W95 Ocracoke Island, North Carolina

[Tim]

Ocracoke is probably familiar to many east coast pilots. It's the southernmost inhabited island in the Outer Banks, and the only one not connected by a bridge to the mainland. The island itself is about twenty miles long and about as wide as you can stretch your arms. The only settlement, the village of Ocracoke, is close to the southern tip. The airstrip, a 3000' asphalt ribbon that looks shorter, is just north of the village.

Our day started later than planned as we had to take the cat to be boarded at the vet. She spent most of her life living in a storm drain until she adopted us and isn't very socialized. At the vet she did her best impression of a mountain lion complete with hisses and snarls. This must have made an impression on the vet employees and customers. I left as fast as humanly possible.

We departed under an IFR flight plan as the weather, although not bad, was overcast near the Appalachians and thinning out towards the coast. We climbed to 10,000 feet in about 20 minutes and skimmed over the cloud layer in blinding sunshine. Jeannie read a book and I adjusted the mixture and prop speed to get a decent gph and TAS. In the end, I got about 1420 degF EGT, 2200 rpm with about 7.5gph and 128 knots TAS. We did have a decent tailwind, around 12-18 knots, which was welcome if expected from my fltplan.com flight plan.

Plymouth (KPMZ), our fuel stop (W95 has no fuel) is on the eastern shore of NC and it is very flat and featureless with many huge farms. I'd been on an IFR descent from 10K to 5K and then finally to 3K when I broke out below the clouds, canceled IFR and set about looking for the field. They have no weather reporting (nor does W95) but neither did they have any traffic. The airport manager told me they'd had a fly in lunch end just an hour or so before with a dozen fly in aircraft. Their gas is about as cheap (can avgas be cheap?) and we'd only used 13.4 gallons for the 1.5 hour flight. Not bad.

After a short while, we departed for the 0.7 hour flight to W95, mostly over the water of Pamlico Sound. Jeannie was clutching onto the lifejackets I bought for flying to Toronto over the Lakes. We climbed to about 6500 before it was time to start coming down and below the clouds, I canceled IFR and enjoyed the view of the Sound, the beautiful coast and the Outer Banks. Fishing boats dotted the water and looked like aircraft with their wings towing the nets. I slowed down and twisted the OBS knob to give me the runway heading, based on the wind I'd seen at Plymouth. I slowed down and started calling for traffic. On weekends, this can be a busy field but today, no one else seemed to be around. I lined up with highway 12, the Atlantic breakers off to my left and the town ahead in the distance. The runway seemed short. I slowed down to about 65 knots and managed a very short, if rather bumpy, landing. We stopped very quickly.

On the ground, we called the hotel (the Anchorage Inn) and they sent an SUV for us. There was just one other airplane parked there, a C182.

The last time we'd come to W95, we'd just come for the day and called Howard's Pub over the CTAF. They'd sent a golf cart for us and the multitude of other fliers. After lunch, we'd walked a short distance from the pub and rented a couple of bikes.

This time with several days here, we still rented the bikes (I checked 5JP this morning, you never know; I was shocked how much goose poop there was at the airport, be warned). There is fishing, jet skiing, beach & ocean stuff, eating and drinking (my favorite, no drinking when flying the next day though) and most fun, cycling around the shady streets of the village and looking at the homes and boats.

There are several ferries from Ocracoke. One takes you north to Hatteras. I think that's about 45 minutes. The other two ferries take you to different parts of the NC mainland and they are nearly three hour trips.

If the weather is good tomorrow, we'll fly up to Manteo on Roanoke Island, the site of the first, abortive English colony in north America and the mouth of the Roanoke river. Our home is close to the source of that river near the Blue Ridge Mountains nearly 300 miles away.

Sorry it's been such a long post. I guess I got carried away. I hope it encourages you to fly here yourself, if you get a chance. It's a neat place.

Tim

[Gary]

Great post. This is the type of information I need.
Gary

[Tim]

Here's a link to some photos of the trip.

http://gallery.me.com/tburling1958/100138

[Kai]

I hope it encourages you to fly here yourself, if you get a chance. It's a neat place.

Tim

The pictures are amazing and I will add it to my "must see"-list for my next travels in the US.

Thanks for sharing, Tim!

[Tim]

On your next trip, if you are near KROA or Virginia generally, please let me know!
Tim

[Robin]

Hi Tim

What a great trip, like Kai I really enjoyed your report. Makes me want to go flying today, but unfortunately works calls.

Sounds like the Ocracoke strip would be a lot of fun in a crosswind with waves lapping near the runway.

Sorry about your cat, I am sure you have seen photos of my Aussie Shepherd Buddy, maybe we should put cat photos up as well. Ask your vet about FAP - Feline Appeasing Pheromone. This is a scent hormone that relaxes cats...it works well on our cat. Who by the way now has our next door neighbour come in and feed her when we go away.

Cheers

Robin

[Chris]

Excellent photos! Ocracoke looks like a beautiful place to visit.

[Tim]

I agree but would suggest NOT visiting at the end of this week, however.

Hurricane EARL is due to give the Outer Banks a passing blow (!) on Friday with winds up to 115 knots.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphic ... 0#contents

PS. Does anyone know an easy way to embed an html link into a post on the board? I can't seem to find it.

[Rick]

I agree but would suggest NOT visiting at the end of this week, however.

Hurricane EARL is due to give the Outer Banks a passing blow (!) on Friday with winds up to 115 knots.

A great time to brush up on your crosswind landing technique!

[Gary]

I agree but would suggest NOT visiting at the end of this week, however.

Hurricane EARL is due to give the Outer Banks a passing blow (!) on Friday with winds up to 115 knots.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphic ... 0#contents

PS. Does anyone know an easy way to embed an html link into a post on the board? I can't seem to find it.

Fly directly into the wind at around 115 kts and you should be able to take off and land vertically. Don't forget to bring some really strong tie downs.