Auburntsts
Well Known Member
So we took a $100 hamburger (crabcake) flight to Tangier Island, VA located in the Chesapeake Bay. http://www.tangierisland-va.com/
I chose to fly IFR from my home base of Manassas (KHEF) to simplify navigating the convoluted airspace in the area -- the island is almost surrounded by Restricted Airspace used by Patuxent NAS. However, lots of folks do it VFR. However, if VFR it's best to be talking to Patuxent Approach. By going IFR I essentially went direct making for a short 35 min flight from KHEF.
The Island is pretty neat, but very small. You can rent bikes or a golf cart, but everything is within walking distance. There are 4 restaurants to include 2 places that sell snacks and ice cream. We went on a Sunday and a few of them are closed. We had lunch at Lorraine's and it was pretty good seafood, and they take credit cards (no ATM on the island BTW). There's lots of history and a cool little museum. We also took a 20 min guided tour by golf cart ($5/person) around the island.
There's basically no cell reception but the restaurant let me use their phone to call in my return IFR flight plan. In hindsight I could have just planned ahead and preloaded my return IFR or SFRA flight plan before we left. Also there's a $10 (cash only) landing fee. One issue about departing IFR is there's no land line at the airfield so if you can't get Patuxent App (they had given me their number on the way in) on your cell, you have to pick it up in the air. I was actually able to get through and write my clearance written down but it took 3 try's to do. On the third drop I hadn't completed the read back yet so we opted to launch VFR and finish the pickup in the air.
All in all a neat little trip for those in the mid-Atlantic region looking for something different.
I chose to fly IFR from my home base of Manassas (KHEF) to simplify navigating the convoluted airspace in the area -- the island is almost surrounded by Restricted Airspace used by Patuxent NAS. However, lots of folks do it VFR. However, if VFR it's best to be talking to Patuxent Approach. By going IFR I essentially went direct making for a short 35 min flight from KHEF.
The Island is pretty neat, but very small. You can rent bikes or a golf cart, but everything is within walking distance. There are 4 restaurants to include 2 places that sell snacks and ice cream. We went on a Sunday and a few of them are closed. We had lunch at Lorraine's and it was pretty good seafood, and they take credit cards (no ATM on the island BTW). There's lots of history and a cool little museum. We also took a 20 min guided tour by golf cart ($5/person) around the island.
There's basically no cell reception but the restaurant let me use their phone to call in my return IFR flight plan. In hindsight I could have just planned ahead and preloaded my return IFR or SFRA flight plan before we left. Also there's a $10 (cash only) landing fee. One issue about departing IFR is there's no land line at the airfield so if you can't get Patuxent App (they had given me their number on the way in) on your cell, you have to pick it up in the air. I was actually able to get through and write my clearance written down but it took 3 try's to do. On the third drop I hadn't completed the read back yet so we opted to launch VFR and finish the pickup in the air.
All in all a neat little trip for those in the mid-Atlantic region looking for something different.