Our First Family Trip

We finally had our first family trip in the Velocity. This one really demonstrated the advantages of having your own plane.

Our normal visit to the ocean in the summer means a trip to Ocean City, NJ. This is a 2 1/2 hour drive in traffic and is no fun at all. The choice is 5 hours of driving in one day for a day trip or an overnight stay. However, the flight plan puts it at a half hour each way.

I decide to make this as easy as possible for the kids. I really want them to start seeing the airplane as a real positive instead of the way they've been seeing it for the past 4 years, which is as the reason Dad is never around. They have been very understanding. Nancy has been unbelievably understanding of my obsession with building the plane. Now it's time to start paying them back.

I went out to the airport, fueled, pre-flighted and loaded the plane. I had it all ready for boarding when they got there at 9:30.

Yes, I had to resist my normal urge for the "Oh dark thirty" departure. I want this to be pleasant and don't really want to be sitting on the beach at 7 a.m.

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On the ground in Ocean City with all of our beach gear. Man, I won't miss that green paint. It was a fast and easy flight over and a pretty good landing too.

The GRT screens made it easy to thread between the Philadelphia, Wilmington and other airspace on the way.

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Everyone divides up the load and off we go to the beach. One note, Ocean City is only 2,500 feet long and there is always a crosswind. Don't try it until you get some practice.

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On the beach in Ocean City by 10:00. It's sunny, 82 with a nice breeze. Of course, everyone else in the world appears to have heard it was going to be a nice day too.

Above is a shot north up the beach. The big buildings at the end on the right are Atlantic City casinos. The airport is about 30 blocks north and 5 blocks west. It is simple to land, tie down and walk over to the 24th street beach, but we wanted to spend time down at our relative's beach.

I highly recommend Ocean City for a fly in day trip.

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It's almost dinner time so we all pile into Steve and Maria's SUV for a quick ride to the airport. It's still almost 2 hours before sunset and we have plenty of time to get home. The plan is to have dinner at the restaurant at Chester County Airport, then 15 minutes home and get the kids ready for bed.

Steve and Maria hadn't seen the plane since it was upside down in our garage. They were surprised to see it now as a "real airplane" and thought it looked sportier than the other factory planes parked around us. They enjoyed checking out the plane and the airport.

Above are Steve and my wife, Nancy, standing by the plane while Vincent tries the copilot seat. In the other shot, Maria and the kids check out a Nan Chang parked beside us.

They watch us start up, then go to the end of the parking area to wave as we take off and turn to the West. It was a nice visit. Thanks Steve and Maria!

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We left Ocean City at 6:45 and made it back to Chester County Airport by 7:15 - Our 2 1/2 hour drive in traffic was reduced to an easy 30 minute flight. A day trip to the ocean is now no problem.

The kids now see the possibilities for weekend adventure destinations. They also enjoyed the flight itself, which is great.

Time to start planning some cool weekend getaways in the plane.

More to come....

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