Breakfast Hop

I decided to  take advantage of the cool temps and get some flight time in today.  Mary took a pass since she said we will be flying the next three out of four weekends, which translates to, she will have her fill of flying.  I headed south for Wilmington trying to decide where to eat.  I sent Vince a text to see if he was available to fly and he replied "see you there".

The VP's Gulfstream

I took on some fuel at ILG but wanted to run the right tank low so I could replace the fuel sump that started to drip. The parts should be in soon, I'm waiting for Roger to give a call from Cecil Aero.  We both climb aboard and I finish up my pre-start checks. No TFR's scheduled today so we get the fan turning and plug in Vince's choice, Cambridge Maryland - KCGE.  Good choice Vince, now get us set up and make the calls, it's your trip today.  Wilmington immediately puts us in a ground hold, Air Force Two will be taking off shortly since they just called on the ground frequency. Great, nothing like a heads up.  Oh well, we sat for maybe ten minutes and at least the oil had additional time to warm up.

With the V.P. climbing away from Wilmington in his Gulfstream, I am directed to proceed to runway nine via taxiway kilo, hold short at Kilo 5.  Vince makes all the calls and does a fine job. Once cleared to take off I roll onto the runway and climb out. Cleared on course and with a follow up check by Vince with the tower he has us turning right to a southwest heading.

Vince made the call for flight following to Dover and we were good to go. There were jumpers at Ridgely just six miles off the nose so we kept a close watch for meat missiles and the jump plane. Vince soon had a visual on the jump plane and we turned farther east to give more room for jumpers that were going to be falling through the layer above us.  We didn't want to meet anyone up close.  By this time we had been on with Potomac approach and we advised them of the deviation for the jumpers.

Ready to go at KGED, clearance to ILG



Departing rwy 10

The wx started to show on the garmin 496 and it confirmed what the eyeballs were telling us. It looked like heavy rain now moving into the Easton and south area covering our intended destination. I made a call to Potomac and diverted to Georgetown, KGED. Georgetown was busy with traffic and Vince and I both were looking.  There was plenty of cloud cover so it took some scanning to spot traffic.

That's right where we're headed

Yep, 496 is correct

Just starting to sprinkle

washing off the bugs

I was tooling along reporting my position and intentions to land on runway one zero. As I got closer reporting a five mile final something didn't look right, there were no numbers and as Vince noticed there was someone on the "runway" potentially going head on with us. Nah...this is not right, that's the taxiway. 08Romeo is going around, I have the Mooney crossing midfield, we were outta there. I circled to join the left downwind for one zero and turned base to final with the picture now looking much better. All the markings were now correct and the numbers where they they should be. A super smooth landing with a nice roll out to clear the runway.

Ah....that's ugly

just under the layer, no bumps in the cool temps

We secured 08Romeo and walked into the terminal to order fuel and grab some breakfast.  I was still re-flying the go-around and reviewing what I was looking at and what I should have done better/faster to pick up the problem. I should have just kept flying the plane, keeping just the mental picture of traffic and not obsess with making visual contact with each target, it distracted me from my landing, lesson learned.

At least the rain quit

The worst is behind us

Breakfast was good as we sat and talked about flying. I decided while we sat at the table to file for the flight home since conditions were getting worse.  Not terrible, but the scattered layer was now broken and moving in. Despite what the AWOS was reporting the layer now looked much lower. We finished up, paid for fuel and did an abbreviated pre-flight.

Localizer Alive!

Nice Intercept Angle from Philly

Glide Slope Alive

We taxied out and I contacted Dover Clearance Delivery for my release. I was waiting on a cirrus inbound on the GPS 4, circle to land one zero. He came in hot and long, I didn't think he would clear the trees climbing out but he did. We sat for another five minutes before Dover released us. The amended route had us direct Waterloo (ATR) then as filed. We were soon given the climb to three thousand direct DuPont (DQO). The thick cloud layer sat above us at three thousand two hundred, dumping a light rain on us until we were just south of Dover.

@100 above DA, a mile out, needles in the donut and speed looking good

ILG's new EMAS

Dover handed us off to Philly and they asked if we wanted the ILS 1 or visual approach. I accepted vectors for the ILS RWY 1. I got one turn to the left which had me on a nice intercept for the localizer. I was restricted to hold three thousand until I was established on the localizer, and so we did. Once I intercepted I started my descent for two thousand holding there until HADIN the Final Approach Fix crossing that point at one thousand nine hundred. A real nice glide slope intercept and a smooth ride slowing to ninety knots making small corrections. I was eyes in and out since I could not have the foggles on with no safety pilot. Another smooth landing and taxi to Red Eagle. Thanks Vince for all the pictures!!