Dispersion
Kristy, The Bear, Pam, Stephen, and I were the first to leave the rental house. We stripped our beds, made an effort to use up leftover food (I had a weirdly eclectic breakfast), and got the dishes washed before beginning the journey home. Hugs were exchanged and, before long, we were pointed straight downhill on that absurd driveway for the last time. Pam and Stephen dropped us off at Western Carolina Regional on their way out of town (a common motif, it would seem). This gave them an excuse to take a more circuitous route home that avoided the Tail of the Dragon, which they were very pleased to do.
Now boarding, flight number 21481 from Andrews, NC to Sodus, NY.
After I took on fuel, a lineman helped me push Warrior 481 back from the fuel pump ($4.95/gal).
"Nice airplane! 235?" he exclaimed, mistaking my airplane for a Dakota.
"Nope, 160. It's a Warrior."
"160? Really?" He shook his head as though he was not aware that the Warrior variant existed.
I shrugged. "She's not much of a climber, but goes nicely in cruise." I know my limitations.
Retracing Our Steps
| Date | Aircraft | Route of Flight | Time (hrs) | Total (hrs) |
| 26 July 2019 | N21481 | RHP (Andrews, NC) - DKX (Knoxville, TN) | 0.9 | 1997.6 |
We launched and followed US19 southwest out of the valley. Once past MARBL intersection, I contacted Knoxville Approach for flight following back to Downtown Island. Dad and Carol had agreed to meet us for an early lunch before we continued home to New York.
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| Knoxville Downtown Island Airport, DKX |
Downtown Island Airport is tough to spot from the south because of terrain, but we finally got a visual on the airport and entered a left downwind for runway 8.
I am always struck by the appearance of this heavily excavated hillside beneath the downwind leg of the pattern.
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| Ground track from RHP to DKX plotted in ForeFlight |
On the ground, I met with Dad and Carol for the third time that week. We went to lunch at Panera Bread, which served a useful purpose beyond mere sustenance. The internet connection at the rental house was ridiculously slow. On the one hand, it
Homeward Bound
I said goodbye to Dad and Carol for the third time that week. Somehow, I failed to take a single picture of all of us together. What's wrong with me?
| Date | Aircraft | Route of Flight | Time (hrs) | Total (hrs) |
| 26 July 2019 | N21481 | DKX (Knoxville, TN) - LWB (Lewisburg, WV) - SDC (Sodus, NY) | 5.3 | 2002.9 |
Climbing away from Knoxville, we passed some incredibly blue quarry water (note the contrast with the nearby river water). Even The Bear was impressed and it's pretty rare for her to pull her head out of a book when flying cross country these days.
Along the Holsten River, we saw the beginnings of an air park taking shape.
Though there were no structures built yet, the airport was already charted: Landing at Rivers Edge. Looks nice. Or, more accurately, it looks like it could be nice.
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| Cherokee Lake photographed from a Cherokee. |
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| "Rrrrruffles have rrrrridges." |
We had smooth sailing over Tennessee, a corner of Virginia, and finally, West Virginia. Unlike the flight south from Cleveland, the air remained cool at altitude and we enjoyed the easy, comfortable flight.
When the Earth gets a case of eczema, it is no laughing matter.
Welcome to Dudesburg
Our destination was the Greenbrier Valley Airport in Lewisburg, WV (KLWB, airport #195). I selected it based on location, fuel price ($4.92/gal), availability of a restaurant, and the fact that it was a towered airport because that makes life easier when flying IFR.
As I pondered the name of the town in the context of other West Virginia airports we've visited, I detected a pattern: Parkersburg, Clarksburg, and Lewisburg. Random guy's name + "s" + "burg". Huh. The obvious exception was Morgantown, created by dropping the "s" and substituting "town" for "burg" in the above algorithm. Still fits, though. Clearly, the Powers That Be are just trying to throw us off.
As we let down toward Greenbier Valley, the Bluestone Dam caught my eye.
A small rain shower hovered immediately west of the airport, but we skirted around it on a visual approach. Though weather radar color coded it yellow, we could see through the rain shaft and encountered no disturbances in the air.
We were marshaled to parking and I asked the line staff to top-off the fuel tanks. The ramp was actually busier than it appears from this photo. All the jets were out of frame.
When The Bear got feisty with me in the FBO, I suggested that we pause in our return home to get an early dinner (it was around 3:30 pm). No one wants to fly with a hangry Bear.
The Tower was undergoing some maintenance as we walked from the FBO to the terminal building for dinner.
The Landings Restaurant was in the passenger terminal. It was nicely appointed and the staff was friendly and attentive.
We all got burgers and they were outstanding. We highly recommend Landings at Greenbrier Valley.
My greatest disappointment with Greenbrier Valley Airport was the $25 landing fee and the $12.50 ramp fee that we were charged despite purchasing 26 gallons of gas (all that the Warrior could hold). I usually do a better job of calling ahead to understand fee structures, but did not do so in this case. I paid for my lack of diligence.
Even so...that was a good burger.
While waiting for food, I saw that radar showed weather popping up all along our route home to Sodus. It is surely no coincidence that the weather was churning along the western edge of higher terrain between Lewisburg and central Pennsylvania. I realized that if I added the Clarksburg VOR to our route, I could bypass all the weather shown in our path. That was good back pocket information.
Slalom Course
We thought these benches at the airport were really cool, as capably demonstrated by our spokesbear (like a spokesmodel, but way more adorable, especially when no longer hangry).
We managed to launch from Greenbrier Valley despite my apparent inability to use my audio panel properly. Although I had the radios set correctly, I twice called the wrong facility because I had the incorrect radio selected. I called Ground on the radio set for Tower, then called Tower on the radio set for Ground. Even though it was the same guy working both frequencies, he was a stickler and called me out on it both times.
Just when I think I know what I'm doing, I am humbled again.
Aloft, Washington Center advised of weather ahead. I suggested a deviation west via Clarksburg.
"Hmmm...that might work," responded the controller. "Actually, that's not going to be enough of a deviation." He provided new vectors around the weather. He was right. The dynamic weather now covered a broader area than when I first observed it from Landings Restaurant.
We remained in the smooth air while detouring around the thunderstorms, marveling at the impressive cloud structures forming in the late afternoon.
I confess - I truly enjoy slaloming around buildups. We followed a twisting, turning path through the sky as though tracking an aerial version of the Tail of the Dragon. Except that, in this case, there were no obnoxious tailgaters and it was much more fun.
Once past Pittsburgh, we left the weather behind and continued on a direct course to Sodus.
In the back seat, The Bear dozed, completely unaware of the convective power churning a few miles beyond our little bubble in the sky.
Two Kilohours
Sometime shortly after departing Lewisburg, I flew my 2,000th flight hour. I did not realize it in the moment. It was only after updating my logbook that I realized that the milestone had come and gone without any fanfare. Break out the party hats and noisemakers!
A dark overcast hung over New York state as we closed in on home. A massive thunderstorm had blown up south of Sodus, but we watched it dissipate on radar as we crossed the state from south to north. By the time we reached Sodus, there was nothing left but the ghostly afterimage of a mature thunderhead being reabsorbed into the atmosphere.
Kristy and I disembarked, apparently leaving a rather ferocious Bear on board.
Ah, that's more like it. Too bad the sun went behind a cloud by the time we coaxed our ferocious Little Bear out of the back seat. Welcome home!
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| Ground track from ForeFlight. The straight track north of Pittsburgh shows when we finally emerged from the weather. |
Tally
In 14.0 flight hours, we visited five different states (OH, KY, TN, NC, WV, and NY), five airports (KBKL, KLOZ, KDKX, KRHP, KLWB,) spent 0.8 hours in instrument meteorological conditions, and crossed the 2,000 hour mark. It is worth noting that driving would have required at least 13 hours one way, so despite the weather delays, the Warrior still gave us more time to do fun things. We had two outstanding $100 hamburgers (Nuevo in Cleveland, Landings in Lewisburg), sampled mead, were thwarted by a hot laker, saw a Ferris wheel on top of a mountain, visited the birthplace of KFC, managed some challenging weather, experienced driving the Tail of the Dragon (twice for me), took Pam and Nate for an airplane ride, visited with Dad three different times, figured out the secret algorithm for naming West Virginia towns with towered airports, participated in a WFC fly-out, and spent a week with Kristy's family.
I would say that's pretty good for one week's vacation.
It sounds like a wonderful vacation and you got to enjoy the utility of flying. Congrats on busting the 2000 hour mark! The place you all stayed looked beautiful, what a view.
ReplyDeleteDon't feel bad about the radio, I called out departing runway three-two while sitting at the hold short for two-zero, then called it runway two. Some of us have more moments than others. :)
Those little moments keep us humble, don't they?
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