November 30, 2023 - Fly to Cape May with Mugsy
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The weather was decent this Thursday, plus it was forecasted to be nasty this weekend -- and in fact, it was hard IFR all weekend -- so Mugsy and I decided to go flying. With nothing particularly exciting in mind, we did our old standby destination: Cape May and the Flight Deck Cafe. We agreed to meet at Ridgely Airport (now Gooden Airport, I guess) at 11am.
Here I'm passing the Chester River on my way to Ridgely.
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Looking down at Ridgely/Gooden. I haven't landed here in awhile.
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I taxiied by this white and blue Festival. I wondered if it might be the one that operated as a Light Sport trainer at Essex Skypark ten years ago. Back at home, I looked up the N-number and no this is not the one. I always referred to the plane as "The Festivus", referring to the Seinfeld episode where "a Festivus for the rest of us" was a made-up holiday by George Costanza's father.
Next to the Festivus it is a Mini Coupe. I'm pretty sure it belongs to a guy who used to be in my EAA Chapter. Back at home, I looked it up and confirmed it. You used to be able to buy a kit to build the plane but now only plans are available for scratch building the aircraft. The single-seat plane shares the same basic configuration as the larger Erco Ercoupe, providing the basis for the name Mini Coupe.
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A RV-12 sits all by its lonesome.
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| Ridgely used to have a significant hang-glider training operation. They would tow the hang-gliders up using a ultra-light with big engine as a tow-plane. But that operation is long gone. The last few years a small parachute operation has started up. I think that's the jump plane atleft. |
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| Self-service avgas used to be available here but the system has been shut down for years. The display on the self-service kiosk is virtually unreadable now because the sun has crazed the plastic. The taxiway back to the west end of the runway is in horrible condition. It seems to me this airport is slowly dying. |
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| Mugsy arrived. We solved a few of the world's problems, then started up and prepared for takeoff. |
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Still over the Eastern Shore, I spotted yet another private runway I have never seen before.
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| Looking south with Cape Henlopen curving to the east in the distance. |
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Over the Delaware Bay. Land ho!
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| Safe on deck at Cape May. |
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| I took this picture because I wanted my plane in the same picture as a F-14 Tomcat; yes, that's an F-14 Tomcat in the background. |
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| ZZZ |
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ZZZ
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After a delicious breakfast at the Flight Line Cafe, Mugsy and I checked out the planes on static display in front of the big hangar/museum.
Here is a two-seater F-16.
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The F-16 is loaded with big fuel tanks and bombs. It's a shame to hang all that stuff on this small, nimble fighter.
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| The F-14s massive tailhook. It's really quite amazing that they were able to slow a huge jet like this to a stop on a 1,000 foot carrier deck. |
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| The front end of some Sidewinder heat-seeking missiles. |
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| Departing Cape May, we jumped over to Cape Henlopen. Here, I'm looking south down the Delaware beaches. |
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Flying off Mugsy's wing over Delaware.
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| Close-up of Mugsy in the afternoon sun. |
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| I broke off from Mugsy when we hit the Choptank River. Ahead of me is Tuckahoe Creek. I don't usually from this altitude. |
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