May 20, 2017 - Ocean City, MD - Cape May

Well, the plan was to pick Bruce up at Ocean City, Maryland, then fly down to the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach for their annual World War II airshow.  I had received prior permission to land on their 5,000 by 200 turf runway.  They have one of the best flying WWII collections on earth and this would be my first time to see it.

Things didn't go according to plan.   The flight to Ocean City was nice and uneventful.  I made a nice landing, taxiied to the FBO building and met Bruce.  They were even serving breakfast in the FBO building so we did that.  We walked out to the plane, got in, and started up.  I went to taxi and the airplane would not go forward; just wanted to turn to the right.  What's going on?  I got out, and sure enough, the right tire was flat.  I couldn't believe it.  This is the third time I've had a flat main tire since I've had the RV.

Fortunately, I had brought a spare tube and my jacking tool, so all we needed to change the tire was a jack, some wood blocks and some air.  The airport manager graciously supplied those items and let us use the workbench in his hangar.  Still, it was a major hassle, took a couple of hours, and prevented us from going to the WWII airshow.  It turns out the Virginia Beach weather wasn't the best so maybe I didn't miss too much.  Oh well, there's always next year.
   
Grounded at the Ocean City, MD Airport.
   
So we got the plane fixed.  Virginia Beach was out, but we might as well do some flying, so we flew north up the beach, crossed the Delaware Bay and landed at Cape May County Airport.  We had lunch at the on-field restaurant, then toured the NAS Wildwood museum.
   
P13
   
The U.S. Navy retired all its F-14 Tomcats years ago so you see them in just about every aviation museum.
   
 
   
The F-5 was used by the services in their Aggressor squadrons.  I believe the T-38/F-5 was the grandfather of the F-18.
   
The huge "Hangar One" survives from the earliest days of the base in World War II.
   

A big SH-3 helicopter.  The SH-3 was a mainstay of the U.S. Navy for many years.

We flew back to Ocean City where I dropped Bruce off, then headed home.  At least we got some flying in -- the day wasn't a total loss.
   
 
   
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