Block Island Flight

Arrived at Hanscom at 0700 and pre-flighted the 172SP-G1000 for a flight to Block Island, off of the RI coast. Accompanying me was Mike Morris, another pilot who had never flown in a glass cockpit before. The weather was iffy, Block Island (KBID) was showing visibility and ceilings below IFR approach minimums. Morning coastal fog is common here but at 0700, it seemed to be getting worse rather than better. However, all of the inland airports were reporting great VFR conditions so we decided to head down, and if the island was fogged in, we'd divert to New Bedford or Plymouth which were looking good. It was great having Mike help run down the checklists and before long we received an "as filed" IFR clearance, completed our runup and were off. SEY, the Block Island VOR is one of the fixes on the Hanscom Six departure procedure so it was no surprise that once we contacted Boston Approach, we were cleared direct to SEY at 4,000 feet.

The routing put us right over Providence and Greene Airport with great views of Providence Bay, Fall River and New Bedford. You could see the ground fog burning off as we headed south and received clearance for the GPS 28 approach into KBID. I entered the procedure into the autopilot and it found the IAF with no problem and executed the turn inbound to the island. About 5 miles from the FAF, I slowed down and dropped 10 degress flaps and the autopilot started moving the pitch trim up quickly. A pitch trim failure annunciator lit so I disconnected the autopilot and hand flew the rest of the approach.

The ramp was pretty empty since a lot of planes probably were waiting for the fog to clear before departure so we parked and headed over to Bethany's Diner, right in the terminal building. The ramp manager told us he would waive the landing fee if we grabbed breakfast on the airport so we did. It was very crowded and we grabbed the last two seats. The food was great and cheap so after filling up on caffeine and cholesterol, we decided to walk into town which was perhaps a mile or two from the airport, and all downhill.

After passing through the airport gate, we turned left and passed some very pretty rows of hydrangeas that were in front of the Old Town Inn. On both side of the road are pretty farms and cape style houses with hydrangeas, roses and day lillies everywhere. Although there are no signs to point out town, you just keep following the roads down hill and eventually you will wind up on Ocean Avenue hading toward Dodge Street and Spring Street, the main thoroughfare near the ferry landing.

We turned the corner onto Spring Street and were immediately greeted by a view of the harbor. It was full of boats of most shapes and sizes. Both the high speed and conventional ferries had just arrived from Port Judith were discharging passengers. The boats were packed like sardine cans and as we watch the stream of passengers emerging, I was happy we had the relative "spaciousness" of our Skyhawk for the flight down.

Across Spring Street from the docks was the National Hotel. Originally built in 1888, this prominent hotel with wraparound porch is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The porch was filled with breakfasters as they fueled up before the days' exploration of beaches and shops.

And shops there were, aplenty! Spring street was a mini-metropolis of shops, restaurants, art galleries and the like. It reminded me a little of walking through downtown Chatham, on Cape Cod. The street here was pretty busy with cabs picking up ferry passengers, trucks making their food pickups from the docks and a steady stream of bicycles and mopeds, both of which can be rented right there on Spring Street. We walked down as far as High Street and the Harbor Baptist Church, where the traffic moves around a rotary with a marble statue conspicuously in its center.

Named for the biblical Rebekah-at-the-well, B.I.’s “Rebecca” stands proudly at the intersection of four Old Harbor roads. She was erected in 1896 by the local Women’s Christian Temperance Movement, which hoped to curb the consumption of alcohol on Block Island. Ironically, restoration experts have concluded that Rebecca is in fact Hebe, cupbearer to the Gods, which may explain why consumption of alcohol is in such prevelance on BI. The statue was recast in 2001.

After a lemonade break and a trip to one of the shops to pick up t-shirts for the kids, we headed back to the docks for a cab ride back to the airport. After obtaining a weather briefing and clearance, we were rolling down the runway. I climbed at Vx due to a low hill that rises from the departure end of the runway and turned to track direct to the Norwich VOR, our first fix. After making landfall over Westerly airport, ATC gave us a northward radar vector to practically overfly the Connecticut-Rhode Island border west of Providence. As instructed, we intercepted V16 and tracked northeast to WOON intersection and received radar vectors back to Bedford where the wind had picked up. Before shooting the ILS for runway 29, we received radar vectors that send us out as far as Lawrence before we were turned back inbound. I caught a gust on landing and came down harder than I liked which marked perhaps the only glitch to a near perfect flight.

Another Martha's Vineyard jaunt

The weather was similar to last weekend as was the route. This time, I was honored with the presence of Jay Doubman who braved the wee hours of the morning for a 7:30 a.m. departure from Bedford.

The routing was identical to the last flight with a direct to MVY clearance from Boston approach control almost immediately after departure. The only glitch was on the approach to the extended right base leg at Vineyardhaven, there was a Piper executing a long, slow extended final. Tower asked if we could swing into a right downwind of sorts, hugging the coastline and giving the Piper time to land so we obliged. After turning final we dropped flaps and slowed to approach speed but as we apporached the fence, the Piper was still on the runway! I prepared for a go-around but after some verbal assistance from the tower, the Piper finally got the idea an cleared the runway just befor we touched down.

After breakfast, we received the familiar routing back to Beford via FREDO and touchdown was a real greaser.

Early morning flight to Martha's Vineyard

Today's passenger was Richard Lodge who decided to share some air time for an early morning jaunt to the Vineyard for breakfast. We preflighted the aircraft and I gave Richard the nickel tour of he 172SP Skyhawk which we were to fly including the 13 fuel sump points. After strapping in, we contacted clearance delivery to obtain an IFR clearance to KMVY via radar vectors using the Hanscom Six departure procedure. Winds were calm as we taxied to runway 29 and did a run-up. We were #1 for takeoff and before long were airborne and switching over to Boston Approach who cleared us direct to KMVY.

The morning was pretty nice with fairly low humidity providing good visibility of the Cape and islands as we passed by Norwood airport and headed south over the many cranberry bogs of southeastern Massachusetts. We crossed Buzzards Bay over Mattapoisett and were given permission by Cape approach to descent to 1,500 feet at pilot's discretion. Normally, I keep altitude until almost over Martha's Vineyard but since there was no turbulence even at the lower altitudes I decided to descend early. This way we were at 1,500 feet before crossing Wood's hole giving some spectacular views of the town and the islands.

Cape Approach cleared us for the visual before long and after a frequency change to Vineyard tower, we were instructed to report right base over the sandpit. After entering base and turning final, we dropped full flaps and made a smooth landing, taxiing up to the transient ramp in front of the restaurant.

Even with the light air traffic, we grabbed the one open table at the Plane View and grabbed some breakfast as the waiting line slowly started to form. On the way out, we stopped by a WWII Navy aircraft that looked like a Lockheed Electra which was parked on the ramp. After climbing in and starting the engine, a quick call to clerance gave us an immediate response.

The route back was via FREDO intersection which put us on the western edge of the Otis Air NG base. We crossed the Cape Cod canal over the Bourne Bridge and headed out over Plymouth harbor before being handed off to Boston Approach. As we approached FREDO, I noticed a NAV flag on the HSI and informed approach that we lost GPS navigation ability. They promptly gave us radar vectors around the western edge of the Boston class bravo airspace. We turned east to enter the left downwind fo runway 29 at Bedford and made a trouble free approach and smooth landing.

Flight - Keene, NH

Decided to do a short IFR trip to Keene, NH. Filed to go via the GDM VOR but received a clearance to Manchester, NH and then direct Keene. Takeoff was uneventful, proceeded direct MHT at 5,000 feet with some light afternoon turbulence and very hazy skies. I took off the foggles for a short glance and saw I was over Nashua airport, with Manchester's runway barely visible through the haze. ATC came on and gave a clearance direct to KEEN and ordered a climb to 6,000. I asked for the GPS 02 approach since the KEEN localizer was out of service, preventing any ILS or LOC approaches.


ATC cleared me for the GPS approach and vectored me further to the south. All of a sudden there a biplane appeared at my altitude and 9 o'clock very close by. Luckily he was banking away to his left and descending so as not to cross my flight path. I intercepted the GPS course and turned inbound toward KEEN and started my descent into the valley, needing to give up a fair amount of altitude in a short distance. ATC granted a frequency change to the CTAF and I radioed my position with no response, the airport was completely empty.

The approach and landing were near perfect as I landed in the middle of a nature preserve....wild turkeys were all over the grass next to the runway, two deer were foraging on the taxiway and a great blue heron was wading in the pond near the fence line! I taxied over to the hangars and contacted Bangor FSS through the remote communications outlet to close my flight plan and obtain a clearance for the journey home. I was cleared to Bedford via EEN and GDM VORTACS and V141.

Takeoff was beatiful with the low sun angle illuminating everything in red except for the long purple shadows. The departure procedure called for a straight out climb to 2,000 feet and then a climbing left turn back to the Keene VORTAC. I reached 4,000 feet long before reaching EEN and contacted Boston Departure who cleared me direct to KBED. The flight was short and with a clearance to land on Runway 11, I had to hardly make a turn after leaving KEEN.