Hi everyone! I'm a central PA pilot and have been watching this forum off and on for a while. I decided to make a name and post for the first time in honor of the excitement around this year's fly-in considering that finally... FINALLY... after 4 years of trying, scheduling, and being foiled by weather and work, I made it to the ice runway. It was not, unfortunately, for the winter carnival, but we did get to see the setup well underway and we got to enjoy lunch on Saturday the 18th.
We had a low-visibility three hour flight from Pennsylvania, but upon arriving in New England the clouds and weather practically melted away, and the lake was just as beautiful and intoxicating as I had imagined it. Landing on the ice was the culmination of a dream for me, and while we only got to spend a few hours amongst you, it was a wonderful experience nevertheless. I'm linking a video of our landing and taxi that you will all hopefully enjoy. Ironically, if you watch the video of the Cherokee above in the thread, we were there eating lunch when they were filming that. If you look really closely, you can see our plane parked on the ice in a few shots!
In any case, thanks for the experience. We're considering driving up next year and getting a hotel room so we can actually stay for a few days and not have our arrival and departure times dictated by the flyable weather.
http://youtu.be/yNCzZPee6aU