April 27, 2013 - Essex Skypark, MD to Spartanburg, SC to Waycross, GA |
| The trip
begin Friday morning. Lynnette dropped me off at Essex Skypark and I
was airborne around 11AM. I headed west, rounded Frederick,
Maryland, then turned south. I didn't feel like a boring, high altitude
transit at 8000 feet so I followed the Shenandoah River at 500 feet
instead. Much more fun. Look how green everything is.
It's easy to forget than everything was still winter brown and grey
only a few weeks ago. |
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At the southern end of the Shenandoah Valley
is the airport community of Eagle's Nest (N13). I attended a Vintage
Sailplane Association regatta here with my Ka-4 Rhonelerche glider back
in the 90s. After Eagle's Nest I climbed to 8,500 and
transisted to South Carolina. |
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| Entering left
downwind for Runway 5 at Spartanburg Downtown Memorial Airport
(KSPA). I'm here to pick up my co-pilot, Jack. I've been
down here twice before, to pick up Jack and then continue on to
Auburn, Alabama. But this time we are going to the
Bahamas! Spartanburg has a long runway: 5000
feet. |
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Turning left base for runway 5.
You can see downtown Spartanburg in the distance to the left of the
runway. |
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| On the ground
outside the newly restored FBO/Terminal building. I went inside and
looked around. It is really nice. They did it right. In
fact, I'd say it's probably the best FBO facility I've ever seen in all my
flying experience. They have aviation art and displays all over the
place inside. |
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Jack and his wife Cathy getting one last hug in before
departure.
On takeoff roll, it was obvious the RV was
really heavy. The tail wasn't coming up until it was good and ready. But
the plane took off just a few moments after the tailcame up.
The RV still performs amazingly well at max gross weight.
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| The initial plan
had me staying at Jack's house Friday night, then us departing the next
day for Ft. Pierce and the Bahamas. But looking at the weather forecast
Thursday, it looked like we might have a problem getting out of
South Carolina Saturday morning. So we decided we would leave Spartanburg Friday afternoon
and fly down to southern Georgia where the weather would
be good in the morning. So we did that and it worked
out well. We enjoyed a leisurely hour and a half flight down to
southern Georgia late Friday afternoon. Here we are over Waycross-Ware County Airport
(KAYS), Georgia, one of my favorite airports. |
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I picked Waycross because I have been
here a couple times before and liked the airport. It's a friendly airport, they have
a courtesy car, and the gas prices are good. Jack made
a reservation at a motel in town: $40 bucks! When you are
on a cross-country flight, an airport doesn't get much better than
this. |
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The first time I landed here was when I flew a Corben Baby Ace from
Miami back to Maryland back in 2002. Bruce and I stopped here
in the RV on the way down to the 2010 Sun 'N Fun. They serve up some
good BBQ to pilots during Sun 'N Fun week.
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