The last 3 weeks the plane has been out of commission due to a dead alternator. Marc was able to get to the problem this week, so this was to be the first flight with the replacement. After rousting spencer out of bed at 6:15, we all arrived at the airport at 6:45 to pre-flight and get on our way. 3 weeks of no flying left Aggie in dire need of a good pre-flight. We noticed that tires needed inflating, so we had to wait on the line for the ramp guy to come out with a compressor. Once we were fueled and aired up, the three of us jumped aboard for the 310 nautical mile flight to Jacksonville.
Aggie started right up as if she had been flown every day for the last 3 weeks. We got our clearances from Concord and after taxi and run-up, we were on our way.
Unfortunately, summer in the Southeast is hazy. The TAF for Charlotte told us to expect 4 miles of visibility for the climb out and the forecast was spot on. 4 miles of visibility is next to nothing. It's VFR, but barely and it results in what really amounts to instrument flying.
The en route forecast called for hazy, but no clouds until we were near Jacksonville. We chose 6,500 feet for the flight down. High enough to keep cool, but low enough to keep the engine power up. We leveled off South of Charlotte and were on our way. The haze stuck with us for about 200 miles of the trip, but otherwise the flight was pleasant and smooth, except for Spencer's constant reminder to Steve and I of his pizza dinner the night before....whew!
We flew directly to Savannah and then down the coast to Jacksonville. Our destination airport was Craig Municipal Airport (KCRG) - complete with a tower and two 4,000 foot runways. The airspace around Jacksonville is pretty crazy. Between the Navy base, the numerous GA airports in the area and Jacksonville Airport, it gets pretty complicated. The Jacksonville controllers were very professional and helpful. When we arrived in Craig airspace, there were 3 other planes in the vicinity. The tower controller at Craig fit us in nicely and after 2 1/2 hours in the air, we touched down smoothly. We pulled into the FBO ramp area to find Spencer's grandfather in a rocking chair waiting for us.
Knowing the weather was forecast to turn sketchy, we wanted to make our turn quickly. After a hug with Spencer, we sent he and grandpa on their way, paid for the 29 gallons of fuel needed to replace what we had burned, and were on our way. We took off to the North, made a slight right and were headed for 7,500 feet. With the reduced weight, we climbed a bit faster and were at 7,500 feet in less than 15 minutes. The haze lifted quite a bit and we were prepared for a pleasant flight home. Unfortunately, the neutral cross wind we had on the way down turned into a 10 knot headwind on the way home - so our ground speed pegged at 126 knots - making our return leg a bit longer.
The return flight was quite pleasant until we came upon Columbia, South Carolina. I line of building clouds, starting at about 4,500 feet was rising toward us. The line appeared to be thin, but we had to decide whether to drop below 4,000 feet, leaving a bumpy 80 miles to Concord, or climb over. We took option B and headed to 9,500 feet. The clouds were building quickly and even at 9,500 feet we had to dodge a couple of them. Of course, we knew that Charlotte controllers were going to make us come back down quickly, but we wanted to delay the warmer, less stable air as long as we could.
True to form, immediately after we were handed to Charlotte, they commanded a descent to 4,500 feet. We informed them that we would have to take our time due to clouds in the area, but we were able to drop altitude pretty quickly. Once we got to 4,500 feet, Charlotte turned us to the East and left us on that heading, even as we were within 6 miles of Concord. Though Charlotte Approach can be hit or miss, they were more miss this time around than normal. The controller was certainly less than cordial - and frankly, was a bit surly. Anyway, after being routed well East of concord, we were finally given permission to turn to the airport. An uneventful landing and taxi to the ramp and we were done. 5.3 hours logged time.
Steve remarked as we walked to our cars, 5.3 hours is about our limit - our rear ends were a bit sore.
I hope Spencer has a blast in Key West!
