Yet another long awaited trip finally came to fruition. A trip to Block Island has been on my list of places to fly to since I passed my checkride. However being a pilot in the northeast you get used to cancelling day trips and changing your plans due to weather. After at least three failed attempts I finally made it there the last weekend in August. Weather was absolutely perfect with calm winds aloft and excellent visibility. Copilot for the day was my girlfriend Anca. Our airplane for the day was my club’s upgraded Cessna 172N Superhawk.

The quickest way to the island is to make a b line from Morristown through the New York bravo airspace hugging the north shore of Long Island. This is of course easier said than done. In my experience it is pretty much 50/50 chance whether or not NY will clear VFR traffic into the bravo, especially in the area in proximity of LGA.  I had Morristown hand me off to NY and after a little bit of circling to delay entering the class b, I was cleared direct to Block Island. Our flight path can be seen below courtesy of flightaware.

As we passed Montauk lighthouse we listened to the airport’s AWOS which was reporting winds from 080 between 8-12kts. We landed on runway 10 after being bounced around a bit on short final. After landing we were directed to a parking spot in the grass by a man in a golf cart. The landing fee at Block Island was $10, which is fine considering there are no fuel sales for the airport to profit from. The center of town is only a 10min walk from the airport.

The island is a very charming place. There are no chain resturants or big box stores to speak of. We decided the best way to make use of our time would be to rent a moped and scoot around. It ended up being a great choice. We walked over looking for Island Moped but ended up finding The Moped Man. We rented the moped for 3hrs at $90. Not the cheapest option but this being only a day trip it was the most efficient. The moped had certainly seen it’s better days but it got the job done. My favorite feature aside from the torn seat was the pronounced wobbling at higher speed. No matter, off we went!

We drove clockwise around the entire island visiting the following places:

1. Southeast Lighthouse – Classic lighthouse with an excellent view
2. Mohegan Bluffs – You take a steep staircase followed by a scramble down some rocks to a very cool beach covered in stacked rocks
3. Rodman’s Hollow – We walked about 1,000ft into this nature preserve and decided whatever was here to see would take too much time
4. Great Salt Pond – The docks of this marina were filled with huge boats
5. Settler’s Rock
6. North Lighthouse – The other lighthouse, a bit of a sandy walk from the parking lot but pretty nice

After zooming around the island for a few hours we were in need of some food. We dropped off the moped and went to the first place with seafood that looked decent. It ended up being the Harbor Grill. While I was hoping for a bit fancier place since this was a special trip, this ended up being fine. I ordered the lobster quesadilla and she ordered the fresh lobster. Both were very good.

We walked back to the airport and took off for a calm flight back home. We elected to follow the north shore of long island sound this time, avoiding the NY airspace. It was an eventful flight home with the sun starting to set off in the distance. It was a great way to end the day and I look forward to heading back there soon. Total flight time was about 3hrs.

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In what might be considered a miracle this past weekend turned out to be a perfect VFR day along most of the east coast. Usually when I book a club plane far out in advance I am grounded by maintenance or weather woes but not this time. Accompanying me for the day was my lovely girlfriend Anca. After a standard preflight and a quart of oil we were off from my home base of Morristown,NJ KMMU in one of our club planes a 1979 Cessna Skyhawk.

I decided to follow the New Jersey shoreline to have some sights to see on the way down. We were both rather surprised at just how bad everything still looks around Seaside many months since Hurricane Sandy. Even the infamous roller coaster in the water is still there.

The rest of the flight down was pretty straight forward. We were approaching KOXB after approximately 1:40hr of flight time. The airport was quite busy. I was number three approaching to land and there were several other planes waiting to take off. The airport’s location is excellent being only a few miles from downtown Ocean City and about 10min from Assateague Island. You can park in any yellow tie down spot and there are even ropes to use in most of them. Once inside the terminal we spoke with Don from Express Rental car and were able to borrow a clean and pretty new minivan for a whopping $25 day. A taxi cab would have cost almost as much just to get to town one way. The rental process itself was ridiculousness simple, nothing compared to the usual big brand paperwork bull we all usually deal with. I definitely recommend getting a car from them on your visit.

Our first stop was the boardwalk. Neither of us had even been there before. I would say it reminds me of Cape May, NJ. Very nice clean place with lots of families around. Unfortunately it was still March 30th and rather cold out so we didn’t get any time in the water. We did however find a kite store on the boardwalk that had the coolest collection of airplane kites. If you fancy some funky kites this was certainly the place to grab one.

Once we were done perusing the boardwalk and enjoying the bit of sun that was out there it was time for food. We ended up heading back near the airport to a restaurant called The Shark on the Harbor. Anca happens to be quite a big fan of seafood as evidenced by her grin the photo below. It was situated right on the harbor where you can see fishing boats unloading their catches. The food was great and we both recommend checking it out some time.

The last stop of the day was Assateague Island. Located approx 10min south of the airport it’s most notable aspect is the wild horses. No one knows the exact story of how the horses got there but they have been living isolated on the island for decades. It is actually one of the few places left in the U.S. with wild horses. You can even camp right on the beach with them. We didn’t have much time left to hang out but we did see a few horses while driving through.

We left the island and were back at the airport in a few minutes. I decided to top off the plane’s tanks before leaving at the airport’s self service fuel station. After fueling we taxied over and were off again back home. The flight home was thankfully uneventful. Earlier puffy clouds gave way to a fairly clear sky with just a bit of haze on the horizon. I climbed up to 5,500ft and flew a straight line back to Morristown. All in all it was about 3.5hrs on the hobbs and a great time. I definitely recommend it as a day or weekend trip.