Flying the VFR Flyway Between BWI and DCA

A friend asked how you fly the VFR flyway between the Eastern Shore and Leesburg.  It's not as straightforward as you might wish because of the Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) that bedevils all D.C. area pilots.  The alternative is to go IFR.  But, if you file for IFR, the Potomac controllers will make it easy on themselves and route you way north of Baltimore at 7000 feet or more. 
The beauty of the trip is to do it at low altitude so you can see the Bay, the boats, the houses, the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, College Park and the University of Maryland, and all the golf courses along the Potomac estuary.  And you save time and fuel with a more direct routing.

The entire route of flight

So, the VFR flyway is a really nice way to make the east-west traverse from Leesburg to the Eastern Shore or Delaware/NJ area or the reverse when returning home.  Last time I did it was June 13, returning from Cape May in southern New Jersey.

I planned a route from, in this case, KWWD-GRACO-VPOOP-VPONX-KGAI-KJYO.  By using GRACO instead of PALEO, I stay south of Dover's airspace on the way across Delaware.  I have, however, in the past called up Dover and asked permission to transit their airspace. They are always very helpful, even if sometimes you get a trainee controller who is a little unsure what to do.  On June 13, we flew from KWWD to GRACO at 2500 -- nice views of the Delaware Bay, tankers, Eastern Shore, Chesapeake Bay, sailboats, the bridge, etc.

Before departure, I filed a SFRA Inbound flight plan that only showed PALEO-VPOOP-VPONX-KGAI-KJYO.  I filed for VFR/25 (hundred feet) and estimated the time enroute.  Taking off from Cape May, I figured it would be 20 to 30 minutes from KWWD to GRACO, so my flight plan was timed to start 30 minutes after our anticipated take off time.

When I was about 10 miles east of GRACO, I called up Potomac on the PALEO frequency (132.775) and asked for a squawk code.  The controller gave me a code and said "Continue VFR, remain clear of Class Bravo."  I dropped down to 2300 feet before crossing the western shoreline by Annapolis so that I would be safely under the Bravo.

In fact, the Potomac controller treated me like flight following, and called out traffic for us.  Of course having the traffic alert working was great too.  There were a few planes landing and taking off from Tipton and Suburban airports, so it was good to keep an eye on them.  The views are great, and you can see the Capitol building and everything downtown on a clear day.

Our return was pretty effortless, and Marcia thought the view was much better.  Except for having to circle once north of Leesburg to let a Cessna fly the ILS 17 approach, we came straight in from Gaithersburg and flew the RNAV 17 approach ourselves just for practice.  Potomac told us about the other traffic and when we were at CACAS he told us to "keep the code and frequency change approved."

You can see the VPOOP-VPONX slot on the back side of the Terminal chart for Washington.  There is another one down on the south side for transiting around the south end of the SFRA.