Ocean City, NJ

Sunday turned out to be a busy day. I was up early to get to the plane and complete my pre-flight, Zero Eight Romeo had her first mission. MikeB who I always fly with out of Wilmington needed a lift to pick up his car located at the Delaware Airpark. I had never landed at Ocean City New Jersey (OCNJ) so I figured why not make the run. The plan was to be wheels up around 8-8:15 but I ran a bit late making sure I had good oil temps. I don't want to hurt my new engine.

I had traded text messages with Mike so he knew I was on my way and JeffF at 33N was going to meet up with us. The plan was to make the pick up and grab breakfast, ok it was the plan. I heard Jeff on with Atlantic City Approach and he decided to head directly to 26N, Ocean City. I was maybe 10 minutes behind as I canceled flight following and started to let down for pattern altitude at OCNJ. Winds were calm and I entered a left base for runway six. My landing was ok at best with a slight bounce then settled in for the roll out. I taxied back to the ramp and shut down. Mike and Jeff were waiting along with Jeff's two children (crew members) Hannah and Bryan.

Since there was a restaurant on the field we figured we would save time and eat there. As we walked in a sign on the door said no credit cards accepted, well that closed that deal. We turned around and saddled up for Millville. Jeff was off first followed by another Archer, Mike and I were number three to depart after watching a Cessna on final make a sweet landing. We were soon rolling for take off and 08Romeo was wheels up. As we made our way for KMIV we swapped control and Mike flew 08R for a bit, setting us up for the GPS 28 approach. I made the call to Millville radio and we transferred control once again. I had to use Mike's plate, mine were in the back seat. I flew vectors to the Final Approach Fix (FAF) CROSE at 2,000 feet then started down to the Decision Altitude of 344 feet. 08Romeo is very stable and should provide a good platform to knock out my check ride.

We met Jeff at the Flight Line Restaurant and placed our order. The place was busy with locals and a good showing of pilots that flew in too. My schedule was running pretty tight and after a brief discussion Mike was going to hop a ride back to 33N with Jeff. It saved me some time and that helped. I blasted out for Wilmington and was cleared to land on runway three two. Sweet....a left turn off and short taxi to my new tie down location, it still feels very weird on this side of the airport and not having the normal planes around me, I'll get used to it all. I missed my tie down alignment, there is no "T" painted and it's hard to line up the nose. I had to use the tow bar to get in position and add an additional tie down strap on the tail to make up for my bad park job. I'll get used to my new visual clues since I have no arcraft around me. I finished up with 1.2 hours and had some fun with friends. 08Romeo is off to Red Eagle on Monday for her IFR Certification.

GPS TRACK