Midwest and Great Lakes Autumn Adventure

Leg 3 - 10/22/2023 - Huntington, WV (KHTS) to Niagara Falls, NY (KIAG)

Leg Stats

• Time Enroute: 2.8 hrs
• Distance (direct): 329nm
• Distance (actual): 370nm
• Fuel Used: 32.5 gal

After lunch it became clear that the forecast was going to be accurate, if a bit delayed. Weather in the Niagara Falls area was still not totally clear, but it was markedly improving, and the weather across the lake in Toronto was already totally clear. I decided that, due to a lot of lingering cloudiness, I would make this leg VFR (with flight following).

We departed Huntington, and I leveled off around 3500 ft, which was below the overcast layer. Obviously much lower than I would normally fly, however this also avoided the worst of the headwinds and kept us out of the clouds as we flew north into lower temperatures. We flew north to pick up the shoreline of Lake Erie around Erie, PA due to lingering low clouds further east. The weather along the shore of Lake Erie was clear, so we hugged the coast line and headed towards the Buffalo area.

By the time I was handed off to Buffalo, the weather over the Falls was totally clear, so I decided today would be the best chance at making the scenic falls flight. I requested this with approach, and they were very helpful and accomodating. I had studied the Falls SFRA procedures beforehand, and I had drawn the 'racetrack' on my moving map in ForeFlight, which helped a lot. Overall, it was very easy and we were the only airplane in the Falls area at the time. We arrived to the falls just before sunset, and we were greeted with a beautiful, peaceful scenic flight. After we were done with the falls, we switched to Niagara tower and landed.

Finally at our destination for the evening, I got us an Uber and we booked a hotel right by the falls. We stashed Magic in her travel crate and ventured out and found some really excellent Indian/Nepali food that had good vegan options for her.

Trip Leg Navigation