(Another) Flight to Asheville, NC

This is the 3rd or 4th time I've flown to Asheville, NC for a meeting. It's a great flight of around 330 miles as the crow flies (also known as 350 miles as ATC wants you to fly). I was out of the house around 715a and was airport about 30 minutes later. I climbed to 9,000' for the flight down and the weather was gorgeous. There wasn't much to speak of in the way of clouds, but it was made up for in wind. My headwind on the flight down was about 10-15 knots. Yuck. (I know, I know. You airline guys were fighting upwards of 100knots today in the flight levels!)

Millionaire at AVL is the only FBO, but they do it well. My car was ready to go when I got there and they had fresh cookies on the counter. Hard to beat. After my meeting, I headed back to the airport where my airplane was parked across the ramp (short walk) and fueled per my instructions. I loaded up and headed out to the runway after watching a Blackhawk land a couple hundred feet away. Man, those are loud! Once I was #1 to take-off, a pair of Navy T-38 Talons (actually they were Marine T-45 Goshawks - thanks, Dave G!) came in and landed right in front of me. Very cool to see them whip around a hill just west of the airport and dump all that speed and land. Color me jealous to the extreme.

After taking off and finally getting pointed north by ATC, it was smooth sailing home at 8,000' and then 5,000' after pointing the business end of the airplane more east (even altitudes going west, odd going east). Also, I dropped 3,000' instead of 1,000' since the winds aloft were actually more favorable the further down I got. I was cruising between 150-160 knots GS. Not bad.

Once I finally got to the Lima area, I canceled IFR and readied to land. Listening to Lima and Findlay's weather didn't give me the warm and fuzzies - wind 170@19G29 for runway 23. Fun! I got in OK and didn't have to go around, but I was certainly ready. It was a great trip and I was picking up Kaden from the grandparents' house by 645p.

Check out all the photos by CLICKING HERE.