2 days and 5 hours

[GraemeSmith]

The weather has finally broken for the good here in New England. Tropical Storm Henri gave us all a scare when it made landfall just south of my tied down plane. The remnants of Hurricane Ida dumped no less than 7.9 inches of rain on my home airport of KUUU - Newport in just 5 hours a couple of nights ago. As it did we had a pretty spectacular lightning storm and if it had been daylight I suspect we might have seen some waterspouts as we were under a tornado watch. Certainly in the night I heard the wind give a couple of characteristic "growls" as it spun up - our forecasters offering that we would probably experience "mini-momentary tornados".

So 17 days without flying - that's a lifetime for me. And when I last flew - mag check at shutdown had shown a hot mag. So Friday was a beautiful day - mid 70's, no humidity worth talking about and clear skies. Off to the airport - tool kit in hand and.... The mag was a "P-Lead". It took about 30 seconds to diagnose and 30 to fix. It's given trouble in the past and I thought I had improved the builder's original connection which had been problematic. Obviously not enough and I improved it some more.

So off just to go sight seeing. I generally aimed at the strip at 1B2-Katama on Martha's Vineyard where there is a great restaurant. But is is also grass and after all the rain - I planned a fly over rather than risking landing on small wheels. So generally just a nice couple of hours around the block! Plane was in good shape.

Cuttyhunk Island. There is a small grass strip on the left side of the picture. Last used about three years back when the late owner missed it and put his Cub in the trees. RIP.

South Shore of Martha's Vineyard looking east. South shore transition through the Delta at <1,000ft to get to the east end of the island.

The rip currents raising sand off the seabed of Vineyard Sound. I had a JetBlue 737 pass under me a moment later as it climbed out of KACK - Nantucket to the east - constrained to 2,000ft as Cape Approach flew them under the swarms of GA out for the day.

Woods Hole. The Oceanographic Insitute top left. This is where Bob Ballard departed to go find the TITANIC. Cover story for really finding the USS THRESHER wreck for the USN. Steamship docks on the right for the ferry to Martha's Vineyard.

[GraemeSmith]

Saturday was a jump up to KSFM - Sanford Regional for a breakfast with a group of us. First decent get together since we all got vaccinated. The restaurant has converted to outdoor seating and 7 planes and 13 of us met for up for the first time in 18 months. The day was CAVU. and the flying beautiful. 3 hours in the book.

A straight shot over the Boston Bravo. By juggling VFR altitudes - I was able to get a tailwind component both ways!

Dunkin Donuts morning coffee over "Beantown" as Boston is nicknamed.

KBOS - Boston and the city 7,500ft below

The old SAC airbase at KPSM - Portsmouth. Now a civilian field with a National Guard tanker fleet based at the north end fo the field. Remember to land long if landing from the north or it's a nearly 2 mile taxi to the FBO!