Cross country destinations from Charlotte NC

S

snglecoil

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Sep 6, 2019
Messages
213
Location
Charlotte, NC
Display Name
Display name:
Chris
I have around 90 hours of time building to do toward my commercial. Any fun airports to visit within 130-150 nm of the Charlotte area?
 
Brewpub on the field at KCUB (Columbia Owens) but you won't get the whole experience if you want to fly back the same day.:)
 
weilke said:
Billy Mitchell on Hatteras. Bring a drysuit to go swimming.

First Flight.
Click to expand...

I have family that lives right across the street from Billy Mitchell! That’s definitely in the plans as is landing at First Flight. And as a bonus Concord (JQF) to Billy Mitchell is 250 nm straight line distance on the nose so I can use that for my commercial long cross-country!
 
Last edited:
Possum said:
60J Ocean Isle Tricky winds but restaurants near the airport

BQ1 Narrow and short runway but great BBQ
Click to expand...

2nd both of these recommendations and also add 5W4 - Raeford. There's a restaurant onsite. People/skydiver watching is also entertaining. Their twin otter and caravans don't suck either.

KMRH - Beaufort NC is also a cool stop on the way to Hatteras or Ocracoke. Nothing onsite for food but a short ride to the MHC waterfront restaurants. If you've never been to the MHC waterfront, its neat especially in the summer in the late afternoon when the charter boats are coming in.

If you go the other way from CLT, KGEV - Ashe County is a fun mountain top airport. Super friendly people and downtown West Jefferson is close.
 
Nushi said:
2nd both of these recommendations and also add 5W4 - Raeford. There's a restaurant onsite. People/skydiver watching is also entertaining. Their twin otter and caravans don't suck either.

KMRH - Beaufort NC is also a cool stop on the way to Hatteras or Ocracoke. Nothing onsite for food but a short ride to the MHC waterfront restaurants. If you've never been to the MHC waterfront, its neat especially in the summer in the late afternoon when the charter boats are coming in.

If you go the other way from CLT, KGEV - Ashe County is a fun mountain top airport. Super friendly people and downtown West Jefferson is close.
Click to expand...

Does Howard’s pub still come to pick you up at Ocracoke? As for Ashe county, Marvin Stump used to drive you to a restaurant but he’s gone west. I don’t know what the current manager does.

Marvin was such a good pilot driving down the country road. He did a good job keeping the centerline centered.
 
KLZU - The flying machine, decent food
KCRE - North Myrtle Beach
KCHA - A little further, but the downtown and waterfront are nice
KAHN - Athens, a funky little college town and walk the Georgia campus
KAVL - another funky little town and a good foodie town at that
 
Rushie said:
Does Howard’s pub still come to pick you up at Ocracoke? As for Ashe county, Marvin Stump used to drive you to a restaurant but he’s gone west. I don’t know what the current manager does.

Marvin was such a good pilot driving down the country road. He did a good job keeping the centerline centered.
Click to expand...

Marvin was a great guy....he had a nice little personal field just north of KGEV back when I was flying up there 10 or so years ago.

As for Ocracoke, I made a couple landings out there yesterday and it’s still closed to tourist from Hurricane Dorian. I think it opens back up sometime next week.



 
Last edited:
FFA is a classic.
Over in Tennesee GKT is a friendly FBO and will give you a courtesy car so you can spend a little time in town if you want.
BQ1 was already mentioned.
While not the friendliest place KROA has some neat things in town (I recommend the O. Winston Link museum at the old Raymond Loewy-designed train station).
 
Nushi said:
Marvin was a great guy....he had a nice little personal field just north of KGEV back when I was flying up there 10 or so years ago.

As for Ocracoke, I made a couple landings out there yesterday and it’s still closed to tourist from Hurricane Dorian. I think it opens back up sometime next week.


Click to expand...

Ha! Photobucket wouldn't let me look at the pictures unless I disabled my adblocker which I won't do for these sites, but when I quoted your post, the pictures are shown!

Wow. Our kids had booked a cabin and had to cancel because of the storm, their cabin was flooded. We owned a house there for many years but never had a storm this bad.
 
I did make it out to Billy Mitchell, First Flight, and Manteo for my long commercial cross country. Awesome day of flying. Not a single cloud in the sky. Thanks for all the suggestions! GMU and BQ1 are up soon as I have a couple of buddies itching for some good food.
 
Someone already mentioned BQ1 in NC for an awesome BBQ meal. It's a real pilot hangout since the tables are just off the short and skinny runway. A word of advice from experience, the first time you land there you might just want to make a low pass and get the feel of it. The approach through the trees can be very tricky and play with your mind as you look over and you are below treetops. You can see a picture of the final on 31 at https://www.airnav.com/airport/BQ1
 
Pilot Steve said:
Someone already mentioned BQ1 in NC for an awesome BBQ meal. It's a real pilot hangout since the tables are just off the short and skinny runway. A word of advice from experience, the first time you land there you might just want to make a low pass and get the feel of it. The approach through the trees can be very tricky and play with your mind as you look over and you are below treetops. You can see a picture of the final on 31 at https://www.airnav.com/airport/BQ1
Click to expand...
You are correct Pilot Steve. I had to do a go around on my first trip. Just remember to identify yourself as "Gilliam McConnell" traffic and not "BQ1" traffic. Best advice given to me by a local pilot was to nail the airspeed on final. Not much room to float.
 
Thanks everyone for all the great suggestions. I'm nearly done time building and hit a few of these spots. One of the nicest flights was across the Smokies to DKX. Crisp, absolutely calm wind day that took me right over Asheville. That and several trips to the coast from CRE to ILM, and of course the long flight to Billy Mitchell and First Flight won't be forgotten anytime soon. Looking forward to taking my dad to BQ1 tomorrow. I've done a ton of night flying since I still have my day job while working toward CFI. So I've visited a bunch of airports that I've never seen in daylight! Getting to 250 is going to be a little bittersweet since I know just jumping into a plane and heading off to wherever is going to be a lot tougher to justify going forward.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top