Flying down the Appalachians?

Hank S said:
Have a great trip, Mike! We will be at the Loachapoka Syrup Sop with my aunt who lives in Auburn.

Fly safe!
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Now you're just showing off!!! Thanks for the good words, I appreciate it. Btw, how was the Mooney fly-in?
 
mikeinbama said:
spending the night in Pittsburg

Haven't decided on a route yet, probably won't till Sunday and see how the weather is.
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In Pittsburgh yinz should head dahn ta the south side n nat n grab a big sandwich n beer at Big Heads Saloon.

As for route of flight, look at the weather that morning and fly on the windward side of the Appys.
 
Bill Jennings said:
In Pittsburgh yinz should head dahn ta the south side n nat n grab a big sandwich n beer at Big Heads Saloon.

As for route of flight, look at the weather that morning and fly on the windward side of the Appys.
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We wont get to Pittsburg till late, so no touring unfortunately. I am assuming you want to be on the windward side because it could be turbulent on the leeward side? What about just going up and over?
 
mikeinbama said:
We wont get to Pittsburg till late, so no touring unfortunately. I am assuming you want to be on the windward side because it could be turbulent on the leeward side? What about just going up and over?
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Typically, if you can get above the mountains by a few thousand feet the air will smooth out and it doesn't matter which side you are on.
 
steingar said:
There are always emergency landing areas if you fly with sufficient altitude.
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I can see by that comment that you have never flown over a heavily forested area such as the Appalachians, I have and the only place that I saw where on top of the trees nor in them for miles, beautiful scenery and worth the flight.

Stay high, the ridge lines can produce some pretty good turbulence and down drafts, at times
 
Contact AOPA (they are just down the street from Cumberland) and ask them if one of their CFI's wants to take the ride with you. They may even write an article for their magazine about it.
 
I basically did the same thing you're doing when i bought my 172. Georgia to NH. I had a blast. I had a few more hours, but not that many more. Have fun with it. Use Flight Following the whole way.

If you're not confident on the radio yet, read this.

Bring some water and snacks on the passenger seat. Have fun. Stop at places that have restaurants on the field or nearby.

Did I mention have fun yet?

When the seller and mechanic left me on the field with my new to me 172, I definitely had one of those "what have I done now" feelings. It'll work out. After all, you've been certified to fly by the government! What could go wrong?
 
Trip Report: We flew commercial MGM->ATL->PIT on Saturday afternoon. We spent the night in Pittsburg and went by car to Cumberland Md. Sunday morning. That by itself is a very scenic 2.5 hour ride. We arrive at CBE, open up the hangar and start to look over the airplane, it looks fine. After a very thorough preflight, we pull the plane out, load up, fire up and start to taxi.......left brake is locked up......after some "fiddling", it unlocks. Runup is fine and we prepare to launch. Have I already told you that the wind was howling? Well, the wind was howling. We taxi out for runway 23, and off we go. I knew I was in for an interesting flight at about 100' when the plane rotated about 45* and back and immediately banked about 30*. (let me state here that I am a flatlander and know nothing of mountain flying or strong wind flying for that matter, however, my CFI was with me, he is very experienced and knows what he is doing.)

It is interesting flying out of a mountain airport having to follow valleys while climbing. And as an aside, it was breathtakingly beautiful. We climbed till we were over the peaks, it was still really turbulent to me, Paul said it was moderate, I am obviously a sissy. we climbed on and eventually go out of the bumps and the ride was pretty smooth. We had planned a fuel stop at GEV, Ashe County NC. Nice little airport with an up hill runway 28. Winds were Variable 330-360@10G18 , that was a challenging approach for me, but I managed and it was actually a pretty good landing. Its amazing what you can do when you have no choice. Gassed up, took the crew car for a bite to eat, came back and got ready to launch. Left brake stuck again, "fiddled" some more and it loosened so off we go. Winds were basically the same when we took off and once again we weaved through valleys and passes as we climbed for 8500 where it smoothed out again.

It was a beautiful flight down the mountains, passing Mt. Mitchell and all the ski resorts. The colors weren't at peak, but were nonetheless beautiful. We flew to the Rome VOR to bypass the Asheville and ATL airspace, then direct 1A9. 6.4 hours on the hobbs by the time we got home. I would like to say it was a fun flight, but it wasn't fun. I was in task saturation for about 2 hours of the flight and at altitude is was more like driving down the interstate. I would do it again in a heartbeat because I learned so much. The number one take away for me was, mountain flying is no joke, you better be prepared and know where you are going and where your outs are. My second take away was, I am glad I am a flatlander, I don't care for flying in moderate turbulence for hours. ( we didn't fly in it for hours, im just saying ). All in all it was a great trip and I am glad I did it, my toolbox is bigger now. Now, where is the wind blowing right down the runway at @4?
 
Were the colors better up by CBE or down towards GEV? Or about the same the whole trip?
 
About the same, thinking back it was probably better near CBE but not by much. It is beautiful scenery if you can sit still long enough to see it.:hairraise:
 
Nice flight, great that you could have your CFI come along. I'm curious about the decision to fly down the spine of the Appalachians? My thought has been to cross them as expeditiously as possible and get to the 'safety' of flatland on the other side. I too am a flatlander and shared your initial concerns when you posted. Where are the pics?? :)
 
iflyvfr said:
Nice flight, great that you could have your CFI come along. I'm curious about the decision to fly down the spine of the Appalachians? My thought has been to cross them as expeditiously as possible and get to the 'safety' of flatland on the other side. I too am a flatlander and shared your initial concerns when you posted. Where are the pics?? :)
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We talked about the route and he assured me it would be fine and it was. I was pleasantly surprised that there were plenty of places to put down had it become necessary. He flys up in that area quite a bit in his corporate gig, I think that he is very familiar with the route. Honestly, had I been alone I would have done it differently, but the worst parts of it couldn't have been done any different, they were all in the airport environment. I took very few pics sadly.
 
Well, here's one I took yesterday, looking east towards Oak Ridge and Knoxville, TN, on my way home from Indiana:

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Beautiful country, but points out that there are times when landing sites are few and far between. In those cases, altitude is your friend.
 
I didn't see too much of that terrain, some, but not much. And we had plenty of altitude as well. What time were you flying yesterday and did you find it particular rough?
 
mikeinbama said:
I didn't see too much of that terrain, some, but not much. And we had plenty of altitude as well. What time were you flying yesterday and did you find it particular rough?
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That was early afternoon. Perfectly smooth ride at 9,500', taking advantage of 40kt tailwinds.

Got a little choppy down low on my approach into Copperhill, but nothing too bad.

The county in N GA where I live has "Gateway To The Mountains" as its motto, and is pretty much the southern terminus of the Appalachians.
 
Congrats, Mike, and welcome home! Sunday was particularly windy, and I was glad to be inside unpacking boxes instead of trying to takeoff or land. Glad to hear that everything went well.

You realize that you flew over much of God's Country on the way back down here? . I generally like to be 7500 msl or higher going over southern WV, and if you go over Knoxville that's plenty high; just east of there, though, you'll still bounce around on a windy day.
 
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