Day 3: Tuesday, June 2nd. This was another marathon flying day. I had landed in Beverly, MA on Sunday to visit with my friends Rob & Amy Phillips. They are proud new parents of a baby girl, Gray Elise, born on April 26th, 2009. They put me up in their Marblehead home, which I refer to as the Overlook Hotel. They are the most gracious hosts you will ever know. Rob is a great new dad to his little nuthatch!
My next stop was Hanscom field in Bedford, MA. There, I was met by a good friend from RPI, Brett Mellor. Brett & I went to his apartment and much conversation ensued. We share some similar philosophies and it is always great to compare notes with like-minded people. We had coffee at a wonderful local coffee shop / bakery in Belmont. I had to ask Brett what city I was in. It can be so disorienting when you are flying all over creation. Brett showed me his bike and shared his passion for motorcycling. Perhaps someday I'll enjoy this mode of transportation myself. For now, I'm focused on vehicles with wings.
So, I return to the aircraft parked at Hanscom, and what do I find? An unsolicited steel chain locked around my propeller! But I thought I paid my bill! Actually, it is a Massport rule that propeller aircraft are locked down at certain airports, Hanscom being one of them. Security at Hanscom was tight! I'm all for good security, but all you have to do is go to another airport and you'll find little to no security, so it hardly seems worth it, since the bad guys will just go for the weakest link. Anyway, I found the whole thing amusing, and it did delay my departure a few minutes while I waited for keymaster to show up and set me free!I departed for Hyannis to visit with an old childhood friend who I hadn't seen in 30 years. I had spoken with him twice and made plans to meet at the Hyannis airport, since he operates the Cummaquid Inn in Yarmouthport, but somehow we never managed to connect on the phone today, so sadly, I just fueled up and took off for the next stop.
OK, now the story gets very interesting. Beautiful weather at Hyannis, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket when I took off. As I made my way (under an IFR flight plan) to Nantucket, they began updating the weather at Nantucket every 5 minutes as conditions there were changing rapidly. First, it was 3 mile visibility 200 foot broken ceiling. Next, it was 1 mile viz, 200 foot ceiling. Finally, it was 3/4 mile viz, 100 indeterminate ceiling. Holy cr@p! I have had my IFR rating for many years, but only started flying IFR in earnest a few years ago. Flying with Ed Haddad, we would almost always execute practice IFR approaches. When I was flying under an IFR flight plan, I almost always chose decent enough weather so that I didn't have to make an approach to minimum conditions. I just had my radios tweaked up before I left, I carefully cross-checked my altimeter with the GPS altitude and decided that I would give this a try. I didn't feel it was dangerous, because I had an easy out, climb out, execute the missed approach procedure and head on over to Martha's Vineyard. The fog layer was about 500 feet thick, I descended into the fog at about 700 feet and was now on my instruments with no visibility outside. I was carefully lined up on the ILS (Instrument Landing System) and kept the needles aligned as I had so many times before on practice approaches or actual approaches where the clouds weren't as low. 600 - 500 - 400 - 300 -- Nothing!! Finally, I got to 200 feet and saw the approach lights fade into view for Runway 24 at Nantucket. For someone who has never done this before, especially alone, let me tell you, it is an amazing thing. To me, it is the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life. To someone who flies IFR all the time or an airline pilot, I'm sure it is routine. I was pretty darn excited about it. I flew into Nantucket in conditions that would have once made it impossible for me to even consider it.
To celebrate, I broke out the bicycle and headed on over to my evening destination, from which I am typing this entry: Hosteling International's Nantucket Youth Hostel. I had reserved the last bed here, so they knew me by name when I walked in around 7pm. I absolutely love staying at hostels when I can. I always meet the greatest folks here, travelers from all over the world, and you can't beat the price! They have a great kitchen and I cooked up a wonderful pasta dinner for myself after biking to the Stop & Shop for supplies.
I became an instant celebrity when I told everyone about the flight as they checked out the website. The hostel even added me as an entry to their facebook account. Finally, the sun sets here over the bikes in Nantucket and everyone is already asleep at 11:30pm. Me, I'm up typing away, but I'm not surprised. I typically would stay up until 1am or so at home. My new home is out here on the road or the sky I guess, at least for two months. Thanks goes to Lauri who has moved into my house and is cleaning, redecorating, and taking care of the cats! I'm sure the result will be a bachelor's dream come true when I see what she's done to the house!
Off to Martha's Vineyard tomorrow. Don't need to wait for the fog to break, since I can file IFR out of here, break through and head into Martha's Vineyard in visual conditions I'm sure. Despite these islands being so close to each other, the weather patterns are very different. Nantucket is further out to sea and is very susceptible to a marine fog layer. The Vineyard doesn't experience that quite as much. Today was a good example, as Martha's Vineyard had fantastic weather all day long.
I do want to close by saying that I had the absolute pleasure of spending some time with Janet Murphy and her husband Bill at Victoria Station in Salem, MA on Monday. Janet is a gradeschool classmate of mine who remembers everything. My memory of those years is fading, but she remembers many details. I guess you never know what to expect when you meet someone you haven't seen in such a long time: 30 years!! We really hit it off and had a lot to talk about, although I must be honest Janet, it seemed like I just wouldn't stop talking. Despite being a blabbermouth, we really reconnected and I got to know her husband Bill who I went to school with at St. John's Prep. We were definitely there at the same time, but we didn't know each other. I really do look forward to the opportunity to meet up with the Murphy's again sometime. Sure, what the heck. I'll embarrass myself and post this picture that Janet found of me back in 3rd or 4th grade. Where on earth did she find this!!
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