Monday, August 3, 2009

To Hyannis With Ben

I'd planned earlier last week to go to Hyannis on Sunday morning, but as the weekend approached, it looked like Saturday would be the better choice, and I was able to change the reservation.

It turned out well. Ben came along and took pictures along the way, so when I get a chance to unload that camera, there'll be even more to post.

We went by way of Bedford and Norwood, under and around the Class B at 2700. I picked that route after realizing that going direct (if we could get it) would put us out over the water for a bit, and I didn't really want that.

My usual N61976 wasn't available, so I used N13081. Remembering the different identification when talking was probably the hardest part of the trip.

Where 976 has an ADF, 081 has a VFR-only GPS unit. What a difference that makes! It's like cheating, because I can just look at it and get an accurate position. I still tuned the VORs and identified them and watched the needles, but there was a lot less guessing involved.

The bad part of 081 is the mechanical radios. Having no flip-flop tuning makes dealing with ATC much harder, especially as Boston tends not to use the published frequencies all the time; they give you different ones depending on workload. So, it's not uncommon to have both a new squawk code *and* a new frequency to dial in.

It was hazy and warm, but quite smooth both there and back. We stopped for a few minutes in the run-up area at HYA to check in back home, and then took off again. Maybe next time I'll plan for a little more time so that we can actually stop somewhere for that $250 hamburger.

I haven't decided where to go next, but probably somewhere different. Maybe New York.

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