OC Day Trip

N571DS - DA40 - 3.9 hours

Today's trip was a change from the original plan of flying to Lynchburg (LYH) on somewhat of a mission, to a trip to the beach. Since there aren't any pictures and nothing truly interesting happened, I'll keep it brief:

• The wind in the morning was ridiculous: 31015G21KT at Hagerstown (HGR), and similar at Leesburg (JYO) and Ocean City (OXB)
• The route of flight was JYO-HGR-OXB-HGR-JYO
• I finally met the guy I've been renting cars from each time I've flown over to OXB after hours
• Potomac TRACON's (PCT) radio coverage between BWI and Salisbury (SBY) - a new sector for them, taken from Washington Center (ZDC) - is weak to the point where I had to relay radio messages from a military helicopter conducting low altitude operations to PCT. Hopefully that brings good pilot karma for later.
• I also learned that P-40 has a cap of 5000 feet as long as it isn't "supersized."
• The Shark on the Harbor is as good as I'd remembered it.

Oddly enough, this flight was longer than some of my other flights recently, and it's probably one of the shorter posts. Still, the in-depth play-by-play gets old to write, and it's probably tiring to read, so I had to shake it up a bit and just hit the highlights. I'll save detail for the more interesting and technical flying.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 2.9 - 101.4 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.0 - 17.1 (of 40)

Dinner and an Approach

N5165M - C172R - 1.1 hours

Today was primarily a last minute decision to take advantage of nicer weather and fly. This time, the plan was to fly up to get dinner at a restaurant in Hagerstown (HGR) that the DC-3 crew frequents with Phil and his friend Brittany. The flight up to HGR is pretty simple as you don't really have to even turn much if you're departing Runway 35. There is a tower there, though, so there is a little extra radio work. The flight up and back was barely 1.1 hours total, and part of that time was added by flying an approach to Runway 17 at Leesburg (JYO).

Phil, in keeping with his constant challenges (makes him a great safety pilot), "failed" my GPS and had me keep the blinders on until right above minimums. Despite chasing the needles some when I got closer to the airport, I ended up settling on the localizer and glideslope nicely and removed the blinders with the field right ahead. Can't argue with that.

Short flight - short post.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 0.0 - 98.5 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.5 - 17.1 (of 40)