N941WR
Legacy Member
In talking with some friends, we wanted to get together for a weekend away from home, without the kids, preferably someplace halfway between us.
We thought Rough River State Park would be good and one of the wives was making a reservation at a local B&B only to be told by the proprietor that there was nothing to do there and if we were looking to do something other than hang out at the B&B, we might look to go somewhere else.
Back to the charts to find a place that was not too far away.
After much studying over my last glass of bourbon my eyes fell upon Frankfort, KY (KKT). Frankfort happens to be the capital of Kentucky and smack dab in the middle of the Bourbon Trail.
With four planes and advance planning completed, the eight of us were ready to go and the wives were busy planning meals, distillery tours, etc.
Friday morning, March 22nd rolled around and there was snow and ice in the Cleveland, OH area but clear throughout the rest of the Southeastern US.
The RV that was to join us from Cleveland dropped their kids off at school and started driving south and would be late getting to FFT.
The V-tail Bonanza that was coming in from Atlanta had to work late and would be late getting to FFT.
The T-tail Lance that was supposed to come from Nashville texted and said they were in Florida and would be late getting to FFT.
Do you see a pattern starting to develop?
With winds expected to pick up later in the day, I did not want to delay or departure more than an hour. So at 8:40 AM AKA 1240 N941WR lifted off of SC86 with KFFT entered and Direct To pushed.
We started a 500 FPM climb, contacted Greer departure and up over the mountains we went, AVL on the right, Snowbird MOA above us, we leveled off at 7500 feet for a very smooth flight.
Only one minor issue, the 5 knot predicted winds were actually 50 knots and were right on the nose! Uggg…
Well, at least the air was smooth up at 7500 feet!
With everyone predicted to be late, I pulled back to around 43% power and saw 140 to 144 TAS on the SkyView, not bad for 5.6 GPH. We were definitely in no hurry.
The thing that got me was looking down at the GS and seeing numbers that ranged between 78 and 99 knots. Again, Uggg…
What should have been an hour and thirty-three minute flight took us over 2.8 hours. Well, at least the air was smooth up there.
We didn’t start hitting bumps until we were going past Lexington and dropped through 3800 feet.
The winds were bouncing around but nothing to worry about and the landing on 25 was uneventful (for me or my RV-9). It was pretty cool seeing the capital building on downwind!
The others weren’t so lucky, except the guy driving, he reported a smooth trip. Both the V and T-tails said their flights were extremely bumpy down low and apparently the winds up high had increased to around 90 knots. So, they elected to stay low and ride the bumps.
Friday afternoon, after a few hours of talking with the local airport bums at FFT, the two driving down from Ohio were going to head directly to Woodford Reserve, so we took a taxi over there with all of our “stuff” and pulled in the parking lot less than five minutes before they did.
With the driver paid off, our “stuff” stuffed in their car, we took a great tour and tested some of the Woodford Reserve product.
After the tour, the T-tail made it on the ground, safe and sound, after an eventful two approaches, one of which resulted in a full stop landing.
Now there were six.
We found a local restaurant that wasn’t a chain, had a great dinner and were finishing up as the V-tail texted to say they were on the ground.
Now there were eight.
After a fun evening catching up and draining some of my souvenir, it was time for everyone to head to their rooms.
Saturday morning dawned beautiful and clear with the guy who drove down from Ohio complaining that he had to drive. Much fun was made of him, poor guy!
The first distillery of the day was Buffalo Trace, which is another large, high volume producer, much like Woodford Reserve. After that we went on to Castle and Key, followed by Glenns Creek Distilling.
Castle and Key was great and the staff was outstanding! They are a new distiller who are in the process of restoring a derelict distillery from the 1800’s. The main building is built like a Castle and the water spring is shaped like a keyhole, thus Castle and Key. With botanical gardens to walk around, while waiting for the tour to start, it was a great visit! This distiller is so new you will have to wait another two years for to taste bourbon out of a barrel; however, they do sell gin, very good gin! We want to go back in two years, when they can serve and sell their bourbon.
Glenns Creek Distilling was described to us as a couple of moonshiners who got a license. With only two barrels +/- filled a week, they were VERY small! They are located in the Old Crow distillery building. Their bourbon was probably the best we tasted on this trip and I bought a bottle of OCD #5 from them. (Don’t ask about the name.)
After all the tours we ate at The Stave, which was an amazingly good restaurant. Just don't let the outside appearance deceive you!
Sunday morning the eight of us gathered at the Kentucky Coffeetree Café for a fantastic breakfast, just another surprise Frankfort has to offer.
The winds were still blowing for the flight home but this time it was a direct crosswind and we had to go up to 9500 feet over the mountains to get a smooth ride. (I just love how well these RV’s climb!)
Again, I was throttle back because I didn’t want the weekend to end but 1.7 after departure we were shutting down in front of the hangar with a baggage compartment full of “product”. I probably should have done a W&B before I loaded the plane!
Addition:
When my wife packed, she put together some food to bring with us. One of the things she packed was a bag of potato chips. When I realized what she had done, I asked her to put the chips inside a plastic grocery back and made it clear I didn't want her eating them in plane because they will attract mice.
The chips and 90% of the snacks she brought up there were with us on the return trip. Only on the return trip we had to climb to 9500 feet, as I mentioned. By this time I had forgotten about the bag of chips. Passing through 9100 feet I hear a pop and what I thought was a crack. I was sure it was the canopy and didn't want to look as there was no additional noise or turbulence.
When we landed and started pulling things out of the baggage compartment I noticed that the canopy was fine. Then when we started putting things away, inside that grocery bag was that bag of chips, which had blown open. I had heard of bags blowing open but this was the first time I had every experienced it myself.
We thought Rough River State Park would be good and one of the wives was making a reservation at a local B&B only to be told by the proprietor that there was nothing to do there and if we were looking to do something other than hang out at the B&B, we might look to go somewhere else.
Back to the charts to find a place that was not too far away.
After much studying over my last glass of bourbon my eyes fell upon Frankfort, KY (KKT). Frankfort happens to be the capital of Kentucky and smack dab in the middle of the Bourbon Trail.
With four planes and advance planning completed, the eight of us were ready to go and the wives were busy planning meals, distillery tours, etc.
Friday morning, March 22nd rolled around and there was snow and ice in the Cleveland, OH area but clear throughout the rest of the Southeastern US.
The RV that was to join us from Cleveland dropped their kids off at school and started driving south and would be late getting to FFT.
The V-tail Bonanza that was coming in from Atlanta had to work late and would be late getting to FFT.
The T-tail Lance that was supposed to come from Nashville texted and said they were in Florida and would be late getting to FFT.
Do you see a pattern starting to develop?
With winds expected to pick up later in the day, I did not want to delay or departure more than an hour. So at 8:40 AM AKA 1240 N941WR lifted off of SC86 with KFFT entered and Direct To pushed.
We started a 500 FPM climb, contacted Greer departure and up over the mountains we went, AVL on the right, Snowbird MOA above us, we leveled off at 7500 feet for a very smooth flight.
Only one minor issue, the 5 knot predicted winds were actually 50 knots and were right on the nose! Uggg…
Well, at least the air was smooth up at 7500 feet!
With everyone predicted to be late, I pulled back to around 43% power and saw 140 to 144 TAS on the SkyView, not bad for 5.6 GPH. We were definitely in no hurry.
The thing that got me was looking down at the GS and seeing numbers that ranged between 78 and 99 knots. Again, Uggg…
What should have been an hour and thirty-three minute flight took us over 2.8 hours. Well, at least the air was smooth up there.
We didn’t start hitting bumps until we were going past Lexington and dropped through 3800 feet.
The winds were bouncing around but nothing to worry about and the landing on 25 was uneventful (for me or my RV-9). It was pretty cool seeing the capital building on downwind!
The others weren’t so lucky, except the guy driving, he reported a smooth trip. Both the V and T-tails said their flights were extremely bumpy down low and apparently the winds up high had increased to around 90 knots. So, they elected to stay low and ride the bumps.
Friday afternoon, after a few hours of talking with the local airport bums at FFT, the two driving down from Ohio were going to head directly to Woodford Reserve, so we took a taxi over there with all of our “stuff” and pulled in the parking lot less than five minutes before they did.
With the driver paid off, our “stuff” stuffed in their car, we took a great tour and tested some of the Woodford Reserve product.
After the tour, the T-tail made it on the ground, safe and sound, after an eventful two approaches, one of which resulted in a full stop landing.
Now there were six.
We found a local restaurant that wasn’t a chain, had a great dinner and were finishing up as the V-tail texted to say they were on the ground.
Now there were eight.
After a fun evening catching up and draining some of my souvenir, it was time for everyone to head to their rooms.
Saturday morning dawned beautiful and clear with the guy who drove down from Ohio complaining that he had to drive. Much fun was made of him, poor guy!
The first distillery of the day was Buffalo Trace, which is another large, high volume producer, much like Woodford Reserve. After that we went on to Castle and Key, followed by Glenns Creek Distilling.
Castle and Key was great and the staff was outstanding! They are a new distiller who are in the process of restoring a derelict distillery from the 1800’s. The main building is built like a Castle and the water spring is shaped like a keyhole, thus Castle and Key. With botanical gardens to walk around, while waiting for the tour to start, it was a great visit! This distiller is so new you will have to wait another two years for to taste bourbon out of a barrel; however, they do sell gin, very good gin! We want to go back in two years, when they can serve and sell their bourbon.
Glenns Creek Distilling was described to us as a couple of moonshiners who got a license. With only two barrels +/- filled a week, they were VERY small! They are located in the Old Crow distillery building. Their bourbon was probably the best we tasted on this trip and I bought a bottle of OCD #5 from them. (Don’t ask about the name.)
After all the tours we ate at The Stave, which was an amazingly good restaurant. Just don't let the outside appearance deceive you!
Sunday morning the eight of us gathered at the Kentucky Coffeetree Café for a fantastic breakfast, just another surprise Frankfort has to offer.
The winds were still blowing for the flight home but this time it was a direct crosswind and we had to go up to 9500 feet over the mountains to get a smooth ride. (I just love how well these RV’s climb!)
Again, I was throttle back because I didn’t want the weekend to end but 1.7 after departure we were shutting down in front of the hangar with a baggage compartment full of “product”. I probably should have done a W&B before I loaded the plane!
Addition:
When my wife packed, she put together some food to bring with us. One of the things she packed was a bag of potato chips. When I realized what she had done, I asked her to put the chips inside a plastic grocery back and made it clear I didn't want her eating them in plane because they will attract mice.
The chips and 90% of the snacks she brought up there were with us on the return trip. Only on the return trip we had to climb to 9500 feet, as I mentioned. By this time I had forgotten about the bag of chips. Passing through 9100 feet I hear a pop and what I thought was a crack. I was sure it was the canopy and didn't want to look as there was no additional noise or turbulence.
When we landed and started pulling things out of the baggage compartment I noticed that the canopy was fine. Then when we started putting things away, inside that grocery bag was that bag of chips, which had blown open. I had heard of bags blowing open but this was the first time I had every experienced it myself.
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