East to the Ocean

Today's flight was in the works for about a week now. The weather finally cooperated and I got a chance for a longer cross country flight. I was taking my brother up for his first flight with me. Of course I wanted to impress him, more on that later, but a low time pilot can only do so much to be impressive. My plan was to leave Tipton and fly out to Ocean City to land. After a short break at Ocean City, we would fly north toward Lewes, DE and Cape Henlopen, near the Waterloo VOR. After that we would turn to the West and head over to Ridgely Airpark and land. Another short break and after an ADIZ flight plan, we would head back to Tipton.
We got out to the airplane and prepared to depart. I noted in the log that it hadn't been run in 15 days. I knew the weather had been bad so I didn't think much of it until it came time to start. The battery didn't have enough juice to start the prop. Fortunately one of the mechanics was in and was able to give us a jump. After that we were behind schedule but ready to carry on. Once we got in the air I contacted Potomac Approach and requested flight following over to Ocean City. Since I had never been there before I could get handed off from controller to controller and get traffic advisories about other aircraft in the vicinity. When I asked for it the controller didn't say no but he didn't say yes either. I though that I was OK but when I got out over the bay and clear of the ADIZ the controlled said, "Radar Service Terminated, Squawk VFR, frequency change approved, good day." Rather than make a fuss and since I had another set of eyes up front, I accepted the fact that they were unwilling to help me out and switched my transponder to 1200. As we got closer to Ocean City the visibility got hazy. While getting set up for the approach to the airport I could hear several aircraft using runway 2. As I began an approach to that runway I could hear another aircraft calling and asking the airport UNICOM what the favored runway was. The reply was runway 14. Having already been lined up for runway 2 I called and let the other aircraft know that I would be on a low approach to runway 2 and then resetting my pattern for runway 14. Since I wasn't familiar with the airport I choose to climb above pattern altitude and circle the airport in a sweeping left turn, head East toward the ocean and descend, then make a 180 degree turn to enter the pattern for runway 14. Probably a sloppy move on my part, but it helped me regroup. Unfortunately my problems weren't over yet. I made a pretty high approach and decided to go around. Once back in the pattern and on base I still seemed to be high. I wasn't sure why I remained high on the approach but I decided to see if I could salvage it. I pulled the power early and entered a forward slip. I remembered the words of me examiner who told me that if your rudder isn't fully deflected your not really in a slip. In hindsight I don't think that I had full rudder but a slip can be uncomfortable for your passengers and I seemed to be losing altitude, a little quickly, without too much speed gain. As I came out of the slip I had about 80 knots as I started my roundout. Too fast but hopefully the headwind would allow me to get away with the float for a little while. That and the 4072 ft long runway should save me. We did float for awhile but finally came down well before the end of the runway with a lot of room to spare. It was a disappointing landing to show someone I was trying to impress. I had two more to go to redeem myself.

After a short break at the FBO we headed out for the next leg. We departed from runway 14 and after climbing above 1000 ft. began a left turn that took us over Ocean City. We proceeded North and into Delaware as we headed up the coast. We leveled off at 3000 ft and cruised up as far North as Lewes before we turned West toward our next stop.

Once we got over to Ridgely I was in somewhat familiar territory as I had flow in a few times. I decided to overfly the field to get setup to enter the pattern. Once established in the pattern for runway 30 it was time for the second landing of the day. For some reason I was still high by the time I got to base leg, maybe I was rushing it. I managed another steep approach and was able to get the speed down for the landing. I was not impressed with this one either, not soft enough and right of centerline. I taxied over to an grassy area near the fuel dock and shut down for another break. While we were there we met a twin Cessna pilot who had a nice looking red and black colored airplane. We spent about a half hour chatting and then I filed us back into the ADIZ for the return to Tipton.

The trip back was fun and there were several large freighters in the bay that we passed over. The air traffic was getting heavy as we got closer to Fort Meade. There were several aircraft in the pattern and it got crowded. I made the proper entry and I may have even "cut off" an aircraft that had decided to just enter the downwind. I was making a proper approach but if he wasn't paying attention it could have been bad for us. I thought that my third and final landing, since it was my home field would be good. Once again, I proved myself wrong. I flared a little high and came down a little harder than I wanted to. Maybe I was a little rusty since I hadn't been able to fly in the past 16 days.

I still had a great time. I'm just sorry I didn't get any pictures. I've broken the 60 hour mark on flight time and the 30 hour mark as pilot in command. Considering my low time I hope I'm doing well and flying safe.