Where's My Tailwind?

West Virginia was fun but work called so Monday morning we headed back home.  The forecast weather was supposed to be clear almost all the way and then 4000' or better.  We planned an early for us, 8:30 am departure to beat possible afternoon rain.  The one issue was the surface winds down South.  Forecast was 25+ knots from 050.

I chose Allendale, SC as our fuel stop.  We had used it many times before.  Nice runway, friendly service, cheap gas, clean facilities and candy on the counter.  The runway is 35 so if we had 050 winds at 25 that is a pretty strong crosswind.  There are also trees along the right side that would create a good bit of turbulence.  My backup was Barnwell, 19 miles North, 50 cents more per gallon but a runway aligned with 050.

Leaving Clarksburg, it was a ghost town.  It was 40 degrees so once I started I idled in place for several minutes to warm the engine and oil.  Then I taxied slowly to get to the operating temperature I wanted for takeoff.  We never saw another operation from our arrival at the plane till we departed.  Departure was easy as the runway basically put us on course.

I filed for 8000 to cross the mountains and because I was supposed to have a crosswind.  We initially headed about 220 and had a small tailwind.  We had to head South West to get around Charlotte.  Also by paralleling the mountains, it made our over mountain crossing shorter when heading South.  We were enjoying great mountain views with pockets of morning fog and a smooth ride.

When we made our turn, we lost our tailwind and picked up about 15 on the nose as well a a steady chop.  The forecast was wrong but it did say that higher was better.  I asked for and got 10 thousand and up we went.  As we climbed the wind shifted to our tail and dropped a bit.  We ended up with about 7 on the tail which was nice.

Coming into Allendale, the controller had another Beechcraft inbound as well.  He was having trouble finding the airport which I understood.  It is sandwiched between trees and I can find it now but the first time was also a challenge for me.  He ended up beating us to the field and I knew he would be heading to the pump too. I politely asked if he was, and when he said yes, requested that he pull up enough that we could park behind and fuel without having to move the plane.

He was very nice and agreed.  We had to wait for him to gas but enjoyed chatting with another fellow Florida Aviator.  Soon our tanks were topped, others drained and we had been given candy and water. We launched for the short 56 minute hop home.  We had been watching the weather and by the time we were crossing Savannah, we saw a small line of rain heading for home.  It looked like we could beat it so we pressed on.  Crossing Saint Simons we went from clear to cloudy and even though the ATIS was still calling for good VFR, the controller was saying that previous planes had needed an approach.

At first I was going to see if we could pick up the field visual but the rain was getting closer and our path would take us through some moderate precipitation so I requested the GPS 14 approach, circle to 5.  The circle was because we had gusty winds up to 25 knots at 050.  The 14 approach is not my favorite as it has a slight bend on final but it made sense today.

The controller gave us a direct to the initial fix and from their things went like clockwork.  Bases were at 1600 but even though we broke out, the rain limited visibility and we didn't pick up the airport until about 2 miles.  From their the circle was easy.  We had light rain on final as the showers started to show up.

Regular blog readers know I got soaked a few weeks ago after landing.  This time I expedited pushing the plane back and just beat the next set of rain.