At 0800 we were rolling down runway 22 departing home base Luray for Teterboro NJ. Flight conditions up to Teterboro at 9000 feet were very smooth and clear with a nice tailwind of about 30 knots. It was a beautiful Sunday morning and today we would be picking up our passenger (Tony) at Teterboro and bringing him back to our home base Luray where Angel Flight Pilot Doug Jewell would continue him onto Hillsville VA. We have flown Tony before and very much enjoy his company (Tony actually had a part in constructing the Teterboro Tower !)
We were not for sure how ATC may amend our route once getting closer to Teterboro (sometimes they can really take you around the barn !) but today they changed our route very little and nicely brought us in with vectors to ILS runway 19 while asking for us to keep our best forward speed…… “everything happens fast at Teterboro” ! While on final to runway 19 we had a great view of the New York City Skyline across the river…. “very impressive” !
Once inside the FBO (Signature Flight Support West) we waited for Tony’s arrival (we were a little ahead of schedule)….. Tony and his ride arrived past our planned departure time and we found out the they had been delayed getting across the George Washington Bridge. After our greetings with Tony we boarded up and departed Teterboro from runway 24 heading back to Luray…. our departure clearance was involved buy very typical as far as Teterboro is concerned. They eventually had us up at 8000 feet which was smooth but with the price of a 30 knot headwind…. we were already behind schedule and this would certainly not help….. so we requested and received 6000 feet which had a lower headwind component, then soon after that we were given the choice of 4000 which we accepted and again this helped with even less headwind…. although it came with the price of a little chop, but not bad.
We canceled our IFR about 20 miles out from Luray and made a visual to runway 22. Doug and his copilot were waiting for us ready to continue Tony home (Hillsville VA) Doug did emphasize that they did not mind waiting because they were enjoying the beautiful views around our airport. After some good conversation and giving our goodbyes to Tony (and taking some pictures) we taxied on over to the hangers and snugly tucked 49Bravo back in until out next flight. Then we enjoyed a nice cup of hanger coffee while having our “debriefing” of the day !
Total flight time for today was 4.5 hours covering 518 nautical miles over 5 states. This Mission numbered 378 for John and 266 for myself (Nevin)
Following are photos of the day……
