Breakfast on the Vineyard
What a nice day! Skies clear, morning chill in the high 30's, and a northeasterly wind guaranteed a great flying day. Today I had David Bulkow along as a passenger for a short hop down to Martha's Vineyard for breakfast, a pilot who previously tooled around the skies of Wisconsin.
The winds were calm as we preflighted, received a clearance to KMVY via radar vectors, direct. We started the takeoff roll at 7:21 a.m. in a calm wind on runway 29 with the skies "severe clear". 
The climb to 5,000 feet was at a brisk 1,000 fpm in the cold air. Our outbound course took us directly over Emmerson Playground in Concord (of Ralph Waldo fame, no doubt)
as well as along the wetlands surrounding the Sudbury River. 
After contacting Boston Approach, we were given radar vectors until west of Plymouth, then cleared direct to KMVY. Visibility was very good although the ground haze made for mediocre photography.
The route took us by Gillette Stadium, Norwood and Plymouth Airports and of course, the Ocean Spray cranberry bogs near Lakewood.
The halfway point of the trip is Asswompsett Pond just south of Middleboro, Massachusetts. 
At this point we tuned into the ATIS at KMVY which reported the winds were from 080 at 12 knots giving us a slight crosswind of 7 knots from the right if we landed on runway 06. The decent into the Vineyard took us directly over Wood's Hole as we were cleared for the visual approach for Runway 06. On the right was Buzzard's Bay and you could see West Island just South of New Bedford as we crossed over Mattapoisett. 
A little farther and the Elizabethan Islands came into view with Naushon the closest of the chain followed by Pasque, Nashawena and Cuttyhunk in the distance. 
After being cleared for landing on runway 6, we turned left donwind to begin the approach and short final.
We taxied right up to the restaurant and shut down. Hobbs time was 48 minutes compared to a planned 42 minutes and fuel consuption was 11 gallons compared to the planned 10.7 gallons; pretty good planning. In front of us was a Piaggio P180 Avanti II, the world's fastest business turboprop, all decked out in the colors of Ferrari.
After breakfast we spoke with some other Skylane owners who had flown down from Plymouth for breakfast as well. An old radial engined WWII bomber was also parked on he tarmac (I think it is a Lockhed C-40, army version of the L-12). 
After getting a clearance back to Bedford via FREDO intersection, we taxied to runway 6 for a northeast departure.
In the 10 knot headwind, the Sylane leapt into the air and climbed out with a great view of the control tower, tarmac and restaurant.
After switching over to Cape approach, we were instructed to turn to a 360 degree heading to cross over Nantucket Sound as the plane rapidly climbed through 4,000 feet, leaving Martha's Vineyard behind.
Traffic was still light and we were cleared direct Bedford almost immediately rather than heading eastward to FREDO. This set up a ground track just to the west of Vineyardhaven and Lagoon Pond, where my wife learned to sail in her youth.
Passing over Vinyardhaven, you could see that the harbor was pretty empty this early in the season. Many of the moorings were empty but the ferry was docked, waiting for the return trip to Wood's Hole.
We passed over Lake Tashmoo next. This is really a misnomer.. The "lake" is actually a salt water tidal basin that is large but very shallow with a maximum depth of only 12 feet. Unlike the lagoon, Lake Tashmoo does have a channel leading out into the bay.
On the right, we could make out the unique shape of Mink Meadows Golf Course, a 9 hole course arranged in a square shape.
We leveled off at 4,000 feet for our crossing back to the Cape amd were vectored toward Buzzards Bay, instead of proceeding to FREDO intersection, near Plymouth. Landfall was made just west of Falmouth.
Flying up Buzzard's Bay, we passed over Scraggy neck
in Cataumet and could make out Monument Beach.
Groundspeed was 134 knots in a slight headwind as compared to the 161 knots we fared on the way back so I decided to make a PIREP via Flight Watch to make others aware. Meanwhile, we had a nice view of the Cape Cod Canal and the railroad and Bourne bridges.
In no time at all, we passed west of Plymouth airport
as well as Otis Air Force base on a heading of almost due north. Before long, the Boston skyline came into sight and Hanscom field stretched before us as we were cleared for a visual approach.
We were vectored on a long, extended base leg for Hanscom runway 11 which had winds of 080 at 8 knots. There was only a lone Tomahawk on final ahead of us so the approach was short, sweet and punctuated by the second greaser of the day. We held for some jet traffic crossing the taxiway and taxied back to the west ramp. 
Total Hobbs time back was 0.9 hours vs a planned 0.7.
The winds were calm as we preflighted, received a clearance to KMVY via radar vectors, direct. We started the takeoff roll at 7:21 a.m. in a calm wind on runway 29 with the skies "severe clear". The climb to 5,000 feet was at a brisk 1,000 fpm in the cold air. Our outbound course took us directly over Emmerson Playground in Concord (of Ralph Waldo fame, no doubt) as well as along the wetlands surrounding the Sudbury River. After contacting Boston Approach, we were given radar vectors until west of Plymouth, then cleared direct to KMVY. Visibility was very good although the ground haze made for mediocre photography. The route took us by Gillette Stadium, Norwood and Plymouth Airports and of course, the Ocean Spray cranberry bogs near Lakewood. The halfway point of the trip is Asswompsett Pond just south of Middleboro, Massachusetts. At this point we tuned into the ATIS at KMVY which reported the winds were from 080 at 12 knots giving us a slight crosswind of 7 knots from the right if we landed on runway 06. The decent into the Vineyard took us directly over Wood's Hole as we were cleared for the visual approach for Runway 06. On the right was Buzzard's Bay and you could see West Island just South of New Bedford as we crossed over Mattapoisett. A little farther and the Elizabethan Islands came into view with Naushon the closest of the chain followed by Pasque, Nashawena and Cuttyhunk in the distance. After being cleared for landing on runway 6, we turned left donwind to begin the approach and short final.We taxied right up to the restaurant and shut down. Hobbs time was 48 minutes compared to a planned 42 minutes and fuel consuption was 11 gallons compared to the planned 10.7 gallons; pretty good planning. In front of us was a Piaggio P180 Avanti II, the world's fastest business turboprop, all decked out in the colors of Ferrari.After breakfast we spoke with some other Skylane owners who had flown down from Plymouth for breakfast as well. An old radial engined WWII bomber was also parked on he tarmac (I think it is a Lockhed C-40, army version of the L-12). After getting a clearance back to Bedford via FREDO intersection, we taxied to runway 6 for a northeast departure. In the 10 knot headwind, the Sylane leapt into the air and climbed out with a great view of the control tower, tarmac and restaurant. After switching over to Cape approach, we were instructed to turn to a 360 degree heading to cross over Nantucket Sound as the plane rapidly climbed through 4,000 feet, leaving Martha's Vineyard behind.Traffic was still light and we were cleared direct Bedford almost immediately rather than heading eastward to FREDO. This set up a ground track just to the west of Vineyardhaven and Lagoon Pond, where my wife learned to sail in her youth.Passing over Vinyardhaven, you could see that the harbor was pretty empty this early in the season. Many of the moorings were empty but the ferry was docked, waiting for the return trip to Wood's Hole.We passed over Lake Tashmoo next. This is really a misnomer.. The "lake" is actually a salt water tidal basin that is large but very shallow with a maximum depth of only 12 feet. Unlike the lagoon, Lake Tashmoo does have a channel leading out into the bay.On the right, we could make out the unique shape of Mink Meadows Golf Course, a 9 hole course arranged in a square shape. We leveled off at 4,000 feet for our crossing back to the Cape amd were vectored toward Buzzards Bay, instead of proceeding to FREDO intersection, near Plymouth. Landfall was made just west of Falmouth.Flying up Buzzard's Bay, we passed over Scraggy neck in Cataumet and could make out Monument Beach.Groundspeed was 134 knots in a slight headwind as compared to the 161 knots we fared on the way back so I decided to make a PIREP via Flight Watch to make others aware. Meanwhile, we had a nice view of the Cape Cod Canal and the railroad and Bourne bridges.In no time at all, we passed west of Plymouth airport as well as Otis Air Force base on a heading of almost due north. Before long, the Boston skyline came into sight and Hanscom field stretched before us as we were cleared for a visual approach. We were vectored on a long, extended base leg for Hanscom runway 11 which had winds of 080 at 8 knots. There was only a lone Tomahawk on final ahead of us so the approach was short, sweet and punctuated by the second greaser of the day. We held for some jet traffic crossing the taxiway and taxied back to the west ramp. Total Hobbs time back was 0.9 hours vs a planned 0.7.Labels: Bedford, Cessna 182, Hanscom, KBED, KMVY, Martha's Vineyard, Skylane
posted by Robert at 11:34 AM
2 Comments:
Hi Robert,
Thanks for the pictures, looks like you and your passenger had an awesome flight!
Question for you: how do you do to get pictures with almost no reflections of other windows or surfaces (e.g. dashboard) in the plane? Do you use a polarizing filter? Or do you retouch the pictures later in Photoshop? Or is your passenger just plain gifted as a photographer?
Cheers,
Julien.
Hi Julien,
Nice to hear from a pilot from down under. Most of my photos actually show reflections, the worst I just pitch. A couple of hints that have improved my shots are:
1) a UV "haze" filter is helpful in the summer when humidity is high. I've used a polarizing filter in the past and it gives dark problem spots depending on where you're shooting through the windshield. A big help has also to take the time during pre-flight to really clean the winshield well. It's amazing how well a little layer of dirt can act as a diffuser to mess up your pictures. Also, I've noticed my most reflection free shots are thiose taken with the sun behind me at a low sun angle.
Hope that's helpful. I think my best advice is take LOTS of pictures and pitch the ones that have reflection problems.
Good luck on getting your rating!
Bob
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