AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - April 2022 - 62

surprisingly smooth air all the way to
the coast. After departing Frederick,
Cortes easily picked up flight following
with Potomac and a clearance into the
Baltimore Bravo. We flew right over the
approach path to Baltimore/Washington
International Thurgood Marshall
Airport (BWI), Camden Yards (home
to the Orioles), and M&T Bank Stadium
(where the Ravens play). We threaded our
way around restricted areas, relying on
ForeFlight, the onboard glass, and visual
markers out the window to keep us clear.
Everything was going according to plan-
just a day later than we hoped.
We wandered up and down the bay, hugging
the coast and explaining to approach
why we were taking such a path when they
gently reminded us that we were not, in fact,
flying direct to Cape May County Airport as
we had been cleared. As we approached the
coast, we could see the tail end of the storm
down at the Flight Deck Diner. This is
my favorite kind of airport restaurant-
aviation-themed with delicious food. In
the group text we received a desperate
plea from Team RV who had arrived at
the campsite the day before-could we
please pick up some syrup on our way to
Dover? The diner won even more points
when they sold us a small container of
syrup from their massive vat.
Syrup in hand, we walked a few short
blocks to the Cape May Brewing Company.
Established in 2011, the inviting local
brewery produces award-winning beers,
hard seltzers, and cool merch (sold at the
" Brewtique " ). Cortes, who'd been many
times before, chose some of his freshly
canned favorites, I picked a few more that
looked tasty, and we hit the road.
With our cargo safely tucked away,
we headed back toward Dover. Before
we landed, we hoped to grab some aerial
We threaded our way around restricted
areas, relying on ForeFlight, the onboard
glass, and visual markers out the window
to keep us clear.
moving east over the Atlantic. While Cortes
set us up for the pattern at Cape May, I saw
a banner tow airplane flying low and near a
bay-side coastal home. I smiled and remembered
the summer I towed-that banner,
since it's at a house, is probably for a special
occasion, I thought, it's probably a surprise,
and it probably just made someone's day. I
also remembered the time we got a despondent
call the night before a proposal to cancel
a " Will you marry me? " banner tow-my boss
didn't charge him the nonrefundable deposit.
Despite working together for almost
three years, Cortes and I had never flown
together until this day. The flight had gone
well so far but as any pilot knows, it's the
landing on which you will be judged, and
while the wind at Cape May was light, it
was a direct crosswind. Cortes brought us
in for the landing and we touched down
nice and smooth and with the correct
wheel first-he'd flown well.
After shutting down and getting a golf
cart ride from the folks at the FBO, we sat
62
AOPA PILOT / April 2022
shots of the festival. Firefly doesn't meet
the size threshold for a temporary flight
restriction, but the venue and adjacent
camping area (the Monster Mile racetrack)
underlies Dover Air Force Base's
Class D airspace.
We were cleared to circle in their airspace
for photos for as long as we needed.
After a couple circles, we gave Team RV
a wing-wave, departed the airspace, and
headed to nearby Delaware Airpark. The
airports are only five or so miles apart,
but we widened out our route to give ourselves
more time to understand the flow
of traffic before we entered the pattern.
We landed behind a Beechcraft Bonanza,
the only other traffic on frequency.
After a perfectly smooth trip thus
far, our fate changed slightly after landing.
The notam for closed taxiways had
originally been a minor footnote in our
flight planning, but the reality was far
more inconvenient than expected. Not
only were taxiways closed, the whole of
AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - April 2022

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