Chapter 1031 Flyout
Wilmington, DE
March 24, 2002

Our third attempt to fly to Wilmington (ILG) worked out OK, no wind gusting at 35 knots and no low ceiling with IFR conditions. The temperature was just high enough for my family to come along. John Ely and Bob Metcalfe met some of the RV guys at Easton, MD at 8:00 AM to practice formation flying. As much as I like flying, I would have a hard time to get out of bed that early on a Sunday.

The wind in Winchester was only at 8 knots on the ground, but as soon as we climbed above 4,000 feet our ground speed started to increase. By the time we leveled off at our cruising altitude of 5,500 feet, our ground speed settled in at around 124 knots. Unfortunately, with the higher ground speed came some constant light chop. The turbulence was nothing bone shattering, but it went on for the whole length of the flight. By the time we reached Wilmington (1 hour and 10 minutes) my wife felt a little "funny" in her stomach. Our kids didn't really feel much, they slept most of the way.

About 40 miles from Wilmington I picked up the RV guys on the radio. I only heard: "Lead. Two. Three. Four. Five.", but I was certain who it was. So I called the flight of five to get their position. It turned out that our timing was just perfect, we would arrive at Wilmington almost at the same time.

Juergen arrives

RV Lineup

We walked the short distance to the "Air Transport Command" restaurant, but the waiting time was 45 minutes to one hour.

Eager for food

Oh, well. We'll be back sometime - with reservations!

So we decided to walk back to "Damon's" restaurant located right beside the airport for some faster service.

Alternate destination

Damon's was set up more like a sports bar with five big TV screens on the wall. Each table had its own speaker and controls, so you could watch one of the programs displayed. Of course we were too busy talking airplanes and it was fun to listen to the RV guys doing their debriefing of the formation flight up to Wilmington. Joe has a camera mount on his RV-8 and video-taped the flight. We were watching the replay of the flight right there sitting at the table waiting for our food. It is amazing what modern technology can do these days.

Table

When we walked up to our airplanes after lunch, John noticed Jeff Sharp just taxing in. In keeping up with his tradition he makes it to the fly out at the very end. He was busy flying all day picking up his brother at the outer banks and then making it all the way up to Wilmington for our fly out. We appreciated that he went through all the effort to meet us there.

Juergen leaving - Jeff arriving. Better late than never !

The RV flights took off first in a flight of two and one flight of three. It always takes me a while to get the whole family back in the airplane and settled in. Of course just before I started the engine our younger daughter missed her little stuffed dog. I had to climb back out and retrieve it from the luggage department where I accidentally had put the little critter. As soon as the dog was back in her arms every one was happy and I was allowed to start the engine.

At least on the way home the wind had died down a little. At 4,500 feet there was hardly any turbulence any more. Though we still had some head wind that slowed our ground speed down to about 95 knots. As we were cruising along (my wife was taking a nap) passing by Frederick I noticed a Boeing 757 go by about three miles in front of us and about 3,000 to 4,000 feet higher. I thought it looked kind of neat. Suddenly about three minutes later, the Pacer hit one really hard bump. It was just one bump, but I could hear a solid "thump" going through the whole airframe. My wife woke up right away and gave me this look like "What did you just do???". I had a hard time to explain it, because the 757 was long gone. I think she still believes I got bored flying straight and level and took advantage of her being asleep.

While I refueled the Pacer at Winchester I watched Joe Rose come back to OKV in the Champ. The way he greased the wheel landing on the runway shows that another pilot is hooked on flying tailwheel airplanes. I'm sure he will have fun flying his RV 6 when it's done.

Juergen