he said.
That night was a low point of his trip so far, and his
high point came on Monday when — after receiving
permission to enter the airspace — he fl ew through
to New York City, circled the Statue of Liberty, and
fl ew up the Hudson River. Photos and videos from this
once-in-a-lifetime experience can be seen on his blog.
“It’s awesome. I have a blast,” said Kramer. “The
scenery has been great, people have been great — I
met a lot of nice people along the way, that’s the most
rewarding thing.”
He’ll be spending the next few days fl ying around
New Hampshire and Maine. It isn’t all fun and
games, though. Kramer owns a service company
in Florida that installs central vacuum systems
and sound systems, and he’ll have to buy an airline
ticket and fl y home to work a few weeks. Then he’ll
fl y back, reunite with his Piper, and attend the fl y-in
at Moosehead Lake. After that, he’ll fl y the sea plane
back to Florida, which will take fi ve days of non-stop
fl ying assuming perfect weather.
Kramer calls the plane and his adventure “a challenge
and a dream.” Traveling via sea plane is unlike
any other mode of transportation, he said. It offers the
freedom of air travel without the congestion of dealing
with urban airports. Instead of thinking of the eastern
seaboard as a string of man-made cities and travel
hubs, Kramer in his sea plane depend on secluded and
peaceful rivers and lakes. “You’re more interested in
nature, the natural areas of the region.”
Compared to general aviation, fl ying a seaplane is
simpler, avoiding the regulation and complications
of landing at airports. In return, though, Kramer
has to follow all of the Federal Aviation Administration
guidelines as well as Marine regulations. When
he’s in the air, he’s considered a pilot. When he’s on
the water, he’s classifi ed as a boat.
A unique challenge for sea plane travel is that he
has to fi nd places where he can safely land and fi ll
his fuel tanks. He has books and online guides to
refer to, but more than once he’s arrived at a sea
plane base that is closed or gone. For this reason, he
does a lot of calling ahead to make sure he doesn’t
get stranded.
Kramer, now 46, took two weeks to travel from
Florida to New Hampshire in his sea plane, a trip
that would take a couple of days by car or a few hours
by airliner. He’s slept with the alligators and buzzed
Lady Liberty, and when he talks of his adventures,
there’s a sparkle in his eye reminiscent of an 11
year-old who just took his fi rst ride in a sea plane.