March 11, 2022 - Funfly Over the Big Marsh

I only flew Nik around for fifteen minutes or so.  Since I hadn't flown my RV in over five weeks, I wanted to do more flying than that so I hopped back in the RV and headed across the Chesapeake Bay.

Here I'm approaching the Eastern Shore, as we call it.  As you can see, everything is still pretty brown and drab.
   
Now heading south.
   
A peninsula covered with lots of houses, many of them waterfront.
   
Some nice waterfront homes, complete with docks.
   
This is an island in Eastern Bay.  Don't have to worry about offensive neighbors here!
   
A private grass strip on St. Michaels.
   
Passing by an old graveyard.  If only those tombstones could talk.
   
Another private grass airstrip westw of Cambridge.
   

I flew over what used to be Horn Point Aerodrome.  It is no longer an airfield although the three turf runways look OK from the air.  The former airfield is now a farm that houses The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), a sprawling center of ecological study.  Sprawling, I tell you!  The major change is the triangular area at left used to be empty but is now filled with solar panels.

The Potomac Antique Aero Squadron (PAAS) held its Antique Airplane Fly-In here at Horn Point Aerodrome for 44 years, from 1971 until 2015.  I myself went to the Horn Point fly-in multiple times:   2004, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2015.  It seemed to me airplane attendance declined towards the end.  Still, it was one of the better fly-ins, with very interesting planes to look at.

The airfield itself was built in 1937 by Francis DuPont, who had inherited the Horn (or Horn's) Point Farm, as a private landing strip for his Chesapeake Bay hunting lodge.  The DuPont's, of course, are one of the most famous families in America.  E. I. du Pont de Nemours (24 June 1771 – 31 October 1834) was a French-American chemist and industrialist who founded the gunpowder manufacturer E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. His descendants, the du Pont family, have been one of America's richest and most prominent families since the 19th century, with generations of influential businessmen, politicians and philanthropists.
 

The earliest depiction of Horn Point Aerodrome is on the 1942 USGS topo map.  The property remained private until 1968, when the DuPont family gave it to the City of Cambridge. The City gave it to the State in 1971.  At some point the State gave it to the University of Maryland.  Horn Point Aerodrome was evidently closed between 2015-2016, as it was no longer depicted on the 2016 Washington Sectional Chart.
   
I continued south.
   
A road out inthe middle of nowhere.
   
Once you get south of Cambridge, the entire area is marsh, water and trees, with little to no civilization.
   
Not as pretty as it can be, since it's still winter and everything is tan and brown.  But look at that area to center left.  Dark brown.  That area burned.
   
And it got worse.  A big fire must have taken place here.
   
Nothing but burnt ground.
   
A remote lodge with dock in the middle of nowhere.
   
What made those tracks on the left?
   
Pretty.
   
Crossing a burnt area that has started to recover.  I don't imagine it takes more than a year or two and then you would never know there had been a fire here.
   
 
   
A simple house or shelter accessible only by boat.
   
Another hunting shack all by its lonesome.
   
Looking south at a river that flows to the Chesapeake Bay.
   
I landed at Cambridge Airport for lunch at "Katie's At the Airport" restaurant.  I've been here many times and it's always good.
   

Now heading north up the Choptank River.
 
   
The Choptank is the longest and widest on the Eastern Shore.
   
Crossing the Chester River as it empties into the Chesapeake Bay.  The Bay Bridge is in the distance.  Fun day.  I missed my RV-7 while I was in Florida.  It was good to fly it for a couple of hours.
   
 
   
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