Dehart Reservoir

Mogas fuel stop.Now this airport is definitely within the community.

Had an issue that nearly resulted in me landing back at Front Royal airport instead. About an hour into the flight, my tablet rebooted itself. That was not unusual and not alarming; consumer electronics is generally not as reliable as aviation gear. But when it rebooted, the GPS was unavailable. That WAS alarming. Since my primary panel was crippled because its unreadable memory card. It only showed were I was relative to the next waypoint on my route... no map data. If I could not easily locate myself on a map, I carried no paper charts, the method of continued safe progress was impacted. This was just as I was coming up on Washington and New York airspace.

Over a 15 minute period I tried a few things and forced shutdowns of the tablet hoping it would recover. I called air traffic control telling them I was going to land at Front Royal airport instead. Since I had landed there on the way south, it was on the primary panel. So when i reached Front Royal, I told them I was arriving and begin descending from my 7500 ft cruise altitude. Around 4000 feet the GPS returned to the tablet.

So I told Front Royal I would not be landing, got back on route, climbed back up, and called air traffic to get flight following again.

After touchdown at Reigle I was assaulted by the stench of fresh pig manure from nearby fields. It was still better than gas fumes.
Temperature cooler. Put on my sweater.Read more