Over the summer, I did a number of solo flights, practicing social distancing from 5,000’! Most were just meanderings down the CT Shoreline, or up the CT River a bit or up to NW CT, just enjoying the thrill and peace of being up in the air and not having to worry about earthly stresses for a little while!
There were a few other flights that were highlights for the summer though:
Len had had an issue with his engine and birds nesting, so in July, he ferried it up to Hartford to have an engine specialist do some repair work. I played ferry pilot to bring Len back to Bridgeport. As I was taxiing to leave Bridgeport to follow Len, I heard an ELT going off somewhere on the field. It seemed to grow stronger as I approached the intersections of Runways 29 and 24. I mentioned it to the tower and they said it had been going off for a while, so I offered to give them a quick hand finding it once I returned from Hartford. The flight up was a quick quiet one and I was shortly on the way back with Len, touching down back at Bridgeport, still with the ELT going off.
I reiterated my offer to the tower and they send one of the Operations guys over in a truck after I finished tying down. Grabbing my handheld radio, I tuned in 121.5 and then bumped it up to 121.6. As we started driving to the north side of the field, the signal got stronger and within just a couple of minutes, we had it pinned down to one of the hangars there. It turned out to be one of the old French jets I have written about previously, having seen two different ones on the same day at different airports! https://www.fordstreet.net/nyapproach/2016/02/nose-gear-issue.html
I got a chance to meet the owner, who finally found the ELT switch and shut it down.
https://www.pilotweb.aero/features/flying-adventure-florida-and-new-york-1-4954934
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