Day 18 - Norfolk to Essex

Tony Cacciarelli • Jul 02, 2020

Hampton Roads Executive, VA (KPVG) to Essex, NJ (KCDW) - July 1, 2019

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Quick fuel and bio stop in Cape May

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I think this was the first morning of this trip where I woke up and it wasn’t already boiling hot - instead, 67 degrees. So nice!

I got to Hampton Roads airport and happened to meet Isaac Rutan, distant relative of Burt Rutan. He's working his way through his ratings and was interested in checking out the A5. Said he'd heard about my trip from some folks in Williamsburg. I guess maybe word is getting out!

The flight up to Essex/Caldwell airport was pretty straightforward. Stayed down around 1500', with a short fuel stop at Cape May, NJ. After that I had to get clearance through a military alert area around McGuire field where a bunch of C17s were operating and later a quick transition through Morristown and into Essex while staying below the Newark Class B airspace.

I didn't get many photos today, but I did find out that Essex is the airport John F. Kennedy Jr. left from on his fatal flight back in 1999. Not a part of history any airport would want to lay claim to, but an interesting side note, I guess.

I'll be here in NJ for the next couple of days, so the daily summaries might not be as aviation related - probably more about food.

😀👍🏼

This was pretty much a Point A to Point B kind of day. The scenery was great as I flew along the coast, and the weather was being cooperative so I could just enjoy the flying - at least for most of the flight.

The airspace around Essex is even more complicated than LAX. Within just a few miles there's Newark, JFK and LaGuardia, which are all Class B and overlap each other. Tucked in next to all that is Teterboro, which is Class D but one of the busiest general aviation airports in the country with a lot of business jet traffic that adds to the controller workload. Then there's Morristown and Essex, two more Class Ds that are right next to each other as well. So, needless to say the flying went from relaxed to busy for the last 15-20 minutes. In one way it was good that the A5 isn't particularly fast. It means things don't happen nearly as quickly as they do in a faster plane, so even though it was busy I wasn't frantic.