Yesterday, JP Stewart, Mike Walpole, and I flew out to KWWD (Wildwood, NJ) for the Smokehouse Pilots June Fly-out. If you are not familiar with the Smokehouse Pilots Club, it is a “club” of pilots and individuals who love everything related to aviation. They are unofficially based out of KJYO (Leesburg), but have members that are all over the globe thanks to the leadership of Gabriel Muller and Adrienne Galasso.
This was the first fly-out for both JP and I so we decided to meet at KHEF at 0900 to prep for the flight over to KWWD with a stop at 2W6 (St. Mary’s County) to pick up JP’s friend, David. When I got to the airport around 0800, there was a layer of clouds at around 1,000 feet, but no worries…JP has his instrument ticket. By the time we were preparing to take off, the clouds were thinning out, but not to the point where we felt comfortable flying cross country. JP filed and we got the ARSENAL 5 departure from 16R and then direct to our first stop at 2W6. Why 16R when we are located on the east ramp? Right before we started to taxi, a Cessna float plane had an issue with it’s retractable gear when attempting to take off on 16L. They had to be pulled off the runway and it was closed while Operations checked the runway.
We stopped at 2W6 and picked up David and then headed on to KWWD. The number of airplanes was only surpassed by the different types of airplanes on the apron at Cape May Airport. Member of the Smokehouse Pilots flew in everything from Cessnas to turbo-props to even a Pitts bi-plane! The tie-downs at the FBO were full! It was quite an impressive site.
After we arrived, the group hopped in a couple of vans for a quick trip to town to the Lucky Bones Backwater Grille in Cape May for lunch. After having lunch and chatting with new friends (and old friends), most headed back to the airport, but some of the more adventurous of us, explored the area. Who can go to the beach without enjoying a little bit of the local community? JP, David, and I walked around a marina and found an ice cream shop. Then we ran into Gabe, Adrienne, Gary and a few others. We decided to share a ride back to the airport.
We had a great day in The FAA Flying Club’s Piper 235, N9397W! Hanging out with the pilots of the Smokehouse Pilots Club is a blast and I highly recommend checking out future fly-outs and “speak-outs”. Check out their website or Facebook site for upcoming events!