Trip is in the Books
Thanks to the suggestions from this thread, I went ahead and made the trip to North Carolina and Virginia this past weekend. I had a blast.....and also learned a valuable lesson too.
The weather was pretty clear all the way from Indiana to North Carolina except for some usual clouds over the Appalachian mountains. The colors were very vivid in these parts as the evening temps are in the 30's and 40's.
I was making great time going out with a strong tailwind. I wish I could get 141 KTS every time I fly.
After a quick fuel stop in Western Virginia, I made my way to the coast and the Outer Banks began to appear. Off the nose is my destination. As you can see, the weather was just fabulous.
I arrived high so I could get a couple of pictures of the area while descending. This is First Flight airport (KFFA) and the Wright Brothers memorial. As I would later discover, the normal for this trip would be many cross wind landings. My landing here was terrible as I arrived over the numbers high and fast. That darn -12 just doesn't want to slow down. It turns out this would be my second worst landing of the weekend. Fortunately the airport was deserted and the view of the people from the memorial is blocked by trees so no one witnessed my poor airmanship.
Here's the obligatory photo op. I visited for a couple of hours and toured the grounds and the museum. From here, I decided to do some touristy stuff so I proceeded to fly up the coast to Williamsburg to spend a day visiting some of the historic sights. If you decide to come here, I highly recommend the Williamsburg Jamestown airport. It is privately owned and the two guys who run the place are wonderful. They took great care of me and my airplane while I was there.
I won't bore you with all the details of my tourist activities. I visited old town Williamsburg, the Jamestown settlement, and Yorktown. I learned a lot about our early history and I particularly enjoyed the driving tour of the battlefield at Yorktown.
On Sunday, it was time to head home and for me to earn my lesson in mountain flying. Typically in the -12, I plan my fuel stops in the air because the amount of ground I can cover is greatly influenced by the winds aloft. On my trip out west, I rarely landed at the airport I originally thought I would because I either had a higher or lower ground speed than anticipated. The weather was clear all the way to the mountains but beyond was mostly overcast with some broken and a few scattered ceilings. Forecast was for it to go scattered by late morning. I headed out and began to monitor my fuel so I could plan a stop. I was making about 85 KTS groundspeed so a stop on the Virginia side of the mountains for fuel seemed prudent. Do I dialed up an airport on my flight path and trundled off oblivious to what was ahead. Turns out the airport I selected was KHSP, Bath County Ingalls Field. It just so happens that it is the highest airport east of the Mississippi. Did I mention that I was only making 85 KTS ground speed (wind blowing)?
Here's a link to a picture of the airport from Airnav. This place sits on top of a mountain. I didn't know that until I was a lot closer to the airport. Now in this part of Virginia, there are not a lot of airports. Closest one was another 30 miles away, so I decided to give it a shot. The updrafts, rotors, and cross winds were really something. Strongest I have ever landed in in over 30 years of aviation. Winds were blowing 20 KTS gusting to 30 KTS and were mostly, but not entirely, cross wind. Maximum crosswind component in the -12 is only 12 KTS. This was most definitely above that.
Here's a shot off the end that I approached from. I shot this as I was departing but it gives you an idea of what I am talking about. I did manage to carry about 20 KTS extra on my approach and I needed it. A strong rotor off the approach end tried to push me into the mountain, and once I got above that the winds tried to blow me off the side. There were a couple of moments when I was banked at least 45 degrees as the gusts caught me. I did eventually manage to get down on the runway without crinkling any sheet metal or leaving parts on the runway but it was interesting.
As I taxied up to the FBO there was a big Marine helicopter on the ramp and one of the guys came over to me and asked "Did you just land in that?" "Yes" was my answer, "but I shouldn't have".
The rest of the trip was uneventful and I made it home safe and sound. I learned a valuable lesson about planning my flights better and paying attention to details regarding airport elevation, wind direction, runway direction, and using your outs when you need to. I feel like I got away with one. I plan to be more careful in the future.
