Saturday, October 05, 2013

BAC Fly-In at Millville NJ

I checked the Beech Aero Club calendar for any event this weekend for possible flight time. Mary is back in bed with another migraine so no flying for her, instead a dark, cool, quiet room. The North-East sector listed Millville, NJ (KMIV) as their choice for a breakfast and museum tour. This works for me so I put in a call to Vince to see if he was available.
Garmin 530 in the avionics shop for WAAS upgrade
Vince asked what time and that he would meet me at the plane. I had to remind him 08Romeo is back at ILG for a few days waiting on the 530 WAAS update. I ordered fuel as I rolled into Red Eagle and completed my pre-flight when Vince walked across the ramp.
Hmmm...storage area, maybe?

We saddled up and got ready for the flight. I had no Garmin 530 so Communications would be on the Collins along with navigation. Yes, I have the 496 in the panel but this flight would be fun and a good training session tracking VOR radials. Millville is on the DuPont 143 Radial so I dialed that in and taxied out. I did keep the 496 on the six pack page so I could at least advise the correct distance out from our destination and I had the iPad with Foreflight. I know, I could have used another VOR to plot my location by a cross reference but I didn't want to get all that primitive.
Vince and I were first to arrive on the ramp.  I had some time to catch up with coworker Tim, airport Op's and say hello to the folks from Big Sky FBO.  It seems non of the north-east sector was going to show. The mid-Atlantic director, John P did show but he ran late having to come from Leesburg. I'm so glad I don't have to deal with the DC flight restrictions. It was good to catch up and of course, talk planes. John flys a 77 Sundowner that looks sharp and is done in the University of Delaware fighting Blue Hen colors, just a coincidence.  John's color scheme instantly reminded me of Bo's plane and that brought back some good memories too.
Vince and I were ready to head back to Wilmington. It was different today navigating with the single VOR and having to flip flop frequencies on the Collins. Good practice out of my normal comfort zone and had some turbulence to contend with too.

2 comments:

Chris said...

Looks like it was a nice morning.

So...was it distracting to fly around with a gaping hole in your panel? (Just teasing, and the end result will be worth it!)

Gary said...

It did feel a little odd. I really had fun dialing in the Collins nav and tracking a radial to get there. The Collins nav can flip flop between the frequency, or the to/from radial.