long island marathon 2015- the flying part, part 1

What an amazing trip!

Such a great learning experience for me and my student- we discovered new airports, new weather, new terrain.  I ran my second marathon in the middle of it all!

I wasn't sure to make this post more about the flying or the running part so I'm splitting it up.  This one is about the flight from Orlando to New York in my student Dave's Cessna Turbo 182.  Next post will be on the race happenings, deal?

Because Dave has not yet taken his Instrument rating checkride, I came along on this trip with him and his g/f Stephanie so that she could run the Long Island Marathon to try to qualify for Boston.  So I got to run the race, too!  

We departed out of Orlando on Thursday (the race was scheduled for Sunday morning) and we made the first leg to our fuel stop in Walterboro, SC.  Lowcountry Regional airport.  Cue the banjos.  Now, we're not exactly fancy city folk but I sure felt like I was rolling around in this little town.  The man working at the airport FBO could not understand what Steph meant when she said she did not eat meat, after we'd asked him for some suggestions for a lunch spot.  "Well, honey this is the South.  We got barbecue.  We have taters and gravy and mac and cheese... I guess you could just peel the skin off the fried chicken if'n you like that healthy stuff."

Seriously.

I can't make this up.

After limping in to town in the busted up '97 Crown Vic they lent us from the airport, we managed to find some edible food and then got the hell out of South Carolina.  We'd planned to go up to Norfolk, VA but there was some pretty bad storms just festering over the DC area.  

 This was the local "seafood restaurant."  In reality, a shed/carport with some fish in a cooler and a grill.  

The weather from Orlando had been a bit cloudy to start then cleared up nicely once we were north of the Palatka/Jacksonville area so getting in and out of Walterboro was pretty easy.  We picked up our IFR clearance in the air and had a smooth clear ride up to Raleigh.  The plan was to get to Raleigh and see what the weather to the east was doing.  We were sailing along happily around 7,000' above some little clouds.  The new consideration we had to look at was the temperatures.  The freezing level was right around 8,000' and as we worked our way north we started popping in and out of some build-up.  Steph wasn't comfortable getting bounced around in the puffier clouds so we thought about asking for a climb.  When we looked at the temps though, we realized we'd be at risk to pick up some ice any higher up- what with having to go through the clouds to get up and then to come back down and all.  So we descended down to 5,000' where it was bumpier but clear.  Weather looked to be building off to the west as we approached RDU but we made it in while the sun was out and things still looked good.  This sounds silly to anyone who doesn't do all their flying in Florida, but the 435' elevation of RDU was a fun novelty for us.  Ooooo so high!  

After we got in, we made the executive decision to stay put in Raleigh for the night.  It wasn't what we wanted and we first thought maybe we could have made it up to Maryland but as we were sipping margaritas at the local Chilis after we parked the airplane, a torrential downpour started.

And it did not let up for the rest of the night!

Let the drinking commence.

Dave got us a car and the 3 of us found a place to stay at the Marriott.  Raleigh is very pretty!  I did enjoy the drive around, everything was so green and hilly.  By 11 pm we had enjoyed dinner and drinks and I was tired.  I made it up to my room, got cleaned up, and then the shit hit the fan.

Or, in this case, the bed.

Yeah.

I pulled back the blanket on my bed and there was about a 4" poo stain across the mattress.

OMG.

Now, the hotel front desk guy was very accommodating, he gave me a new room right away and comped the night (which Dave appreciated since he was paying but I told him I ain't doing this whole poo-on-the-sheets every hotel we go to)

Ya'll, it was so gross.

I had to pack up all my stuff, schlep downstairs, get a new room, haul everything across to the other side of the hotel and unpack it all again.  

And no, you sick bastards, I did not take a picture of the crap streak on the sheets.

In fact, I bailed out of that room like it was on fire.

Dave and Stephanie thought this was the funniest thing ever when I told them about it the next morning.  Har har.  Anyway, we got breakfast and packed up to head back to the airport.  Dave and I had gone over the flight planning and decided that Norfolk was not going to happen and he was trying to figure out a way for us to get to Frederick, Maryland.  No matter how you sliced it, the planning just was not working out.  We could head east but that had us going in to the storm.  We could head west but that didn't leave us with enough fuel.  Going north was impossible because the freezing level was 6,000' at this point with a minimum altitude requirement of 7,000' because of the mountains.  After looking over his options, I suggested to him that we fly up to Lynchburg, VA first, take a break and check the weather there, then head back east to Frederick.  This is what that would look like: 

It was out of the way but it was also out of the icing and the worst of the weather.  It was the best plan available.  I told him a lot of the flight would be in IFR conditions and he'd want a break anyway.  So we went with that.  It was raining when we departed RDU but the clouds looked pretty awesome on the way west.  The 90 degree angle there in the route was over Greensboro but ATC let us cut that corner and go direct.  Got some good photos of some mountains!

 RDU on departure

 So pretty and green!

 Calm, no bumps here!

 Shenandoah River

 Approach into Lynchburg

   Steph in LYH

Well, I was right about the need for a break.  Dave zoned out in a chair in the FBO for a bit while I looked at the next flight plan.  The good news was that the freezing level had gone up to 9,000'!  Yay!  We'd encounter some clouds on the way to Maryland but the majority of the stuff was back to the southeast.  Here's the route we filed:

 We took off out of LYH into patchy clouds.  (Another novelty?  LYH elevation was 938'!) This flight was about an hour and a half.  Here's some more photos of the scenery!  We passed over Shenandoah State Park.

 Leaving LYH- see ya!

 Shenandoah River again

 Moving along...

 Mountains!

 Look, kids!  A VOR!

 On approach to FDK

On final for FDK.  Over some sort of quarry- it looks pretty awesome

See how the weather cleared up so nice?  Yay!  Thing is, with that big Low pressure hanging around Virginia, we had a headwind the WHOLE FREAKING WAY from Raleigh to Lynchburg, to Frederick.  Sigh.  Anyway, we made it to Maryland, headquarters of the AOPA!  I took a picture...

We also had crab cakes from the restaurant at the FBO.  When in Rome...

We were in MD just long enough to fuel ourselves and fuel the airplane, then it was back up in the air again!  The flight to Republic airport on Long Island was going to be a couple hours so we wanted to get going.  It was looking like we'd arrive in New York just after sunset.  Dave filed the flight plan and when we picked up our IFR clearance, we heard the dreaded words "We have a full re-route for you, advise ready to copy."

Dammit.

Okay, so the new plan took us a little farther south, which surprised me since we were trying to stay a far away from DC as possible.  That weather system had moved off to the east and we were looking at clear skies all the way up!  We filed for 7,000' again and it was gorgeous the whole way!

 More mountains!

 Bye, Lynchburg.  Nice knowing you.

 Potomac River

 Baltimore

 Crossed the Delaware River, entering New Jersey!

 Cranberry bogs!

 I see New York!

 Got to overfly JFK airport

I'm so glad we got to fly into New York at night!  It was beautiful!  We landed at FRG at 8:45pm.  After that, it was off to the hotel and in to (a poo-free) bed!  I was tired, I didn't even eat dinner, just a small snack from my running fuel supplies.  The next morning we were planning to get up, get to the expo to pick up our race gear, and then visit the local aviation museum.  More on that, plus the race, next time!