Cumberland for a Change

N172DR - C172R - 1.5 hours

When I asked if anyone wanted to join in on the flight a few days ago, a couple people showed some interest, so I figured I'd take another trip.  My friend Melissa asserted she's a pretty great passenger in a small plane, so I invited her along for the flight.  Initially, I sent her a link to a flight map website and said pick a spot, but aviation sectionals aren't the most understandable to someone who hasn't used them much, so the job of picking a destination fell back on me.

A few posts back, I mentioned a need to head out west for once, as I've rarely gone out in that direction.  More specifically, I was supposed to head out to Cumberland (CBE) a while back with another one of my friends, but we decided to head down to Charlottesville, as I knew what was there and that we could actually get around with relative ease.  I was still curious about Cumberland, though, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  It's a relatively short trip out west, it has some interesting terrain around it, and I don't head out west enough.

Regular Appointment with the DR

Since it was the day after Christmas, I was surprised to show up at the flight school and find the president and vice president of the flight school manning the counter.  I figured someone else would've drawn the short straw. In any case, I got the book, checked the weather, and then headed out to preflight and show Melissa how to properly shake down a plane.  I was the last one to have flown it, so everything was still relatively in order.

Just like the last flight, the wind was still pretty strong, though not unmanageable.  It made for a bumpy flight all the way out west, and even more so while we were stuck under Dulles' Class B airspace.  Once we cleared the Blue Ridge mountains, I was able to pop up a little higher, though just like last time, clouds kept me lower than I'd wanted.  A large break in the clouds allowed me to get up another thousand feet for a few minutes, but another line of clouds ahead of me forced me back down, and back into the bumpier air.

Soon enough, though, we were closer in to Cumberland, where I entered the pattern for runway 23, set down and taxied over to the terminal for a quick run into town.  At first, I figured we could just eat at the airport cafe, but as the attendant noted on the frequency and as a sign also pointed out on the door to the terminal, the airport cafe was closed indefinitely.  One of the guys at the airport recommended we check out the Crabby Pig, which is a local seafood/barbecue place.  Since we weren't going to be too long, they also let us borrow one of the airport trucks, which was nice of them.

The trip into town wasn't too bad, since they gave us a quick run down of how to get there, but the place is somewhat hidden, so we ended up parking a little farther down the road than I thought we would.  I got their pulled pork, to see if it could stand up as a barbecue joint.  I would've gotten seafood, but to be honest, in the likelihood that one would be better than the other, I figured it would have been the barbecue.  Don't get me wrong, we were technically in Maryland and we all know - crabcakes and football, that's what Maryland does - but this part of Maryland might as well be part of West Virginia (the airport is, actually).  The verdict?  I'll take it.  It could have been better, but it certainly wasn't bad, either.  The smoker was out back, so I know they smoke the pork right there.  The sauce could have been a little better though.  Wait, is this a flight blog or a food blog?  All of the pilot folk know about the (two) hundred dollar hamburger, so it's all related. I don't care what you think.  Either way it's worth another shot, and if you're there down there, I'd recommend it.

On the way back, I filled the truck back up as a thanks for borrowing it, and set off toward the airport.

Back in the plane, I got everything situated, started and set off for the runway.  The wind had died down significantly, so the departure was pretty smooth, in addition to the climb.  The clouds had all disappeared, too, so I was able to climb a little higher.  The way back was much shorter because of the wind aloft, which pushed us up to 140-145 knots across the ground (161-167 mph).  As we descended back under Dulles' airspace, it got a little bumpier, but not too bad.

Two Grass Strips and Summit Point

In the descent, I tuned into one of Potomac Approach's sectors for arrivals from the west (MANNE), where I got to hear an interesting conversation between the controller and an arriving flight.  The arriving flight was assigned the most inconvenient runway possible at Dulles.  Because of that, the pilot questioned it to make sure the controller didn't say it by mistake, to which the controller's response was simply that there was no misunderstanding between the two.  A few moments later, however, the controller came back with a more convenient runway.  From the privacy of my own flight deck, I commented aloud that thanks were in order, but as I said it, the pilot came back and thanked the controller.  I know a bunch of you reading this wouldn't find that nearly as funny as I did, and still do, and for that I almost apologize, but not quite.

Turning Final 35 JYO

Anyway, back on the ground, I put the plane back in its spot, reorganized everything and we headed home.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 1.5 - 43.4 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0 - 4.9 (of 40)

Yes, Charlottesville Again

N172DR - C172R - 1.7 hours

The last time I flew with my buddy Phil was back in college.  That's way too long in my book, so we tried working out a flight over Thanksgiving, but that fell through.  Since he's back here for Christmas, I figured it would be a good time to finally get that flight in.

Originally, we were going to keep it to a shorter flight but since Phil's brother's fiancee lives down near Charlottesville, we ended up settling on that as the destination, and Phil's youngest brother James would also be joining us.

Phil on the preflight

At the outset, it was an interesting morning with higher winds and lower clouds, but neither would be problems for the departure.  The forecast said the clouds would lift some, but the wind would continue.  Here at Leesburg, it was straight down the runway, but the forecast at Charlottesville showed an increasing crosswind as the day progressed.  In any case, it wasn't too worrying and we met up in Leesburg to get everything set.

In the time between my last flight in October and this flight, the FAA changed procedures out of Leesburg where we no longer need to file a flight plan to fly in the Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA), which saves me a little time.  In the end, it really saves me the worry of forgetting to file.

Departure shot

When I first got back in the air back in July, my goal was to start to pick up better habits that I'd never really concentrated on in my private training.  Part of that was to always use the correct control positions for the wind during taxi, and I definitely used that taxiing around today.

The flight down was a little bumpy, made slightly worse by being kept low by clouds.  We talked to Potomac TRACON on the way down, and since Phil had requested a quick circle around his brother's fiancee's house, when Potomac dumped us on Charlottesville tower, we told them what was going on and that we'd give them a call when we were back inbound.

Circling the house, Phil and James got video and photos of their brother Francis and his fiancee Andrea running around the yard with one of the family dogs.  In the process, I was brushing up on turns around a point, with moderate success.  After a few laps, I called the tower to tell them we were back inbound, and he cleared us to land on runway 3 since we were the only traffic at that point.  As we got closer, though, a few departures had an opportunity to get out, so he extended our downwind and re-cleared us.

At the airport, we waited a few minutes for Andrea and Francis to show up.  They had apparently made the wrong turn and ended up at the terminal.  It's all the same at the small airports, right?  We figured it out though, after a quick walk from where we were over to the parking lot over by the terminal.  As ever, our destination from there was Timberwood, where I'd have an opportunity to change it up and get a Chuck Norris burger, instead of my usual Clint Eastwood.

Switching from ASPER to JYO CTAF

After paying for the fuel, Phil got the ATIS while I gave the plane a quick shakedown.  Ground got us out to the runway, and tower gave us the usual "climb on course, cleared for takeoff."  This time, however, there was more than the usual amount of traffic being called out.  A Cessna and a Colgan SAAB were both inbound to the field, coming from the north.  We ended up spotting the Cessna, but the SAAB was further out, and was well enough right of course that it wouldn't be a problem, so we switched over to Potomac and talked to them all the way back up to Leesburg.

Middleburg, VA

The landing was a little flat - as they almost always are with me - but I thought it was pretty good.  Phil got video of it (Phil also has video of one of my worst landings ever), so we'll see what that looks like when it's up.

I ended up getting 0.7 hours under the hood on the trip down and back, thanks to Phil also being a pilot, so there's some of the 40 down, though I still have a good bit left.  Hopefully, I'll get the long cross country with multiple approaches taken care of soon to wrap up the XC time, and burn some hood time.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 1.7 - 41.9 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.7 - 4.9 (of 40)