Those in the Know Just Call It 'Hah-Zee' | Part 3, ...And Back Again

All Hazy-ed Out 

The WFC with the incomparable SR-71 Blackbird at the Udvar-Hazy Center.

We had a terrific visit to the Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. The facility is absolutely enormous (and slated to be enlarged!) and there is much to see, a nearly overwhelming amount of air and space-going vehicles paired with tales of inventiveness and daring. But at some point, even the most diehard aviation nerd gets overwhelmed. Even me. When an entire group of pilots reaches that limit, it is time to consider tackling new challenges such as heading home. Escape would require facing Dulles' concrete labyrinth of taxiways teeming with leviathans.

Dulles Groundlings

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
20 Sep 2025	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - IAD (Dulles, VA) - AOO (Martinsburg, PA) - SDC	6.6	3057.6

Our exit from Dulles was not quite as smooth as our arrival. We were given taxi clearances from the Atlantic ramp to runway 30 at the south end of the airport via Zulu, Yankee 11. With prevailing winds, this meant a tailwind on departure. But with 10.5 thousand feet of runway available, I had no concerns.

Matt was first to taxi out. Momentarily confused by airport signage, he did a sanity check with Dulles Ground. "Do I turn left here?"

His honest question was answered with snark. "Where's here? I can't see you." To be fair, we were in a blind spot for the control tower. We could not see the tower from the Atlantic ramp, either. After a beat, Dulles Ground came back with a more conciliatory tone, "If you're departing the Atlantic ramp, yes, Zulu is the first left off the ramp."

Eventually, all three airplanes were waddling south on Zulu like a tiny flock of Piper ducklings.

"Eight One Six will need a runup," Matt proactively advised Dulles Ground. 

In response, Dulles Ground's tonal eyeroll came through loud and clear. Ugh, piston aircraft. Jet aircraft don't require runups and are generally assumed to be ready to go once they reach the departure runway. Not so for piston aircraft. "Use the area off Yankee 11, leave enough room for a Three Seven to pass. Four Eight One, are you going to need that, too?"

I responded in the affirmative so that Ground could be annoyed at me too. Solidarity! I contemplated doing a runup at the edge of the Atlantic ramp like I often do at Oakland County International, but did not want to taxi two miles to runway 30 without checking the ignition system for fouled plugs before departure.

Ed did his runup in the Atlantic non-movement area and thus did not draw Dulles Ground's ire on the runup question. Instead, he received a friendly reminder while taxiing for departure. "Cherokee Niner One Four, you're awfully close to Washington DC to be squawking 1200." It was not a rebuke, but a potentially helpful nudge. Ed had not yet set the transponder code assigned with his instrument clearance and Ground noticed because Dulles uses ASDE-X to track aircraft transponders on the airport surface.  He was not in trouble, but it is fortunate that he did not leave the ground squawking 1200 as that would have violated one of the fundamental directives of SFRA airspace.

Photo by Tom.

While Matt and I were doing our runups at the end of runway 30, Dulles sequenced the aforementioned United 737 for departure ahead of us. They look so much larger when they are pointed directly at you. I may have overstated Dulles as "teeming with leviathans" earlier. This was the only airliner to cross our path on what was obviously a well-timed departure.

United cuts the line. Photo by Tom.

Thunderstorm activity north of Dulles with just a hint of rainbow visible.

Ed and I were both cleared as filed to Altoona (KAOO) via the anticipated Capital One SID ("What's in your wallet?"), then Martinsburg (MRB). As we climbed away from Dulles, there was a thunderstorm active off our right wing. Once Tower passed us to Potomac Departure during climb-out, our experience operating from a Bravo airport was brought to a close.

We arrived at Altoona / Blair County Regional Airport (not actually in Altoona) and were joined by WFC member Dan P in his RV-8A for dinner at La Fiesta, a Mexican restaurant in the terminal building that never disappoints. When your airplane is as fast as Dan's RV, a quick jaunt from Sodus to Altoona on a whim barely registers as a trip out of the area.

Missing Man Plane Formation

On the take-off roll from Altoona, my Apple watch buzzed with an incoming phone call. It was Gilead. "Can you text him and find out what he wants?" I asked Tom. (Cockpit resource management!) We learned that Ed's Cherokee Six would not start. Tom and I returned to Altoona and joined the others gathered soberly around Ed's airplane. 

After some brief troubleshooting, we decided to leave Ed's plane behind, which required a shuffling of crews. Gilead flew with me and Tom, Jonathan joined Matt and Noah in Eight One Six, and Ed returned home in Dan's RV. While this was the only real black mark on the day, it could have been much worse. 

We were grateful that the mechanical issue occurred at Altoona rather than Dulles. Moreover, if Dan had not joined us for dinner, we would have had to leave someone behind in addition to the Cherokee Six. Naturally, we would have sent someone to retrieve that person, but it would have meant a long day for everyone involved.

Despite Gilead being out of compliance with the crew dress code aboard 481, we had a pleasant ride back to the Williamson Sodus Airport after an eventful day.

A beautiful setting sun caused me to reflect on our dawn departure and the long day we experienced. After I flew a practice RNAV-10 approach into Sodus with Tom as safety pilot, we touched down at home base at 7:36, meaning that we were gone for over twelve hours. For me, between making my first Bravo airport landing, meeting an honest to goodness U-2 pilot, and visiting with some of the most important aeronautical treasures of the United States, the day was as worthwhile as it was long.

Now that we had explored much of what the Udvar-Hazy Center has on display, we're all more like Joe from the Air Zoo and can consider ourselves to be "in the know" too. It was a shame that we needed to leave Ed's airplane behind in Altoona, but that was a manageable problem to be rectified in the following week.