The Best Kind of Flight

After an extra day at home in Virginia, this morning's flight north was uneventful and enjoyable. I got an early start and was opening the hangar by 0650. It took 45 minutes to pre-flight, load the baggage compartment, collect my clearance from Potomac Approach, pull N631S out of the hangar, put the car into the hangar, lock up, start up and taxi for departure. Wheels were off the runway at 0735.

The world was lovely at 7,000 MSL. But, as usual, Dover Approach gave me a descent to 5,000 just before crossing Delaware Bay -- which had me skimming the tops of the scattered layer. I asked the controller why the descent was necessary and he advised that any northbound aircraft on V16 going beyond JFK was required to be at 5,000. It's a "Preferred Routing" thing (otherwise expressed as, "There isn't any reason -- it's just policy.")

With the helpful tailwind, I was on the runway at KBDR at 0930. 2.0 tach hours, no squawks.