25U Safety Time

I worked around the house on Saturday and ended up not flying at all. Sunday, Mary and I had plans to attend a family christening and I had hopes of maybe making an early morning flight or a late afternoon flight. Our dogs had me up around 5:30 and I figured once finished with the zoo I would catch a few more Z's then head to the airport. Right, great plan, I woke up around 9:15, first time in a long time I slept in that long. No chance at flying this morning so Mary and I putzed around the house.

Sunday

We attended the church at the grade school I attended, St. Mary Magdalen, what a flood of memories. I was reading a plaque just inside the main entrance doors that noted the new church dedication back in 1968. As I read through the list of people that donated items for the new church it read like home room roll call in the eight grade. It was good to think of each and every person as I silently read the names. After church we headed to Mary's Aunt and Uncle's home for lunch. It was nice to catch up with family and spend some time together.

Mike and I planned for an afternoon flight, After swapping text messages I was rolling out the door for a 2:15 meet up at Atlantic Aviation. The pre-flight was completed with no problems and we were soon feeling some relief from the heat with the fan now turning. We split the duties for flying and radio work as we often do and made our way to runway three two. The plan was to knock out a few approaches with the Dover Air Force Base, just a short hop south of KILG.

Dover AFB is home to the 436th Airlift Wing, known as the "Eagle Wing" and the 512th Airlift Wing, an Air Force Reserve associate referred to as the "Liberty Wing." The Dover Team’s mission is to provide strategic global airlift capability. In order to accomplish their mission, Dover AFB houses the world’s largest aerial port, which moves more cargo than Federal Express and UPS combined. Dover is home to the mighty C-5 Galaxy and the the C-17 Globemaster.

First up was the ILS RWY 19 and approach was pretty good providing vectors. Mike shot a nice approach riding the rails down to one hundred feet above the touchdown elevation. We can not land at Dover, it's a low pass only. We both got a chuckle out of the wind check with the added gear down advisory.

We were directed for the missed; maintain runway heading, climb and maintain three thousand feet, I acknowledged. We switched back to approach when directed and advised our heading, altitude and climbing to altitude. Once again we were vectored, this time for the ILS RWY 1 approach. Mike beat himself up because he chased the localizer (yeah a whole dot maybe) but it was good to hear him verbalize. I like the checks along the way at one thousand and five hundred and the secondary GUMPS check too. A good IR pilot is always ahead of the plane and should have something to do or check to stay ahead. Good lessons for me to make a mental note.

I had mentioned to Mike about responding to the wind check/gear down advisory with down and welded but I chickened out. Instead, maintaining the proper phraseology. We decided to cancel a third approach and point 25U home to Wilmington.

I am scheduled for a 4:30 lesson this evening but the wx is not looking so good. Maybe I'll do some ground work review and get my paperwork squared away.