Tangier Island Expedition (Sept 1, 2007)

I had been meaning to take the family to Tangier Island as our next step in distance from the Cambridge lunch run that was so successful in the spring (guess I didn't create a post for that one). The forecast for Saturday, Sept. 1, was superb: sunny with a high of 80. So, I reserved my favorite airplane, N923DM, the 182T, and arranged to have everyone organized in time to leave the house by noon. (My wife Nancy deserves most of the credit for this aspect of the trip).

I called Flight Service at about 1130 and indeed the forecast was about as good as you could ask. Since Tangier Island is under part of Patuxent River Naval Air Station's airspace, I decided to file IFR anyway in the hopes I could get a higher altitude (inside the restricted airspace).

We drove to the airport in my car to escape the problems that had forced a previous attempt to be cancelled without ever getting off the ground; the child safety seats installed in my wife's minivan are too large to fit in the back of a Cessna 172, and I wasn't eager to find out if they would fit in the 182. As soon as we drove onto the airport grounds, Elisabeth started screaming. Needless to say I was rather disappointed -- she obviously wasn't interested in flying. And Catherine said she wanted to go home. I paused. It took considerable determination to convince myself I should make the flight anyway, helped by Nancy saying they would have a great time once we got to the island.

Anyway, once seated in the back of the 182, a new problem surfaced: Catherine, who had worn a headset on the previous flight, refused to do so this time. I knew the airplane was a very loud environment without one and imagined this was the cause of the children's aversion to flight. I tried, but failed to convince either of them to wear a headset.

Oh well. We got our clearance and it was a model of clarity and simplicity: "Cleared to Tangier Island direct, when entering controlled airspace fly heading 350, climb and maintain 2 thousand, expect 4 thousand in ten minutes," and then the squawk and the departure frequency. Except for departing the airport to the north, away from the island, which is part of every IFR clearance out of Easton wherever you're going, this was about as good as it gets. It was in the high 70's and brilliantly sunny, with maybe 12 knots of wind almost right down Runway 4. In a short time we were airborne. On the photo of the multi-function display with its moving map, the square next to the airplane symbol is the Navy bombing range occupying the space above and on this one of the chain of islands whose southernmost is Tangier.

Approaching 4,000 well before crossing the Choptank River, I discovered a problem: the autopilot was not capturing the altitude. By 4400 I got the airplane level and disengaged the autopilot, just in time to have the controller ask if I knew I was supposed to level off at 4,000. The autopilot is complex and I had omitted a key step, the "arm" button, which is necessary most of the time...not always....when changing altitudes (have to look this up in the manual to refresh my memory). Anyway, the controller made us descend back to 2,000 as we passed Cambridge so there was no advantage in being IFR.

Passing down the chain of islands under the restricted airspace, the environment was barely above water (see picture). A 182 can glide about 5 miles from 2,000 feet, so an engine failure would not be easy to recover from. However, such thoughts passed quickly as the entire flight took barely over half an hour, with 125 knots of airspeed and a 10 knot tailwind on top of it. about this time we noticed both children were fast asleep!

Landing without problems although we noticed the runway was rather lumpy, we taxied to parking. The old "terminal", a tiny 2-room shack that was nevertheless quite adequate (bathroom and a small office with phone), has finally been replaced (after more than a year with no facilities at all) with a travel trailer. It's air conditioned and has a bathroom, but unfortunately, no phone! The attendant had a cellular and it worked -- more than I can say for mine (Verizon) which never has worked on the island. Yes, it's still 1955 there! So we called the airport to report our safe arrival and proceeded to Mrs. Crockett's seafood restaurant for what turned out to be a $300 lunch. The adults stuffed themselves dutifully, and Catherine liked the crab cakes and corn pudding but not the iced tea; Elisabeth drank lots of the latter but barely touched the food. I'd promised Elisabeth that the island has numerous cats, and we saw a number of rather scruffy ones as we walked to the restaurant with the stroller (see picture).

But after lunch we found a friendly black and white cat that was well groomed and obviously sociable (see picture). The children petted it until it became impatient and batted Elisabeth's hand with its paw (luckily without using its claws.) We had to explain to Elisabeth that this meant it no longer wanted to be petted.

Then we walked on to the beach. Both children loved it. They rolled over in the water and played with the small waves, maybe 6 inches high (see Catherine striking a "Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue" pose.) But I had already been attacked by the six legged creatures as we walked through the marsh to get to the sand beach, and once out of the water about 10 species of insect swarmed around us, of which about 8 of them bit. I was nursing huge red bites for the next 3 days. Once clear of the marsh and back on the road, however, the attacks calmed down. But when we got to the airport we found the trailer locked! No phone, no bathroom, no air conditioned space to cool off (it was by this time rather warm, well above the forecast 80).

The nearest phone was in town next to the post office -- I had used it on 2 previous trips; it was about half a mile away, and we were hot and tired and I didn't want a further delay. Looking up at the sky, I decided conditions were obviously fine and I could safely depart VFR. Off we went, and when I contacted Pax River for VFR advisories they asked if I wanted to activate my IFR flight plan! I guess the problem of no phone communications on the island has hit them before, so the usual routine of getting your squawk and clearance on the ground has not been working for other pilots. I agreed and they gave me a direct clearance at 3,000. In no time we were back at the field and tying down the plane (last picture).

Maybe the children have changed their minds. A few days later at a playground, Catherine looked up at a clear blue sky and said, "It's a perfect day for flight." Just like that!