Brett and Elizabeth Ferrell are staying down at the shore in Cape May, NJ for their annual Labor day week get away and invited us to fly down to visit. The original plan was for them to fly in but that was derailed by the untimely passage of the hurricane. We took the plane down on Sunday morning and had so much fun we stayed over before heading back Monday morning.
Here's a brief version of our fun trip.
First, departure end of the runway and we are wheels up at 9:15, then bank East and head for Cape May. It should only be about 30 minutes again replacing hours of holiday traffic with a fast, fun hop in the Velocity.
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Katie and Sean relaxed in the back, taking pictures and checking out the view. Waypoint at KEVY and 14 minutes to go.
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We headed down the Delaware into the bay, then Cape May came into view. The bottom photo is from 6 miles out as we let down for landing. You can see the actual cape and the ocean beyond.
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Here we are on final for 28 in Cape May. It's an old WWII base with long runways. It's only about 5 miles from the beach and boardwalk and I really like the long runways.
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Tim Walsh flew his top loader FG up to meet us at the airport. He has some nice, big Dynon Skyview displays he just installed and this was his first long cross country with them. They looked great.
We ended up arriving at exactly the same time. He was calling out his progress through the pattern and we couldn't see him until he was flaring over the runway. We ended up pulling into the tie downs within a minute of each other as you can see from the top photo taken by Nancy as we taxied up.
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We checked out both planes and even got in an "Eagle One" for good measure.
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There is a great museum right on the field that happened to be having a special exhibit that day with a B-17, B-24 and Mustang. We decided to check it out. Then Tim headed home in his Velocity and we went off for our day at the beach.
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We headed from the airport back to the Ferrell's cool beach digs. It was the top floor of the building directly across from the beach. Here is Nancy checking out the great view from the balcony and our hosts down in front.
I didn't think to take any pictures from the house of the beach, but you'll get the idea. Then we headed across the street to the beach. The waves were still huge from the recent hurricane and were great for body surfing or Ferrell's favorite - "bobbing" out in the waves. A good time was definitely had by all.
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After a day on the beach, we left Nancy and the kids to relax back at Casa Ferrell while I took Brett and Elizabeth for a ride in the plane. It was absolutely gorgeous out. As we were holding short for takeoff, the B-17 landed right in front of us. They had a fun ride and were very complimentary. (I'm glad I didn't botch the landing)
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After buzzing the beach, we took a quick jaunt down to the actual cape, then headed back to the airport. Brett sat in back and captured the ride on video. Looks like he's having fun back there doesn't it?
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After ordering in some pizza, we took a stroll around the shopping district of Cape May. It is very pretty and interesting, filled with Victorian Bed and Breakfasts, shops and restaurants. Since it was a holiday weekend, it was jammed. I'd like to go back on an off weekend, but highly recommend it.
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Labor day morning and time to head home. After breakfast, Elizabeth took us to the airport and Brett stayed home to get a video. He asked us to make a low pass down the beach. Here is the view of their shore place from, well, just off shore. It is the brown beachfront house with the pointy roof two houses to the left of the intersection and just to the right of the big red and white house. If you enlarge the picture you can just see Brett on the top balcony.
Waggle the wings, pull up, bank right and off we go!
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Back home in less than a half an hour. I called Elizabeth and Brett to let them know we are down and she's not even back from the airport yet. I sent the family home and unpacked the plane.
This was another great weekend hop and just the sort of thing I'd always daydreamed about doing. Thanks again to the Ferrells and to Beth's parents for putting us up for the night.
Brett posted some videos of our low passes as seen from the balcony of their shore place. We went by several times at between 300-400 feet and 160 knots. The good news is that it looks fast. The bad news is that it's hard to videotape. Check it out on Youtube with the following link:
Video of fly by
You can also click on the next link for a video of the fly by taken by Brett from the back seat:
Back seat fly by
for a cool 10 minute video from the back seat of the plane. Watch us pass a Cessna while climbing at 1,000 plus fpm. Good stuff.
Thanks Brett!
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Finally, here is a kid's eye view of the taxi and takeoff taken from the back seat by Katie.
More adventures to come.....
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