Velocities at Frederick AOPA Fly In

The AOPA Homecoming Fly-In was last Saturday at their headquarters in Frederick, Maryland. Andy had planned to come down from Michigan to join us for a visit there and some sightseeing in Philadelphia. The plan was to fly down Friday and head home Monday, weather permitting.

The above Eagle One shot is from a booth set up at the fly in. The wives agreed that we looked funny, but we loved it. That's my friend Garrett on the left and Andy on the right. Garrett was copilot/navigator and my wife sat in back for this trip.

We had 3 GoPros mounted on the planes and got some good video along with hundreds of pictures. 

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Eagle One in the front office

Nuclear plant navigation

Made it - on the ramp at Chester County Airport

Mission accomplished

Theresa Debugs N114MV

Andy and Theresa arrived mid-afternoon on Friday. Here is a shot of Andy on the way down.

Nancy picked them up at the airport and I joined them at home after finally getting out of court and through all the Philadelphia traffic.

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After dinner, Andy and I headed over to the airport to fuel the planes and put the cover on his for the night. The flight in planned out to about 30 minutes, and we wanted to get there early to avoid the pandemonium of arriving planes when things were in full swing.

A complication was a last minute TFR for the president's visit to Wilmington, Delaware. That would shut down my airport and those around it from 9:00 to 2:30 the day of the fly in.  The plan was to be wheels up at 7:30.

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Of course, the weather doesn't cooperate. My airport is IFR and Frederick is marginal VFR when we check weather at 6:30. We decide to try for an 8:15 takeoff which would get us out of the TFR before it activates. We head out to the airport and things have improved just enough to give it a try before things are locked down.

N929X heads up the ramp to meet Andy

Andy ready to go on the ramp

Andy pulls out to join us

Nancy's view of taxi from the back

Andy joins us in the run up area

Ready to go. Sky conditions marginal.

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Looks like we can make it. We taxi out and are wheels up at 8:15.

Andy taxies to runway to take the lead

Andy is just breaking ground. We take the runway to follow.

Airborne and catching up in trail with Andy

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As we proceed on course, we follow Andy a mile in trail at 145 knots. As expected, conditions aren't great, but are much better than our trip into Oshkosh last year. More importantly, they are improving as we go.

Marginal conditions

Slow clearing as we proceed south

Panel view

Crossing the Susquehanna

Click to see all the traffic on the screen by my right hand

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Here are some shots of the arrival in Frederick. We had tried to contact Potomac Approach as instructed in the Notam, but they were too busy. The tower at Frederick did a good job of handling almost Oshkosh levels of arriving traffic.

Starting approach for Frederick

Taxiing to ramp

Frederick

Theresa got a shot of us as we turned onto the ramp

Joining Andy on the ramp

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I hopped out and took this shot

The ramp guys were super nice.

Nancy and I

Andy and Theresa

N929X at Frederick

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We realized we were starved and headed in to get some breakfast.

Garrett with Andy and Theresa

Still not many here

Nancy at AOPA HQ

Finally! Breakfast.

Our photo shoot

We check out the show

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Here is a quick 360 pan of the show.

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Bill Batten is joining us, flying his XL-RG all the way from Indiana for the show. We see him land and head out to the planes to greet him and hang out.

Mark, Andy and Bill

We line all three Velocities up on the ramp

Bill and his XL

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We hung out by the planes and took in the show.

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The Breitling jet team did a great show, then taxied right by us.

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Mike Goulian did an impressive aerobatic show.

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Here is a video as he does a show pass over our line of parked Velocities.

 

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Lunch was a parking lot full of food trucks. It was pretty good.

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Bill Batten pulls out

Garrett sets up the wing mounted GoPro on my Ipad

New friends help us pull the plane out

Andy next to us - ready to go

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That's me and Andy taking off as a flight - cool picture.

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This is a video of our takeoff from Frederick. Watch for Andy overtaking us on the left. His plane really climbs.

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Here are some shots as we fly in formation on the way home.

Pulling up behind Andy's plane

In trail. See the GoPro under his right wing?

Nice shot.

Good shot by Theresa

Right break

Up close and personal

Nice view of the river

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Here is a great video shot by the camera under Andy's wing. You will see my plane overtake and climb past him. Check out the reflection in the underside of Andy's wing.

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Here is Andy doing a right break from formation shot by Nancy from the back seat.

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Here is a compilation of the footage from the flight home. We had a great time. It's about 10 minutes long. No titles or fancy music yet. (sorry Andy).

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Saturday night we went out to a great Italian place.

The gang relaxing at Mercato's

Toast to another successful mission

The girls are too full.

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As promised, Sunday started with a tourist thing in Philadelphia.

The Thinker

Oh No!

Sean and Andy

The gang in front of City Hall

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The Reading Terminal Market and Chinatown were fun. Then a bus tour of Philadelphia.

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Before you know it, it was dinner time and time for Millins to depart. Here is a quick video of their departure.

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Check back. More to come as I have time.....