Visit to Brandywine Airport

Parked at Brandywine with office in the background

Friday turned out to be a gorgeous day in Pennsylvania, with temperatures in the low 50's and light winds. I left work a little early to get the plane out, since the weekend forecast doesn't look good.

Brandywine Airport (KOQN) is a nice little airport nearby. You can see the planes in the pattern from the pool we go to in the summer. It also has the departure end of it's runway on a hill right next to Route 202, a local highway. I always wondered, as I drove past, what it would look like to see it from the plane and imagined how crazy the plane would look swooping over the highway on takeoff.

I decided to fly over and drop in for a visit.


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As you can see, it was a beautiful day with puffy clouds at around 3,000 and some mild bumps. The airport has right traffic, which always feels a little awkward to me. Still, I made a nice landing. No pictures of the approach as I was busy fighting bumps and craning to look out the copilot side window.

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The airport's assistant manager, Jay Zook. Jay came out to clear a parking space for me and check out the plane. He kindly gave me a tour of the place, including his air museum/ office.

Thanks Jay!

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Here is the entrance to Jay's office.

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Hannah, the airport dog, is very friendly and will bring you a ball to fetch.

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Here's a shot of the office. If you click on it, you can see most of the relevant info about the airport on the white board.

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Time to head out and take off for home and dinner.

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Right across the runway is the excellent American Helicopter Museum. You can taxi right up and park next to those stairs on the far right. They have a large collection of exhibits and it's also great for kids. That's one of the original Ospreys used in flight testing. It was a big deal when they flew it in here. This place is worth a visit.

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Lined up for takeoff. It is starting to build up. The wind is picking up and the temperature is dropping.

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Turning into my hangar row at Chester County airport a few minutes later.

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By the time I shut down there is no more blue sky and the winds are picking up. Glad I got the flight in.

Part of what I love about having the Velocity is just being able to drop in on random, interesting places. There are always interesting people to meet and things to see. I'm looking forward to Spring, when I can get back to doing it a lot more often. Still, it was great to get this little visit in today.

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