Essex Skypark

Essex Skypark is an airport just 3 or 4 miles from Baltimore. Last year I took the M10 Cadet there to the "Wings and Wheels". I was impressed with how small it was. And how laid back. And how nice it was in general. So of course I wanted to go this year. So today, Saturday, was Essex. I had stayed up too late last night. I got a late start. I wandered out to the hangar at ten AM with my coffee. I opened the hangar doors, and sipped more coffee. I had a trickle charger on the M-10's failing battery. I took that off, and sipped more coffee. I checked the oil. More coffee. God, the little airplane was filthy. Hanger dust, bird droppings. I had no time to wash it. I cleaned the plexiglass, cause you gotta see. I loaded up some stuff: a little cooler, a tool caddy full of cleaning stuff, paper towels, and the new sectional and the new area chart. The GPS, fresh batteries for the GPS, an extra shirt, chocks, and other stuff. I rolled it out and sumped it. I was all set and climbed in, good to go. I hit the starter which is this pull knob you really have to yank. There was this pitiful, weak, movement of the prop. It went about 4 inches and couldn't overcome compression. So now I have a choice of scrubbing the event, using jumper cables, or propping it. I could go and find my wife and have her help me. This was all gonna take time. You should never prop a plane by yourself. You should never let yourself be hurried. I had no real reason to hurry. But I turned on the mags, cracked the throttle and threw a chock under the nose wheel. I swung the prop, no fire. Once again, and she fired up and ran like a dream. I couldn't pull the chock because it was stuck. The M10 has no parking brake. So I jumped back in and warmed her up and got the radios and stuff on. It took full throttle to jump that chock. Soon I was climbing northwest toward Baltimore. God, it was beautiful. The weather was perfect. From over Preston, 3 miles from my house, at eleven hundred feet I could see the Bay Bridge and downtown Baltimore. And that's a good thing too because to navigate into Essex, without talking to controllers (which I didn't want to do) you have to do it just right. There's at least 4 different airspace things going on to get into this cute little woodsy pretty airpark that is 2000 feet long. Shorter than my backyard strip. There is the dreaded DC ADIZ/SFRA. There is the BWI class B you gotta stay under. There is restricted Area 4001B which is always hot. And last but not least, Essex is in the Martin State tower's traffic area. Is that class D? So 42V and I did this little dance and had fun and talked to no one. Once at the fly in, I wandered around and looked at every car and every airplane . It was small and friendly and wonderful. Everyone was doing fly-bys. I ate a cheeseburger. I stared at a Detomaso Pantera for a long time. I chatted with these folks who had a 1957 310 which was gorgeous. They were from my home town. I had a hot dog. I chatted with the guy giving rides in the Stearman. I thought he might have a battery I could buy. I chatted with the car people and some nice locals. There were some nice folks who were kind of a blue collar crowd and some cute looking girls. Airshow babes are usually rare. I went back to my M10 on the flightline and started cleaning it up. Folks came and looked at me and 42V. And I watched every single fly-by. There was a nice fly- by done by two RV's in formation. Every takeoff and landing done by the local Stearman was a fly- by and a show in itself. The very best "fly-by" was when the Cessna 310 left. I knew he was gonna come back around. When he turned onto final his rollout was a precision snap locked to the extended centerline of the runway. His final was an energy managed descent to the deck. He went down that whole runway like he was on rails, with the prop tips close enough to the asphalt to give us all a real thrill. And fast? Oh yea. It was one of the best fly-ins I'd ever been to. When the sun started to go down, they passed out trophies and I started to look for somebody to prop me. I found a J-3 guy who was very nice. Soon I was back over the bay and leaving the mean airspace behind. I was a little low on fuel and I wanted to keep the outing going, so I stopped into Bay Bridge Airport. They have a self serve fuel set-up. I ran into a friend or two. I bought coffee at the gourmet gas station. (Yes, there is a gourmet gas station there.) Then my friend propped me and I was off for home. Couldn't be prettier. I turned off the radio and the GPS and just went from cow pasture to toolshed. Then I beat up Eric's place and my place. It was such a good day, I had to tell you about it. Even though the M10's airspeed didn't work and the cig lighter CB was popped and of course no battery, she performed like a charm. Whoever gets her for the 24K I am asking is gonna have one heck of a nice little classic. Oh, and the sunset I watched with wife was spectacular. Maybe I'll go to Campell Soup tomorrow! Or wait till I get a new battery............. GA Informal.