3. Mar 2007: IFR to Martha's Vineyard

It started out pretty warm today, over 40 degrees when I headed off to Hanscom, although the field was shrouded in fog. My intent was to put togther what I had learned about the 172SP-G1000 for an IFR flight to Springfield, Vernont and some pretty mountainous terrain near Mt. Okemo. However, 1 hour before departure, KVSP was still below minimums and the Keene VOR which I needed to get there was out of service. Also, there was ain AIRMET for icing from the surface to 9,000 with cloud layers all over the place. Sounded like I needed a backup plan.

Instead, I saw that Martha's Vineyard was low IFR in fog and mist but Nantucket was now VFR with improvement anticipated through the morning. The Vineyard would make a nice low minimums attempt and if I could not make it in, the plan was to execute a missed approach and head over to Nantucket. Since the fog was now lifting and the sun was breaking through, I had the plane de-iced and turned it around in the sun to help melt ice on the cowl. Finally, with a clearance in hand and programmed into the GPS, I departed KBED. After contacting Boston Approach at about 700 feet, I turned to the southeast and was cleared direct to KMVY. The ride was smooth and beside some haze was largely clear. ATC cleared me for the localizer 24 approach into KMVY since the glideslpe was inoperative so I turned out over the bay just east of Woods Hole to intercept the localizer.
There was time for a photo or two. Here you can see the curve of Woods Hole forming Great Bay. The Pond where the peninsula (Long Neck) meets the land is Eel Pond and most of downtown Woods Hole is to the left of Eel Pond. The large body of water in the top of the photo is Buzzards Bay and the two small islands in Great Bay are Ram Island and to its left, Devil's Foot Island. Both are near the tip of Long neck known as Penzance Point. The large bay below Eel Pond is Little Harbor.

Most of downtown Woods Hole is dominated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Marine Biological Laboratory. One of the research vessels can be seen in the upper part of the photo. In the left center of the photo is the Steamship Authority terminal which runs regular service between Woods Hole and Martha's Vineyard. Out over the center of the bay, I intercepted the localizer and descended to 1,500 until the final approach fix and then headed down to 440 ft, the MDA. The landing was uneventful and after taxiing back to the runup area, contacted departure control for a clerance back to Hanscom.

I wasn't going to be lucky enough to get a direct clerance back. I was to get radar vectors to the 017 radial from Marthas's Vineyard and track that to FREDO intersection up near Plymouth harbor; then radar vectors back to Hanscom. The radar track to the left show this somewhat circuitous route but the good nes was a nice 28 knot southerly wind was blowing at 6,000 feet so I could expect a little push on the ride home.

After making landfall near Falmouth I was able to take photo of Nobska Pond and Nobska Point at the entrance to Little Harbor. At the tip of Nobska point is Nobska Light which has guarded the entrance to Little Harbor since the first light was built there in 1828.

I finally levelled out at 4,000 feet and tracked just to he west of Otis Air Force Base which was very quiet this morning. To the right I could see the PAVE PAWS radar installation which provides warning and attack assessment of SLBM and ICBM attacks against North America (little comfort).

To the left of the plane was Buzzards Bay and Taylor Point, home of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. In the photo you can see thei training vessel in dock, the USTS Enterprise and also one of their experimental wind generators which is quite a topic of debate down on the cape. It was spining rather nicely as I passed over, crossed the Cape Cod Canal almost directly over the railroad and Bourne Bridges. After only 8 minutes, I was approaching Plymouth Harbor and handed off from Cape Approach to Boston Approach control who started vectoring me due west, away from departing Logan traffic.

This ground track took me almost directly over Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, home of the New England Patriots. I was able to snap a couple of pictures. The parking lot had quite a number of cars there so there must have been some event going on at the stadium. About 4 miles from the TFR zone I was vectored north, keeping just east of the Sudbury Reservoir and cleared for the visual approach back into Hanscom. Total Hobbs time was 2.2 hours.