Much Needed Flight Time

Sometimes you just need some flight time.  This morning I told my bride I was going to take the plane and fly the coast north then head to Delaware Coastal for one autopilot approach then home. The temps were cool and there was a very nice breeze keeping the humidity lower then it has been the last couple of weeks. 3 Tango Charlie needed her oil to circulate and I surely needed some fly time.

I tugged 3 TC out and hooked up a few video cameras, even added one to the tail tie down.  I replaced the ear seals on my Lightspeed headset since they were starting to leave little black specs all over my ears.  The swap was easy peasy, and the new ear seals look and feel great!

I taxied out to runway three two and completed my run and pre-take off check lists.  There was traffic inbound but I had plenty of time to make my call and roll out for departure. 3 Tango Charlie came off the runway just under sixty knots and smoothly climbed away. I tucked the gear up and retracted the one notch of flaps as I pointed for the coast. I would stay on the Bay side of Ocean City since there was one aircraft shadowing me just off the coastline.

Once the "shadow traffic" was clear I had one more plane come down the coast line. Thanks to ADS-B for the call out, I would not have seen him in the haze. 

With a small portion of the coastline tour complete I made my turn for Delaware Coastal. The Garmin 480 was set up for the GPS RNAV RWY 4 direct ZARVI. Enjoying a smooth ride I still had to view the smokey haze covering the area which makes for poor video. At least the temps stayed cool at 65 degrees, cruising along just under two thousand feet. 

The STec 60-2 autopilot handled the approach flawlessly. The GPSS was selected for navigation along with the ALT hold for altitude. Once inbound and established I selected NAV and the plane did the rest, I just monitored systems. The localizer was alive and I awaited the glideslope. Once the glideslope was alive I adjusted power to maintain 110 knots. Typically I drop the gear about a half dot above glideslope intercept, but today, I let it ride. I was going to go missed and climb out for home, no sense cycling the gear for no reason.  I had one bit of traffic pass me as I pointed for Ocean City, thanks to ADS-B for the heads up. 

The remainder of the flight was uneventful, that's always a good thing. I crossed over midfield and repositioned for the left down wind runway three-two and flowed through my GUMPS check multiple times. I ended the day with an ok landing, feeling like I rolled the mains on with a short hop. Reviewing the video it didn't look as bad as it felt.