For Mother's Day, my wife Nancy asked me to take her and her dog, Molly, to the ocean to walk on the beach. I took her and my son out for breakfast. Sean and Katie didn't want to go, so just Nancy, the dog and I headed over to the airport. We fueled up and popped the dog into the car. The plan was to take off at around 10:00, fly to Ocean City, walk on the beach and head home for lunch.
We got to the airport a few minutes early and called for fuel.
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Nancy got in the back seat with the dog and settled in.
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Once again, Molly just lays on Nancy's lap and relaxes. She has her own headset, made by Mutt Muffs.
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It is very bumpy on the way over. Anyone who's flown a Velocity is familiar with this arm position. When you are in bumps, it helps to put your elbow on the window sill and brace your hand on the top of the door. This helps keep tall pilots like me (6'2") from banging their heads on the overhead.
We slow to 150 and proceed across the Delaware River into New Jersey. Philadelphia Approach has cleared us direct through their airspace.
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On the ground in Ocean City, Molly is happy to get out and run around while I tie down the plane.
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We head out of the airport for the short walk to the beach. That's the best thing about Ocean City Airport. I don't know of a more convenient place for a quick beach trip in a plane.
Molly gets to the steps and looks out on the dunes. We are curious how she will react to sand and waves.
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The short answer is that she likes it. Molly is excited and runs around sniffing everything.
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Nancy gets her wish- on the beach with the dog.
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The weather is perfect, the beach warm and uncrowded. It's a great day for a walk here.
It is still too cold to swim and the water is cold enough to make our feet numb.
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You can just make out Atlantic City to the North in this shot.
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The beach had a lot of horseshoe crabs which seemed to be laying eggs. They are about 18 inches long and prehistoric looking. This one moved and Molly ran away. She didn't like them at all.
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Molly had a great time.
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All three of us had a a good time. Molly started getting tired from all the excitement, so we headed back.
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Back to the beach access trail. Nancy had a good Mother's day outing.
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Back at the airport, Molly sits with Nancy in the shade by the FBO while I go out and preflight the plane.
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We taxi down to the end of runway 24 for takeoff. Notice the black box on the right screen? It is a traffic alert. I finally got my ADS-B system working so we now have free weather and traffic right on our screens. It has been really great.
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Here is a better shot of the screens just before takeoff. Click on the picture for a large view.
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Here are some shots on the way home. You can see in the second shot on the right screen that we are once again proceeding on course through Philadelphia airspace. The airspace turns yellow when your course line touches it if it is restricted. Great system.
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| Downwind for Runway 29 Chester County |
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| Turning base to final |
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| Final approach for 29 |
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| Short final |
It is a short trip home. Here are a few shots of the approach and landing.
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We pull up to the hangar and Nancy gets Molly a drink. The dog was a good passenger.
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Molly is ready to head home. We have gone out to breakfast, flown 90 miles to the beach and had a great walk, yet its still only lunch time. This is an easy mission with the Velocity and I look forward to using it a lot this summer. We are flying up to New England for Memorial Day weekend and hope to have some good pictures. Stay tuned.
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