There was no reason to get up real early for my second day out as I needed fuel and the airport would not open until 8:00 AM. Even so it was very foggy and even with fuel I would not be able to leave. But I’m not on a schedule so I just hung out at the airport in the pilot’s lounge and worked on the blog and did some flight planning. I got a ride into town for lunch and by the time I got back the weather had cleared enough for me to depart. Although flyable, the weather was not great. Also I was in an unfamiliar mountainous area. The good news was that the weather improved to the east so it should improve as I progressed.

I departed at about 12:00 and headed east. The ceilings were low but none of the mountain tops were obscured. Even so I followed a highway towards Roanoke and contacted their air traffic control about 20 miles out as I wanted to fly through their controlled airspace. To avoid it I would have to fly further south and over higher terrain. When they had me on radar they asked if I planned to just follow the interstate to the east. I guess they are used to having airplanes headed into their area over the highway as roads usually follow the lowest path possible. I told them that I  would soon be turning away from the highway and would be passing well south of their airport before continuing east. That was pretty much how it went. The ceilings were low but the visibility was excellent. I was always in a position where I had places in site I could glide to and land if the engine quit and the views were incredible. Before long I passed out of their airspace and they told me that at my altitude they would lose radar contact in about 10 more miles. Shortly after that they told me that radar service was terminated, squawk VFR, have a good day. Basically they were done with me and I was on my own. Now I could listen to some music!

The ceilings kept rising and I climbed along with them. After about an hour I could see that both fuel tanks were just below full so it appeared that there would be no repeat of yesterday’s excitement. I passed north of Lynchburg and Richmond Virginia and then things got a bit more complicated. There is a lot of restricted and prohibited airspace in the Washington DC area and even more around the Patuxent River Naval Air Station. I had programmed my GPS with a series of waypoints that would allow me to thread my way through all of this without having to talk to anyone. I just had to be careful to stay on my planned course and at my planned altitudes. By this time I was at 7,500 feet and wanted to stay at that altitude until I had flown across the Chesapeake Bay. I wanted to be able to glide to dry land if anything went wrong. That was fine but a restricted area required me to descend to below 3,500 shortly after crossing the bay. So after crossing the bay I made a quick ear popping descent to 3,200 feet and continued across the wetlands of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

About 20 minutes later I landed at the Salisbury – Wicomico County Airport. The main airport serving the town where I grew up and an airport I actually instructed at almost 30 years ago. The flight school was still there although no one I would remember is still around. I found out they wanted $10.00 a night to tie my airplane down with no monthly rate available. I called my mom and told her I had arrived but would be leaving shortly and flying over to Bennett Field. A small grass strip about five miles away.

Bennett Field has two wide grass runways that intersect at a 90 degree angle. That intersection is visible just right of center in this picture. I landed on runway 17, passing right between the opening between the trees that border the right side of the shorter runway. When I landed two family friends, Alan and Paula were already there. My mom had put out the word of my arrival apparently.

She showed up shortly after and posed for a picture with me beside Niner-Zero. She had seen the airplane slowly progress over the years with each visit. She approved of the finished product. Mr. Bennett helped me tie her down and I paid his wife $50.00 for a month’s tie down. They live in a house just out of view on the left side of this picture and I’m sure they’ll keep an eye on her for me. Plus, this kind of airport is so much more fun to fly out of, no control tower and no paved runways.

I plan to keep her here for about a month but to take a few trips around the eastern seaboard to visit friends. But for the next few days I am going to visit with family and friends here and hopefully make good on a lot of promises I have made over the years to give some plane rides.