Out and Back

Our friend Jo Ann is going to join us at the beach this weekend and Mary offered that we could pick her up at Wilmington, KILG and save her the drive.  Perfect out and back mission that will add some time to my flight totals.  Besides, who likes driving in beach traffic, not me.

We had a few errands to run and then we headed to the airport. Mary and I seem to be out of sync, due mostly to our lack of flying together since I retired. I took on 22 gallons of fuel to bring 08Romeo to 45 and we were ready to go.  I completed my final walk around as Mary closed the hangar door, we were finally ready.

great temps at altitude

I had filed last night but decided to just pick up flight following with Dover.  Wilmington had a Vice Presidential TFR scheduled but the plan was to be back in the air heading south when that kicked in. Dover eventually cut me loose and recommended further flight following with Philly but I switched to the tower at ILG and monitored traffic.

In just a few miles I would be at the ten mile out mark crossing the C&D canal contacting the tower to advise inbound, with (ATIS) Lima, going to Red Eagle. I was directed to advise 3 mile left base runway three-two. As I was about to advise the left base position the tower asked me to extend the base....huh what? I knew what he wanted, he need some extra time so that the jet, on an engine test flight, could run up and then depart. I acknowledged and slowed down, adding a second notch of flaps and turning out enough to be on an extended final approach when I turned for the runway.

cape henlopen

I made a nice landing and got the full length taxi, crossing runway nine - two-seven and exit on the last taxiway. Perfect, this put me just a short distance from Red Eagle. I shut down on the ramp and went inside to talk to the guys at the shop while Mary watched for Jo Ann.

I wanted to ask about getting on the schedule for some work, adding the Garmin Flight Stream 210, GDL88, an Stec 20 auto pilot and he has a Garmin 340 audio panel just traded in that he'll give me a good price on. When we get back from South Dakota 08Romeo is headed in the shop, she'll get her IFR cert done too.

A fun day flying and I got some info for 08Romeos avionics upgrades.  Next up is a tour of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern shore of Virginia. I'll have pics to post and a write up to share.