Thursday, August 15
Recently, we were invited to spend the weekend in the Outer Banks of North Carolina by Susan's sister. The timing was right so that we could include Andrew in our plans. That is a very long drive from Melbourne, so of course, I looked into flying instead.
About a week before the flight, I noticed that a tropical storm had shown up on the National Hurricane Center's seven-day outlook. Obviously, a hurricane along the route would put an end to all flight planning. As the week progressed, the storm grew into Hurricane Ernesto, but its path was predicted to move to the northeast, far from our intended route. Another possible issue was my partners, but they were fine with me taking the plane for the long weekend.
On Wednesday evening, we gathered all of our things and weighed them. We knew the plane could haul the three of us plus fuel plus about 125 pounds. Somehow, our things only added up to half that, so we were good to go.
On Thursday morning, we started our adventure. We left the house early, stopped for breakfast at McDonald's, then drove to the airport. We loaded the plane and were in the air before 9:00 AM. It just so happened that SpaceX was planning a launch, and we were lucky enough to see it launch and return to the landing zone.
| SpaceX Starlink launch |
As we approached Daytona Beach, the weather started to get bad, as the forecast had predicted. I diverted to the west to avoid it, but that resulted in me getting closer to Orlando's Class B airspace and restricted airspace. Daytona Approach told me to turn to the east, so I found a gap between the clouds and headed for the beach. The weather along the coast was acceptable as we continued along towards Jacksonville. At this point, we were approaching several restricted airspaces, so I asked Jacksonville Approach about them. They told me that as long as I was talking to him, I was cleared to proceed. That put a smile on my face.
The flight over Georgia went smoothly, but we did have to maneuver around clouds. By the time we reached Savannah, however, the sky was clear. We continued north towards our first fuel stop in Allendale County, South Carolina.
Allendale has a very nice, small airport with reasonably cheap gas. We were the only ones there when we arrived, so we went directly to the fuel pump. It felt very good to get out of the plane after over three hours of flight.
With the tanks fuel, we pushed the plane to a parking spot, then went inside to relax and use the facilities. The kitchen had drinks and snacks for sale, and I saw some fresh peaches in the refrigerator. I made a mental note to buy some on the way back on Sunday.
| Allendale County Airport FBO |
After an hour break, we were back in the air. Our flight took us east towards the coast. As we approached Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach Approach directed us inland for traffic. I asked if we could fly over the beach, and he eventually granted my request and let me fly at my discretion.
| Myrtle Beach Airport |
Our trip continued northeast past Wilmington and New Bern, North Carolina. At this point, our flight plan was complicated by the many restricted areas ahead. To my surprise and astonishment, Cherry Point Approach told me that all the airspaces were cold and that I was clear direct to Manteo. This reduced the workload for the remainder of the flight. Now I was able to enjoy the scenery, as we crossed over the inlets and marshland.
As we approached Manteo, I prepared for landing by listening to the automated weather. I was surprised to discover that they have an undocumented parttime tower. At 10 miles out, I contacted tower and was cleared number 2 for landing. We landed around 4:25 PM. Manteo tower guided me to the ramp, then turned me over to the UNICOM for parking instructions. I was told to park anywhere I liked, except for behind the fuel truck.
| Manteo Airport FBO |
Once parked, we unpacked and covered the plane. We went inside and got the rundown about fuel prices, overnight parking fees, and car rentals. The staff was very laid back and not at all concerned about making us pay for anything at this time. We called an Uber and waited for it to arrive.
| Andrew outside the Manteo Airport FBO |
The Uber arrived shortly and drove us to our hotel. Susan's sister was planning to arrive on Friday night, so we booked a hotel for two nights in Manteo. The driver dropped us at the hotel, where we checked in, dropped our stuff off in our room, then started thinking about dinner. We decided to take a short walk into town. Susan found a place that sounded good - Hungry Pelican - so that's where we went.
After dinner, we explored the town. The town is very old and quaint. As we walked along, we passed the Pioneer Theater. I was so impressed that I had to stop and have a look inside. The owner was there and gave us a little history lesson and let us peek inside the actual theater, which was about to show Frozen. Later, we passed by a tour group. The guide was describing the death of the famous pirate, Blackbeard. We capped off the evening by stopping for ice cream and watching the sunset from the bridge to Roanoke Island Festival Park. On our walk back to the hotel, Andrew snapped a photo of the Pioneer Theater.
| Pioneer Theater, Manteo |
Friday, August 16
| Parked at First Flight Airport, Kill Devil Hills |
After parking, we signed the guest book in the small pilot building, then walked up the hill to the monument. Since we were here last fall, we didn't stay long. We quickly walked back down the hill and visited the gift shop. Susan was looking for a gift for a friend.
| Wright Brothers Memorial |
Back at the plane, we continued our tour of the Outer Banks. We departed First Flight and followed the coastline south towards Ocracoke Island. The visibility was not very good, but we had a nice tailwind. I set the power to a low setting and cruised along slowly at 90 knots indicated.
| First Flight Airport and Wright Brothers Memorial |
Along the route, we passed over the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. We turned east as we passed Cape Point. We reached the end of the road in Hatteras. This is as far south as I'd ever been. To continue by car, you'd need to take a ferry to Ocracoke Island. I hear that ferry can take an hour. In the plane, we crossed that distance in a few minutes.
| Cape Point on Hatteras Island |
We continued past the town of Ocracoke and set up to land at the Ocracoke Island Airport. The landing was memorable for two reasons. First, the airport is only a few feet above sea level. There was water in the ditch on the right side of the runway. And second, that water attracted a flock of sea gulls, that, upon our arrival, decided to take off all together. I landed and applied the brakes as birds flew over and around the plane. We managed to avoid a bird strike and parked on the ramp.
| Ocracoke |
It was nearly time for lunch, and we were ready to eat. We walked about a half mile to the edge of town, then caught the free tram. The driver suggested a Mexican food truck - Eduardo's Taco Stand - so we asked to be dropped off there. The place was pretty busy. We found a picnic table with an umbrella and ate our burrito bowls and fish tacos.
| Hatteras ferry dock, with the airport in the distance |
After lunch, we continued Susan's search for a gift for a friend. Everywhere we stopped, the store owner suggested another store that might have what she was looking for. After stopping at a few stores, I was ready for an ice cream break, so we stopped at the Ocracoke Fudge & Ice Cream Shop. Then we continued our search. Eventually we determined that the last best chance to find something was at a place we passed while coming into town. We caught the next tram at the Ocracoke Island Discovery Center, across from the ferry dock, and rode it back out of town. We stopped one more time, at the Pirates Chest, and were overwhelmed by the amount of stuff they had. Sure enough, they even had the gift that Susan had been searching for.
With gift goal achieved, we returned to the airport. Before getting in the plane, Andrew and Susan wanted to see the beach, so we detoured that way. It was windy, but the waves from Hurricane Ernesto, which was many miles offshore, didn't seem all that big to me.
Back in the plane, we departed Ocracoke Island Airport and headed back towards Manteo. We stopped briefly at the Billy Mitchell Airport near Hatteras so that I could add a pin in my Visited Airports map. The approach was interesting because it was right over the beach and close to houses. After taxiing back to takeoff, we saw a bunny along the edge of the cut grass. While taking off, we saw a small deer cross the far end of the runway. This deer was not alone. The second deer remained clear of the runway. Since I was doing a short field takeoff, I was high above them when I reached where they were standing.
| Bodie Island Lighthouse |
Up the coast a few miles, we flew over Rodanthe. Andrew thought it was odd that people built their houses over the water. I suggested that maybe they were built inland, but the water eroded the land out from under them. Soon afterwards, we passed by the Bodie Island Lighthouse. And then we were back at Manteo.
On the ground, Susan checked in with her sister. Her sister was getting close and said that she would pick us up from the airport. The airport was closing, so we waited outside. Soon, a familiar green Chevrolet Colorado pulled up to us and offered us a ride. We got in and rode past the hotel to the rental house in Nags Head. After dinner, they took us back to the hotel in Manteo.
Saturday, August 17
On Saturday, we took a break from flying. We ate breakfast, then went for another walk into town. We wanted to see the pirate ship on Discovery Island, but it was not free, and we didn't have time to do the tour. So, we returned to the hotel, checked out, and caught an Uber to the rental house. We discussed the possibility of going for a sightseeing flight but decided to go for a walk past Jockey's Ridge and to the pier. The waves along this stretch of beach were larger than normal, but still didn't look all that impressive. Eventually, we reached the pier. By this time, Susan's sister was ready to go shopping and said that she'd pick us up. We asked her to meet us at the Surfin' Spoon Frozen Yogurt Bar.
Once our ride arrived, we went shopping for T-shirts and groceries. Back at the rental house, we made dinner while her sister's family went out to dinner. That evening, we started looking at the weather forecasts for Sunday; they were not what I was hoping to see. We spent the night, but the forecasts made for a somewhat restless night.
Sunday, August 18
We awoke early so we could get an early start. The forecast was no better. We could expect rain and low ceilings in North Carolina. The coast of South Carolina also looked bad. And Florida was expecting afternoon thunderstorms after 4:00 PM. My one hope was to get past the rain by flying due west from Manteo and finding the clear weather on the other side. If we could get that, then we'd have a chance of beating the storms in Florida. My stomach was feeling queasy as I tried to eat breakfast.
We caught another Uber back to the airport and prepared for flight. Before walking out to the plane, a man walked into the FBO and headed upstairs. I asked if he was the Tower controller, and he said yes. I asked him if he could set us up for flight following. He said he would.
Once in the plane, we called up Tower and sure enough, he gave us a squawk code and the frequency for Cherry Point Approach. We took off and started flying our route to the southwest. The visibility was very poor. It was like we were inside a VFR bubble and everything outside the bubble was IFR. We continued on this course until we arrived at a line of clouds. I started a climb to the northwest to get over the clouds, which put us closer to the clouds above us. Soon, we were in a narrow layer with clouds above and below. I seriously considered doing a 180 degree turn and returning to Manteo. Before making the decision to turn around, I saw that the sky in front of us was starting to turn blue. I continued another minute. Sure enough, we had past the worst of it and things were literally looking brighter.
The flight from here to our fuel stop went well, other than the strong headwinds. We were planning to stop at a different airport on the way back, but as we approached it, we checked the weather, and it wasn't looking too good. We decided to revisit our old friend Allendale County. I was looking forward to buying a peach, but there were none in the refrigerator this time.
Back in the air for our final leg of the flight, we headed towards Savannah in clear skies. When we turned the corner at Jacksonville, we lost the headwind and gained about 10 knots of ground speed. As we approached Daytona Beach, I had to make another decision. The clouds were building, and I couldn't tell how far over the coast they extended. I decided to turn more inland and climbed to 8,500 feet to stay comfortably above them. At that altitude, I could now see the shoreline beyond the line of clouds, so I turned to fly the remainder of the flight over the beach. Once past Daytona Beach, the clouds were less cumulous, and we had a smooth, stress-free flight back to Valkaria. With the plane fueled and back in the hangar, the thunder started clapping in the near distance. We didn't beat the storms by much.
The flight tracks are shown below. Notice that the first leg starts in Palm Coast. That is because I was flying with Garmin Pilot, but it was not updating the map as we flew north. I ended up exiting Garmin Pilot and switching to Foreflight, which provided these flight tracks.
| Valkaria to Allendale County |
| Allendale County to Manteo |
| Manteo to First Flight |
| First Flight to Ocracoke |
| Ocracoke to Manteo, via Hatteras |
| Manteo to Allendale County |
| Allendale County to Valkaria |
Flight Time: 16.4 hours
Total Time: 625 hours
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