"Mountain Flying" (Blairsville GA)

Matthew K

Matthew K

Line Up and Wait
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Sep 14, 2016
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Georgia
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Broke Engineer
I've vacationed up in North Georgia many times. This is my first time being a Private Pilot and being here however so naturally I checked out the local airport. I met a really cool local who was willing to take me up in his C150 so I of course took him up on that. It was great to see the area from the air. This was also my first time flying in the mountains(and first time in a Cessna 150) so that made it that much cooler.

This airport currently does not have a flight school or any airplanes to rent, but very ironically I found out a few days ago that the flight school I trained at in Southern Georgia is going to be setting up operations here early next year. So I'm looking forward to renting and flying to some other nearby airports next time I come up. Have any suggestions of airports to fly into that are somewhat nearby(maybe within 50-100 miles)?
 

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@Velocity173 I believe I remember you saying you are somewhat near Blairsville. It is definitely a cool little airport.
 
Lol! Enjoying Thanksgiving in Blairsville right now. Plenty of airports in that range. Asheville is always a scenic trip. Head over to GMU for lunch. Sevierville aviation museum. Chattanooga. Little further you can hit the Beechcraft Museum at THA.

Airspace is dirt simple. You're inside of an Alert Area but the Rangers rarely use the area. Lots of MTR activity. Plenty of breakfast fly-ins.

Blairsville is a typical north GA mountain town. Slow, easy living. Highest point (Brasstown Bald) in GA is here, worth the trip to the viewing area on top. Stop by The Aviator restaurant sometime. Good food and an aviation atmosphere.
 
Velocity173 said:
Lol! Enjoying Thanksgiving in Blairsville right now. Plenty of airports in that range. Asheville is always a scenic trip. Head over to GMU for lunch. Sevierville aviation museum. Chattanooga. Little further you can hit the Beechcraft Museum at THA.

Airspace is dirt simple. You're inside of an Alert Area but the Rangers rarely use the area. Lots of MTR activity. Plenty of breakfast fly-ins.

Blairsville is a typical north GA mountain town. Slow, easy living. Highest point (Brasstown Bald) in GA is here, worth the trip to the viewing area on top. Stop by The Aviator restaurant sometime. Good food and an aviation atmosphere.
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I'm up here till Sunday so I'll have to make sure to stop by The Aviator restaurant for lunch one day.
 
What’s the indentifier Matthew? DZJ?
 
Fast Eddie lives in the area. He can probably give you lots of info about local airports.

BTW - there's a restaurant in Blairsville, on the downtown traffic circle, called Hole-In-The-Wall. Go there for breakfast and try the grits. Excellent!
 
For shorter hops, to the west of Blairsville is 1A3, Copperhill Tenn. Copperhill Tn and McCaysville Ga are essentially the same town. You go down one street and your in Tennessee and turn the corner and you are in Georgia. Pat's Country Kitchen is the place to go for good food there. My middle brother lives outside of McCaysville.

To the east is 1A5, Franklin NC. It is another neat little mountain town. My oldest brother has a mountain cabin there.

Enjoy your time up there. I certainly do. I just flew up to Copperhill the last week of October. The leaves were just starting to pop with the fall colors.
 

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FastEddieB said:
To the OP:

Just let me know when you’re in the area. Copperhill , TN is just a very short hop west from Blairsville.

Give me an excuse to fire up the Sky Arrow!
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I’m in the area until Sunday :)
 
Haven't been to Blairsville in a long time. My grandparents retired there, Granny moved back to Atlanta after my grandfather passed (when I was in college).

Let me know when / if anything is going on up there. Can't be much over an hour from here.
 
Lived in Blue Ridge Ga for awhile, about 15 minutes from Blairsville. Restaurants leave a lot to be desired in North Ga. They were ok but nothing to boast about IMO. We'd drive down towards Atlanta almost an hour for the good stuff. That was 12-13 years ago so maybe something better up there.
 
I bet that its pretty there. Just an observation but one person's mountain is another person's hill. :)
 
FlySince9 said:
so it it were a SE PoA flyin, where would the food be found that wouldn't require 10 crew cars?
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There isn't anything on the airport so everyone would have to drive. Closest decent restaurant would be about 2 miles down the road. Like I said, The Aviator is good. Blue Angel hanging from the ceiling that I donated.
 
No doubt and I didn't mean any disrespect. The highest point in Arkansas where I grew up is magazine "mountain" in the Ozarks. It is lower than field elevation here.
 
I'm a big mountain fan but the problem with big mountains is, you get big mountain winds. In the southeast, you can pretty much fly year round and not get beat up too bad with turbulence. Flying out west and mountainous areas overseas, I've seen aircraft get tossed around like a toy.
 
mscard88 said:
Lived in Blue Ridge Ga for awhile, about 15 minutes from Blairsville. Restaurants leave a lot to be desired in North Ga. They were ok but nothing to boast about IMO. We'd drive down towards Atlanta almost an hour for the good stuff. That was 12-13 years ago so maybe something better up there.
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I get up there a few times a year. My sister has a vacation home there and I borrow it occasionally.

Several places with good food if you explore a bit, but not exactly fine dining. The Pink Pig in Cherry Log has terrific BBQ ribs. Never found a good steak place, though, and forget about seafood.
 
Timbeck2 said:
I bet that its pretty there. Just an observation but one person's mountain is another person's hill. :)
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You might be surprised. Mountains are mountains.

Aside from the problem of diminished power and thrust at high density altitudes, the same issues of wind and weather and ridges and downdrafts and landing with a downdraft just before the numbers apply just as much in the eastern mountains and the western ones.

"Don't forget. Circle over the airport to get high enough before you head out of the valley." That was advice given to me about leaving one of the airports on my first solo cross country. That was in New England. I gave the exact same advice to students when I taught mountain flying in Colorado.
 
Been all over this country and many places in the world. The north Georgia/east Tennessee/west North Carolina area is my favorite part of it all. Will be back to live one day. Enjoy the flying
 
Half Fast said:
I get up there a few times a year. My sister has a vacation home there and I borrow it occasionally.

Several places with good food if you explore a bit, but not exactly fine dining. The Pink Pig in Cherry Log has terrific BBQ ribs. Never found a good steak place, though, and forget about seafood.
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Ate at the Pink Pig once, it was ok IMO. Much better BBQ further south towards Atlanta.
 
mscard88 said:
Ate at the Pink Pig once, it was ok IMO. Much better BBQ further south towards Atlanta.
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I thought the BBQ ribs were great; other items ok but not stellar. There's a place in BR (Trackside?) that also has good ribs, but that's about all. Tempting to get an order of ribs to go, then take it elsewhere for trimmings. :)

What do you like near Atlanta?
 
So me and @FastEddieB got to meet up today. Great guy, he took me up in his Sky arrow and we did a touch & go at 1A3 and then flew back to Blairsville. The Sky Arrow is a pretty cool plane. We then went to lunch with my parents at The Aviator Cafe, had a great time. Thanks again Eddie! Me and Eddie Benson.jpg
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