The Tangier Island Holly Run is a Christmas event where pilots from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region fly boughs of holly for decoration and needed supplies for the elderly and schoolchildren on Tangier Island, Virginia. Purchased from the Native Americans for settlement in 1666, Tangier is one of the earliest settlements in Virginia and is an island community of about 700 people with access to the mainland only by boat and aircraft. This year’s event took place on December 7th, 2019.
I think that a personal responsibility to provide charity for those in need in remote areas is well implemented through general aviation. Supporting the Holly Run is a good example of that. The school children were in need of basic art supplies, markers, tissues, etc. The elderly needed a wide variety of personal hygiene items. Holly no longer grows on the island. My Son and I collected supplies for the elderly and for the schoolchildren through our Catholic Aviation initiative and ended up with two full bags of supplies. The Holly Run sponsors provided the Holly.
382 does not reside in a warm house like pampered 97W, so we started the brisk morning with a frosted, frozen plane. Not to fear the FBO came to the rescue. Although the day was brisk, it was sunny and clear with light winds from the North. A gorgeous day to fly. The staging area at W29 and we followed a gentle arc below the Class B to get there. We entered a 45 for the left downwind 29, which is significantly offset to avoid buzzing the locals, behind a Super-Cub. The wind was wafting 340@6 which made for a nice approach and landing. The “Elves” marshalled us to a parking area which was packed with all manner of aircraft. I found myself gawking at all the cool aircraft on the ramp and in the grass. 97W sat pretty among her peers and really was one of the nicest planes there. Even the AOPA sweepstakes bird was posing on the tarmac.
Breakfast with Santa and chit chatting with pilots in a hanger full of gyrocopters and planes and stuff is always a good time. After a safety briefing, we picked up our bag of Holly that was to accompany us to Tangier. The race to their planes by the pilots reminded me of a Le Mans event. Flying in a pack seemed outside of my skill level so my Son and I had another cup of coffee and watched all the varied types of planes depart.
Eventually we took off and headed south to Tangier. I was lucky in only having to visually separate from a 182 that departed behind us. The ADSB picture ahead was really funny. There was an absolute swarm of planes buzzing around Tangier and reminded me of the battle of Midway. There were a lot of concerned voices on the CTAF but no one cussed. A real tribute to pilot-controlled sequencing.
We dawdled in and were again assisted by the “elves” to a nice parking spot. We were amazed that we were able to scrounge up some chalks given the number of AC on the field. The reception committee was there with golf carts to collect the donations. They were really appreciative of the support the pilots were showing to their community and readily grabbed our load.
We walked along the narrow bridges and streets pondering the challenges of living landlocked. It takes a special breed I think. It was at least 2 hours since breakfast so of course we heeded for Lorraine’s for lunch. What a fantastic dining experience. The food was very, very good. There we sat munching on seafood and watching videos of our landings so far that day. Critical and proud at the same time. After such a fine meal we explored the island and were greeted by very friendly people. We meandered back to the airport and fired up the plane.
We flew south and circumnavigated the restricted airspace. Getting a read on what was hot/cold was not easy. By the time we were feet dry in Virginia we had talked to four different approach controllers. Talk about getting the bum’s rush. We settled in to a nice, relaxing flight along the Northern Neck of Virginia. We were passed on to Quantico Approach, always first rate, for clearance into the SFRA and were asked to overfly their Class D at 3000 due to some training there. A clean handoff to tower was followed by a smooth approach and landing.
We wrapped up the bird and finished the trip with a nice cup of Joe in APP.
This was a win-win for the needy landlocked on Tangier as well as for us personally.
