Ocean City, NJ

9AM meet at the airport for a quick breakfast run to 26N, Ocean City, NJ.  Mike flew left seat today and I worked radios. The morning wx reports looked pretty good but just prior to start up a front moved across the Chesapeake Bay and was closing on Wilmington. We decided to launch and head east for the Jersey shore. The haze was out in force and cloudy skies loomed overhead. I picked up flight following from Atlantic City as we approached VCN -Cedar Lake VOR, Visibility was limited and we would have filed but neither Mike nor I wanted to get into the clouds with freezing temps and xm wx showing plenty of green.

I canceled flight following with Atlantic City, who was pretty busy with traffic and had one aircraft returning due to a rough running engine. I had dialed in unicom and set up the VOR A approach which would dump us at midfield for a left turn to a right down wind for runway two four. Atlantic City was reporting winds 250 at 11 but the sock at Ocean City was about a 45-50 degree crosswind and gusting to full straight out. Mike made the base to final turn at a good bank angle, a "gary" turn as he called it and aligned us for final. A smooth landing with good stall horn and we were down and clear.

We walked into a full house at the restaurant that is attached to the terminal office. Service was fast, the place was clean and the food very good. I will make this stop again and maybe walk to the beach, ok, take a cab to the beach. Mike and I talked flying and procedures, flight planning and whatever else crossed our minds, always a good time. We settled up the bill and headed out to 08Romeo. Engine still held temps since I put the nose plugs in and with a visual fuel remaining check we were ready to go.

The wx had actually gotten worse so we scrubbed the plan to make the short hop to Cape May. Instead we chugged and plugged for KILG via the VCN, Cedar lake vor. There was plenty of green on the south side of Millville coming across the Delaware bay with a few yellow cells mixed in.  The choice to make for VCN will take us north of the wx and provide a better shot at getting home. We discussed outs to the north and agreed on 17N, Cross Keys if needed.

With a plan in mind and agreed to, we launched for home. Cloud bases and freezing temps were at 3500 and we were holding at 2500 riding out a few bumps along the way. We caught the tail end of the green mass passing to our south and watched the heavy rain awaiting our arrival. Mike made a right turn maybe 25 degrees to keep us clear as the Cedar Lake VOR passed off our right side. We turned back on course and went through the slot for Wilmington.  You could visually confirm the cells on the xm north of us and what had passed to our south. 

The sky was looking better the closer we got to home. I selected the GPS 27 approach since the Wilmington tower requested us to make straight in for two seven. 08Romeo was closing on the twin spans over the Delaware river and turned for a long final. Once clear the twin bridges Wilmington cleared us to land, I acknowledged. Another nice landing by Mike and 08Romeo is home.

Always fun flying with Mike. We really do work the Crew Resource Management (CRM) very well, things just seem to flow.