Reposition Plane & Pilot

My friend and fellow pilot Charles G had to leave his Piper Cherokee here in Ocean City due to weather, and instead ground pound it north back home. The plan for today is to head north to N57, New Garden, and shuttle Charles back here to Ocean City, OXB, so he can fly his plane home. 

We swapped a few text messages and it will be a late afternoon flight, but we'll be back to OXB before dark or I'll turn into a pumpkin. No, I'm still not night current since November 2013 and have no plans to change that.

First I need to plug in the Piper since it's on the ramp and todays temps are hovering around 35°F. I didn't know this until recently but OXB has power boxes out on the flight line next to the terminal, this makes plugging in very convenient.

Next I'll pre-flight 3 Tango Charlie and launch around 3pm for the 96 mile 50 minute flight north to N57 bucking a 15 knot headwind.

Despite the headwind the ride wasn’t to bad. I had a 10-15 knot headwind that eased up a bit north of Dover. I was treated to a C5 departing Dover AFB making a climbing right turn out over the Delaware Bay. It was fun to watch that huge plane climb away.

I adjusted my flight track more to the left or south west to avoid any wake turbulence from that C5 beast. I did fly through very light turbulence and it was gone as fast as it appeared. 

 

I was handed off to Philly approach on 124.35 and road along enjoying the view. I found it odd I was given that frequency since it typically is 119.75. I had a hard time  hearing the controller and even a harder time understanding him. Once clear of Wilmington Delta airspace I cancelled flight following and made my calls for New Garden. I made a nice landing and let 3 Tango Charlie roll out saving as much brakes as possible.

Charles was right on time, showing up a few minutes after 4pm. I was on the ground just about 10 minutes and did not bother to shut down. We taxied for runway two-four, made our call and launched for the beach.

The ride home south provided a 10-13 knot tailwind which helped the ground speed. I monitored Philly and then Dover, deciding to pass on flight following. There was one plane in the pattern at OXB that landed on three-two but the winds clearly favored two-zero. I lined up for two-zero and rolled 3 Tango Charlie on. Charles helped me tuck the Commander in the hangar then we drove over to his Cherokee next to the terminal and disconnected the extension cords. While Charles did his pre-flight I headed home to Raviolis and home made meatballs.