October 24, 2021 - Missing Man Formation, Winchester, Virginia
Today's mission was to fly a Missing Man Formation for a veteran who fought in Vietnam. We were staging out of Winchester Airport, Virginia.
It has been awhile since I've flown west out of Essex Skypark; since AirVenture in late July. Here I am about to cross the north side of Baltimore. Kind of a gloomy day, especially compared to yesterday.
I marked on top Clearview, then Frederick. Now I'm looking down at Lovettesville, Virginia. I used to fly gliders at Jan Scott's Flying Cow Airpark, just visible at far right. You had to drive through Lovettesville to get to Jan's. For most of my time flying at Jan's, Lovettesville was nothing, with only those houses on the top side of that oval at the center. Everthing to the lower left, center and right of the oval is new. This is Loudin County, which in the news these days.
The Flying Cow Airpark is still there. Some airline pilot bought it and keeps the grass strip operational. But no gliders are towed aloft anymore.
We briefed the flight in the Winchester terminal building which is very nice. We had a four-ship. From left to right: me, Jolly's RV-7, Mark P.'s RV-7A, Jim T.'s RV-8.
Ready to line up on the runway.
After takeoff, we racetracked for 15 minutes or so, then did the Missing Man pass. Mark was lead. I was number three and did the pull-up and turn to the west on Mark's command.
Everything went well -- here is the Video Link. I had to get home to go to a wedding so I never rejoined but headed for home instead.
On the way home, I checked out Harper's Ferry. Not really a great idea; it was very bumpy flying through the break in the ridge.
So concluded my fifth straight day of flying! This is rare, not including the long cross-countries.
