Day 13: Philadelphia, Trenton, Gaitherburg, MD

Day 13: June 12, Gaithersburg, MD. During the previous night, I began planning my departure from the Philadelphia area. I was staying with my sister-in-law and nephews, the Bug family, and they would be departing for Massachusetts the next morning to attend a reunion at Williams college in Williamstown, MA. I carefully reviewed the weather and the train schedules and it appeared that there was an excellent window of opportunity. The R3 train left Swarthmore at 9:08am, went through downtown Philadelphia, and continued on north to the West Trenton station in NJ at 10:40am, which just happens to be 1.5 miles from the airport. I filed an IFR flight plan to depart Trenton at 11:30am, which put me in a perfect weather window.

The previous evening, a severe thunderstorm had made its way through Philadelphia and the Trenton area. While the thunderstorms had moved out by morning, some of the low-hanging clouds remained. While I was on the train, Trenton was still reporting a 500 foot overcast layer, but the forecast was that the lower layers would clear out by the time I arrived at the airport. As I sat on the train, most people were reading their newspapers or catching up on email on their Blackberries. I was looking out the window and watching the sky, because I would be flying this very patch of sky from Trenton back to Philadelphia in just an hour. I noticed that the sky was clearing, just as predicted. The reason I call this a window of opportunity was that the forecast called for the potential for thunderstorms to develop in the Trenton / Philadelphia area by 2pm, so I really needed to get to the airport and take off before things started to develop.

I arrived at the West Trenton station and my iPhone showed that it would be a 30 minute walk to the airport. 1.5 miles is close, but it still takes a while on foot. I could have called a cab, but I didn't really mind walking a bit. My bag doubled as a backpack, so it would have been good exercise. West Trenton was the end of the line, so everyone got off the train. As people walked to their cars, I began asking if anyone was headed towards the airport. A few people said no, but one young passenger said yes. He said, hop in, I'll give you a ride. I told him about my trip and gave him one of my cards that have the web address for the blog. He thought it was an interesting adventure. I have been pretty skillful at hitching rides from airports, usually from other pilots, so I guess this skill transfers well to train passengers as well. I'm so glad I was able to get this ride, becuase little did I know, that in addition to the 1.5 miles which would lead me to the entrance of the airport, there was another mile hike down Airport Rd. to the general aviation side of the airport. This ride saved me a lot of time, and I was grateful since conditions were great at the time and I could get an early start to avoid thunderstorms.

Upon reaching the airplane, I began packing it and noted that it was rather hot and humid on the tarmac. I looked to the east and could already see a few minor cumulus buildups. The recipe for thunderstorms was in the air, so it was time to preflight and get moving. I picked up my IFR clearance to Gaithersburg, MD and took off.

The flight plan was from Trenton, NJ to the Modena VOR west of Philly, to the Baltimore VOR based at BWI, then 24nm west to Gaithersburg. As is often the case, somewhere along the way, air traffic control (ATC) is able to shortcut the route and give you a direct routing to your destination airport, which is what happened to me. This saved me from having to fly longer on the more circuitous route.

The friend I was visiting, Jim Pierson, is the director of high-frequency (HF) direction finding for the FCC in the DC area. From his office, he was able to easily track my flight both by using flightaware.com and from my own on-board GPS which pushes data to my website through the iPhone. After landing in Gaithersburg and taxiing to a parking spot, I shut down, called him up, and simply said "The Eagle has landed". He knew exactly what time I had touched down, what altitudes I was flying, and how fast I was going. I must say, it is a pretty amazing time that we live in which allows us all to be connected so closely no matter the time or place. I had carefully put together this website to accommodate just that, and it was primarily for friends and family, but of course, the whole world can see it. After I hung up with Jim, the realization of how far my efforts to stay connected became crystal clear as a complete stranger approached my aircraft, someone who had been tracking my trip from Day 1!

A Twitter follower, @FoxWhisperer, had made her way to the airport and met me at my aircraft just after I landed. She told me about her love of aviation and how she liked to keep in touch with pilots and flight attendants on Twitter. She hopes to be a flight attendant someday. We sat down at the airport restaurant for a while until Jim arrived.







Next, Jim and his wife Jeanette treated me to a mexican dinner at their favorite restaurant. I told them to make sure that the chef holds the black beans on my dish, or I wouldn't be a very good house guest for the rest of the evening. It was great to be in MD with Jim & Jeanette! We spent the rest of the evening relaxing with neighbors on their porch, enjoying some of the good weather MD had to offer. Jim made plans to treat me to the National Air & Space Museum (Udvar-Hazy Center) at Dulles for the next day. This was to be a real treat for a pilot!