KHEF -> KTHV
My most recent flight (now several weeks ago due to an annual on the club airplane) took me back to Pennsylvania to visit a friend. It has been many years since we’ve seen each other, so it was nice to catch up an grab a $300? hamburger (it was a good burger https://www.whiterosebarandgrill.com/). But you’re not interested in that…
The Plan
First and foremost, this was a great opportunity to log some cross-country time and get to enjoy soaring through the Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania countryside. Not much in the way of terrain, the highest peak was approximately 1,800′, but the rolling hills and clear (below 10 thousand) skies made for a spectacular flight.
Of course, the first step is deciding if an attempt to traverse the Dulles class bravo was on the table for the day. I had decided to take the hours instead of the shortcut as it had been a month prior since my last flight. This meant exiting the D.C. SFRA via. the Fluky gate. Then remain under the bravo shelf as I turned north.
For this flight, I decided to practice some VOR navigation (of course, primary was GPS via the installed 430 and ForeFlight w/Sentry), but it had been a while and wanted to freshen up in the unlikely event of full GPS loss. So the route would be CSN -> MRB -> FDR -> EMI. Once clear of the Dulles bravo, I would cruise at 5,500 on the outbound leg then 6,500 on the reverse.
Nostalgia
There was a secondary objective. It was 29 years prior that I had started my pilot journey. Flying from Capital City Airport (KCXY) near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, my first few hours of training I made several full stops at Thomasville (KTHV), now York Airport. While no notable memories were triggered during the approach, returning to this airport 29 years later after finally completing my PPL was exciting!
Cruising
It was mostly an uneventful trip. Not the smoothest ride, but also not the worst. Once clear of the Dulles bravo, I was able to find some smoother air around 5,500′ which was nice. Also, it was good to have altitude in case of an emergency.
The route I chose was purposeful beyond needing a refresher on tuning VORs and seeing if I could remember Morse code (I could not, I relied on the dots and dashes on ForeFlight to confirm I tuned in to the correct station). Flying single engine over large areas of forest and in-hospitable terrain was not appealing. So, choosing to be within gliding distance (mostly) of an airport was my goal.
One day, I hope to have the opportunity to fly over Dulles, but for now, I’ll stick with overflying delta airports, like Frederick Municipal (KFDK). With a 2,800′ ceiling, I was well above while crossing at 5,500′. Frederick has two runways, 5/23 and 12/30, and I had tuned into tower long before passing to hear plenty of GA and student traffic using the field. I stayed north to have a clear view of both runways and traffic.
After passing Frederick, Carroll County (KDMW) was off my left wing after turning north at EMI (Westminster VOR). A fair amount of chatter on CTAF there, however, now I was on the homestretch for York (KTHV). York has a single runway 17/35 and this will be a 35 landing.
Approach / Landing
When I last visited York (then Thomasville), I believe we used runway 17 coming south from Capital City. However, that was 29 years ago, any knowledge of this airport from way back when was useless. Runway 35 has a displaced threshold to accommodate a hill with trees 404′ from the end of the runway. There is also a quarry to the east of the threshold which gives an interesting sight picture as you’re approaching the runway (non of which I remember being there in 1995). Fortunately, there is an operational 4-light PAPI to ensure you are on glide and not trimming the trees.
At 5,188′, if you miss the numbers, you still have plenty of room to comfortably stop. I purposely went long as I was planning to exit and park at the FBO which was at the opposite end of the runway. As a result of this decision, I ended up floating past my intended point of touchdown and had a rather solid landing 250′ or so after. Rolling out to the end of the runway (which was smooth and in good condition) and making a left had me cruise past a dormant Medevac chopper on the pad outside the FBO.
The Return
After spending a couple hours visiting, I returned the borrowed crew car and prepared to head back to Manassas. The trip was smooth at 6,500′ and with a slight tailwind, I pushed back into the hanger 15 minutes earlier than expected.
It was a hot day. Even at 6,500′ OAT was only 68F, which made for a sweaty trip. Performance was surprisingly good, although climb out from York (and earlier at Manassas) was slower than usual. With the tailwind coming back, I was between 115-120KTS TAS.
A Log Entry
With 3.2 total, it was a nice trip. This trip was cross-country time the old fashioned way, using VOR navigation. I think my instructors would be pleased to see their time wasn’t wasted in today’s GPS world. Will I do more VOR navigation, probably not often. Using GPS makes planning long cross-country trips easy and provides more opportunities to take a “shortcut”.
Until next time…
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