Romeo Juliet Delta

Ridgely Airpark (RJD), was the destination for today's flight. There was no particular schedule to follow. No passengers to brief or get on board. Today it was just me and the airplane. The weather was pleasant enough as I climbed out of Bay Bridge and headed east.


The air was a bit bumpy and flying a light aircraft with lower wing loading allows you to feel more of the bumps.
Once I got over to Ridgely I entered the pattern and flew some approaches.
They proved difficult for two reasons. The first one is the Sierra is much lighter than the Skyhawk I'm used to flying. There distinct differences in speed and momentum. The Sierra has a small speed window of only 8 knots between approach speed and maximum flap extension speed. The Sierra for as light as it is really just wants to keep on flying and won't really slow down like the Skyhawk. You can lower 10 degrees of flaps in the Skyhawk at 110 knots, and 20 and 30 degrees of flaps at 85 knots. The Maximum Structural Cruising speed of the Sierra is only 110 knots. Approach speed for the Skyhawk is anywhere between 60 and 65 knots, just a little faster than the Sierra's 60 knots. The Skyhawk just has 20 to 25 knots between Mfe and approach speed conpated to the Sierra's 8. You can be a little fast on your approach in the Skyhawk and not run into any trouble. You really have to nail it in the Sierra.

The second reason for the difficulty at Ridgely really can be blamed on Bay Bridge Airport. More specifically the noise abatement procedures you have to follow at the airport. When you build a residential development near an established airport you should expect there to be airplanes flying overhead. That's just common sense. If you don't want airplanes around, you shouldn't have moved there. Many airports will change their traffic patterns so that aircraft will not overfly the particular neighborhood. This becomes the law and a pilot can actually be fined for violating the noise abatement procedures at the airport. I have never heard of it actually happening but it is possible. Bay Bridge Aiport has noise abatement procudures in place that make for an unusual and possibly unsafe traffic pattern. There are already geographic issues that make Bay Bridge Airport a little more dangerous than any other airport. If you depart from Runway 29 there is 400 feet from the departure end of the runway until you are over the Chesapeake Bay. If you lose an engine on takeoff, you're going for a swim.
As for noise abatement, there is a community just southof the airport that is covered by the procedure. Arrival into the traffic pattern is difficult enough for Runway 29 as you are up against the border of the ADIZ to the west. Most traffic patterns are flown anywhere from 850 to 1000 feet above ground level. Bay Bridge traffic pattern is 1185ft AGL. Not only that but the downwind leg to Runway 29 is flown 2 miles out instead of the normal one half mile to avoid overflight of the residences.
If you put that all together you are flying a higher, wider, longer approach than normal. I learned to fly, and land the Sierra at Bay Bridge. Once I got to Ridgely I was flying a much more normal approach, one that I hadn't really ever flown with the Sierra. That also explains my approach issues over at Cambridge. I flew three approaches at Ridgely in order to start to get the hang of a normal approach. Here is one of them. As you can see it's a little long because I crossed the numbers too high. Fortunately, the Sierra is a champ at short takeoffs and landings.



Once I left Ridgely it was back to Bay Bridge to make the wacky approach to Runway 29. One the way back I saw two high wing aircraft flying in formation. I was cool to see them wingtip to wingtip sliding past my right wing.
While I was setting up for the downwind leg I heard and saw a tail dragger high wing aircraft inside of my position. He appeared to be maneuvering to the downwind leg of the traffic pattern and when I called downwind he asked where I was. I told him and he stated that he saw me but was well inside of my position. He was either unaware of the procedure for the airport or didn't care. Either way I advised him that I was flying the pattern that way for noise abatement. He ended up turning inside of me and landing first. Here is my landing afterwards.