September 14, 2014 - Charleston, SC
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Lynnette and I were flying down to the Charleston, South Carolina area this weekend to visit our long-time friends, Jimmy and Cindi, who have a place on Kiowa Island. This weekend was the big Fort McHenry - War of 1812 -- Francis Scott Key/Star Spangled Banner 200th anniversary and there were a lot of things going on. Friday early afternoon, we took off while the Blue Angels were doing an airshow nearby at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. I actually saw them in the distance as we crossed the bay. We took off early enough to avoid a Presidential TFR that shut down the airpsace over Essex Skypark an hour after we departed.
Here we are passing Patuxent Naval Air Station on our way south.
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The weather was good until about halfway down. Then thunderstorms appeared in our path. From the XM Satellite in-flight weather it looked like I might be able to get around them to the west so we gave that a shot.
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| We finally got around the weather but ran out of daylight before we could make it to Charleston Executive Airport. I don't fly at night, especially with clouds and storms about. We stopped for the night at Barnwell, South Carolina, about 80 miles WNW of our destination. Barnwell is a great cross-country stop. Meaning inexpensive (relatively) AvGas and a courtesy car. But of course the FBO personnel were long gone by the time we arrived after working hours. However, posted on a wall was a phone number to call. I did and one of the FBO people who lived close by came out and gave us the courtesy car keys, plus recommended a motel. |
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The weather was very pleasant the next morning and we enjoyed a quick and easy flight to Charleston Executive.
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| Jimmy and Cindi met us at the airport. While unloading the plane, hundreds of LoveBugs flew around. It was impossible to keep them out of the cockpit. I've never seen anything like it. |
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| Notice the alligator at the left side of this picture of Lynnette and myself at Kiowa. We had a great time at Kiowa although I got sunburned pretty bad at the beach. |
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| My friend Jimmy is a big Baltimore Raven fan and I have to show this picture of him and his son with Raven head coach John Harbaugh! |
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| We departed Charleston Executive Sunday morning. The skies were clear here but I knew we would run into clouds up north. |
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Passing to the east of Charleston.
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| Looking west at marsh and ocean. |
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| A good look at Charleston with the Ashly River to the left, Cooper River at top left and Wando River top right. |
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| A better look at Charleston and the famous Battery. |
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The old USS Yorktown -- an Essex-class aircraft carrier from World War II.
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| Fort Sumter. Is it necessary to say this is where the American Civil War started? |
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Sullivan's Island.
Just like the weather forecast said, we ran into clouds soon after leaving Charleston. I tried going under but the cloud layer just kept descending. I had to backtrack and then tried going over the cloud layer. This worked pretty well. I knew the clouds broke up once we got out of the Carolinas.
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| And sure enough, they did. Here we are crossing the Chesapeake Bay under sunny skies again. |
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| A C-130 Hercules crossed the Bay ahead of us. |
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| An exodus of boats were coming out of the Patapsco River. They obviously had been in the Baltimore Inner Harbor for the day watching the festivities. And now they were all heading home. |
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It was like a boat rush-hour.
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