KHEF-KMQI-KJYO
We took the family to the Outer Banks of North Carolina the last weekend of July. I planned the flight from Manassas, VA (KHEF) to Manteo, NC (KMQI) with the hope that I'd get to log a landing/takeoff cycle at First Flight airport on Sunday. You may have heard the phrase "A bad day on the beach is still better than a good day in the office." Well, that was our motto for this weekend.
Takeoff from KHEF was uneventful with cloudy skies. I was in IMC for much of the flight to KMQI - sometimes skimming the cloud layer - but the clouds parted for us a few miles north of Roanoke Island allowing a visual approach to the field. As I was dropping altitude (thanks to a "slam dunk" approach from Washington Center), there was a takeoff from the field for pattern work. I set up a 360 north of the field to give them room while dropping altitude and got a nice panoramic view of the beaches, Jockey Ridge and First Flight.
Sure, a glance at a map of the area will show how narrow the strip of sand known as the Outer Banks is. Driving down NC 12 can also give you a sense of that as you see the Atlantic on one shoulder and Roanoke Sound on the other shoulder. However, from 1500 feet above the Sound, it's really driven home just how narrow those Banks are. It's no surprise that Hurricane Isabelle was able to wash out a new inlet to the Sound.
The weather wasn't ideal beach weather all weekend. Sure, it was warm and the water was comfortable, but the clouds were rather stubborn and dropped rain several times over the two days. As a result, I went to KMQI on Sunday afternoon with a keen eye on the horizon where solid gray promised a wet commute home.
Sure enough, a call to FSS to file the IFR flight plan and check the weather received the ominous query "Do you have radar on-board?". Stepping into the flight planning office revealed an interesting weather picture. There was a line of significant precipitation entering the Sound from the west and there was another line starting just offshore in the Atlantic leaving a gap along my first leg to Elizabeth City (ECG) - but that meant an immediate departure.
Luckily, I had already pre-flighted and fueled the plane.
I was able to contact Washington Center (ZDC) on the first call from the ground and quickly got my IFR clearance with an immediate departure window. After a quick runup check, we took the runway for launch into the rain. A turn on-course to the north displayed a rather dark cloud and ZDC obliged with clearance to deviate a couple miles west to get around the worst of the weather.
Getting around that cloud and turning back direct to ECG showed a line of light cumulous crossing my path. Punching into it gave me a welcome boost in vertical climb. Of course, this boost came with a bit of mild turbulence, as well. I had cautioned my passengers against the possibility of turbulence before takeoff so nobody was surprised. In an effort to focus on my flying and allow them to talk freely, I was operating on "pilot isolation" mode on the intercom which prevented me from hearing what was apparently an interesting - and rather humorous - interplay among the passengers. Apparently, one of them had heard somewhere that if you dropped a small item and it fell straight to the floor, all was well. So, he evidently dropped a small ball a few times while in the clouds.
I didn't hear about this until well after the flight and couldn't help smiling at his apparent misunderstanding of G forces.
There wasn't much more to the weather and passing ECG left me in mist and occasional clouds almost to Richmond (RIC). In the meantime, while still several miles south of ECG, I heard ATC trying to contact a plane in their sector to no avail. Then I heard ATC call me asking me to switch frequencies and call for the plane. If I contacted them, I was to ask them to switch back to the previous frequency. I've heard this done before so I didn't consider it unusual at all, but it was nice to be able to help ATC with a request of theirs for a change. I was able to contact the other plane and the other pilot cheerfully responded that ATC hadn't given them a handoff. We switched back to the previous frequency and both of us checked in. Several minutes later I got a seemingly hearty "thanks for the help" from the controller as he handed me off to the next sector.
I had planned my route to take me west of an expected large TFR over Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia even though the TFR wasn't scheduled to take effect until a couple hours after my passage. You never know about those Presidential TFR's and I didn't want to be caught in a surprise early arrival by POTUS. With recent highly publicized DC ADIZ incursions, I did not want to be The Example. Nonetheless, approaching RIC ATC cleared me for the COATT4 arrival back to KHEF.
Just as advertised, the weather north of RIC "cleared" to typical Mid-Atlantic Summer Haze (MASH) with scattered cloud bases down around 5000 feet and up. While the official weather improved to VMC, the haze prevented any hint of a discernable horizon at my altitude of 8000 feet.
Flying the arrival to KHEF was uneventful until close to BARIN intersection. There it was unclear what ATC expected me to do so I queried whether they wanted me direct KHEF. They came back with vectors to fly and they deftly maneuvered me west of the field, then hooked me around the north side for landing.
We made a smooth landing at KHEF and taxied to the FBO where I dropped off my passengers and luggage. By prior arrangement, I was going to ferry the plane from its temporary home at KHEF back to its permanent base at Leesburg (KJYO) so I filed an IFR flight plan (just as easy as a VFR-ADIZ plan) for the short hop to KJYO and quickly got clearance to taxi to runway 16L. There I sat roasting for nearly 10 minutes as ATC (apparently a fairly new controller or one having a bad day) brought a few planes in for landing.
The flight home was just below the bases of the clouds (which I have yet to find boring) and uneventful. The reason for the temporary housing of the plane at KHEF was the "runway rehabilitation" being done for much of the summer at KJYO and this was my first landing on the "new" runway.
Total flight time for the weekend: 4.5 hours with just about 3 hours in IMC. This flight really demonstrated the utility of a private pilot license as our last car trip to the Outer Banks took over 4.5 hours just to get to Nags Head. Unfortunately, I was unable to make a landing at First Flight airport due to the weather.
That just means I have an excuse for the next trip to the beach...
I've posted still photos here.
Landing at Manteo, NC (KMQI) (9:00)
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Departing Manteo, NC (KMQI) (11:00)
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Landing at Manassas, VA (KHEF) (7:04)
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Landing at Leesburg, VA (KJYO) (2:52)
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