One Sunday four of us spent the morning flying around in a Citabria and my Maule looking for a new breakfast place. We took so long that when we found a spot it was lunch time. When we returned to Pegasus about 2:00 pm two of the group left to do chores.

It was a perfectly clear day, in the low 60's, with no wind. My buddy Tim and I decided this was too good a day to end it so we rolled out his beautifully restored Champ, named "Wild Thing", and started it up to go look for little airports neither of us had flown into yet. We chose to go north, deeper into the Poconos.

After landing at a small, deserted airport with a perfectly maintained park-like lawn surrounding a medium sized pond, we decided to fly over to a large lake owned by a utility company.

The sun was warm and the rays were slanting down over the good sized hills, with trees bare of leaves, around the lake. The lake runs east-west for quite a distance. The waters were smooth with only a sailboat drifting along casting a triangular shadow.

Without saying a word we dropped down to just a couple hundred feet above the still waters. The engine noise seemed to fade away. The red-orange sun was behind us as we slowly flew a lazy path along the lake. The side window was partially opened, letting in a cool breeze that smelled of moisture and a touch of smoke. A few seagulls floated on the surface.

A house on a hill along the shore was burning leaves. The whitish smoke rolled down the hill and pooled in a dark inlet off the lake. We dropped lower.

Left around a small island, right around another and over a couple late season fishermen in a skiff. It felt like we were in a trance. Seconds became minutes. The silence deepened.

We followed what looked like a small, three wave wake - but there was no boat to leave it. It stretched on over the lake. I could sense that I was going to remember this flight. The far shore suddenly neared and the engine noise became audible once again as we gently banked up and over the hills.

The ride back to our airport was quiet and peaceful. A special autumn flight.