Night on the Town

Ok... so maybe this is better termed "Early Evening on the Town"!

Husband and I finally made it up to HGR this past weekend. We've had two or three trips scheduled and something has always gotten in the way... either P-40 is expanded, the weather is bad, etc.

I didn't think we were going to fly this weekend. The plane was booked by someone else on Sunday, and on Saturday: I had a volleyball tournament, Husband had to work, and the weather looked awful. But... Saturday morning, we started seeing some blue through the clouds. My volleyball playing ended early (read: we lost!), and Husband managed to get his work wrapped up by late afternoon.

So, we headed out for an early evening treat: a flight to Hagerstown and dinner at the airport. HGR is so close, we each only got .6 hours of Hobbs, even with the runup and taxi time! But it was nice out-- almost smooth, and a lot of blue sky (and also a lot of haze!). I had done all the flight planning, so I flew on the way out and Husband manned the radios. HGR is a towered airport-- but we've gotten much better at our radio calls, so even that wasn't a big deal. Our approach brought us within a few degrees of the prevailing runway path, so we were told to call a 3 mile final. As soon as we did, we were cleared to land. We asked how to get to the restaurant, and Tower gave us instructions to park at Jet Ryder, an FBO on the field.

We pulled onto the ramp and were directed into a spot. The marshaller then met us at the plane. We were worried when he said that we couldn't walk to the restaurant, but he quickly followed that with an invitation to use the crew car. As long as we were back within 1:15, it would be free! ('course, we ended up with an $11 ramp fee because we didn't need fuel, but that's ok)

Within a couple of minutes, we were in the courtesy car (a maroon blazer) and we headed around the perimeter of the airport to Nick's Airport Inn. We felt a little strange going to dinner at 5:30 (can you say early bird special?!)... but the food was great; I even had plenty left for lunch the next day. (The dinner rolls and mashed potatoes were especially good!) Being accustomed to DC pricing, it seemed inexpensive-- especially since no wine with dinner!

After a nice dinner, we drove back over to the FBO and did a quick preflight. Husband flew us home... he even hummed a little (sure sign of a happy husband). We were back just as the sun started to get low on the horizon. We closed up the plane for the night and headed for our car. What a great date. In only a little more time (and a little more money) than we might spend for an expensive restaurant in DC, we had a great flight and dinner at HGR.

It was only as I started to get in the car that I remembered... the take away box. Hopefully, another hungry pilot borrowed the crew car after us!