Houston, TX to Greenville, SC in record time

[N941WR]

Friday afternoon I flew from Houston, TX to Greenville, SC in my -9.

Leaving Pearland, TX I contacted Ellington departure and picked up flight following. I had to stay down at 1500 feet to keep below the clouds. The air was smooth and I made good time but the wind's weren't that favorable. Passing New Orleans I was able to get up to 3500' here the tailwinds increased a little.

Crossing the Mississippi for me is always a big deal. Having read Huck Fin as a kid I have been enamored with that river for as long as I can remember. Some day I would like run the length of that river. Maybe that would be a good dream flight. Right after I fly the "Trail of Tears", which starts where my in-laws now live and ends where my mother-in-law and wife grew up.

It always stuns me how twisty that river is and how slow the barrage traffic seems to move, if they are moving at all.

My fuel stop was at 2R0, Waynesboro, Mississippi for $4.47 a gallon 100LL! Maybe we will get lucky and fuel prices will continue to drop!

ATC let me keep the same squawk for my fuel stop, 1777. It was great calling up ATC after I took off and upon contacting ATC they called me immediately with, "Ninner four one Whiskey Romeo, radar contact 4.6 miles east of Waynesboro, passing through 4500 feet." Dang, this thing can climb! And I was taking it easy too as I wanted to maximize my forward speed.

Once level at 7500' I started planning ahead. My flight path would take me right through Atlanta's Class Bravo, which I know wasn't going to happen. This is where the SkyView really shines. I placed the cursor just to the north side of the Bravo ring and inserted the waypoint. The airplane made a slight correction to the north and I notified ATC that I will offset to the north to avoid the Bravo. They were thankful for that information and the offset. (It has been my experience with ATL that they will run you right up to the edge and then tell you to stay clear, so I figured it best to plan ahead. Besides, making a small course correction when a few hundred miles away is a lot better than making a big one when right on top of the Bravo.)

Sure enough, when I got to ATL they were nonstop transmissions to business jets, airliners, and the occasional GA bug smasher practicing approaches.

Once the SkyView commanded the AP to turn slight to the right when adjacent the Bravo I called ATC and let them know of my new heading. He seemed genuinely thankful for the info and went about his way. 30 minutes later I notified Atlanta center that I was out of 7500 for 2200, at which point they handed me off to Greer Approach.

The sun was setting behind me as I entered the pattern for our little unlit field, perfect planning. (Had I been delayed I would have landed 10 miles short at Pickens County.)

Just as I started taxiing down the road to our house my wife drove up to get the mail, on her way home from work. She pulled off the road to let me by and followed me to the house.

For once I had favorable winds that pushed my groundspeed up to 188 kts at one point. The air was smooth all the way with great visibility.

The entire trip took five hours total, including a fuel stop / bio break and the flight time was 4.6 hours. Not bad for a 728 nautical mile trip, including the little offset to go around ATL, which added all of two miles.

[Low Pass]

Very nice!! Comparable to a two-leg SWA flight, and none of the TSA groping.