We had been very lucky on the weather. The week before, it had been rather soggy and next week was shaping up to be a soaker in the North East as well. We had enjoyed blue skies everyday with only a quick shower Tuesday night and Thursday night. The forecast was for an overcast layer on departure but Forecasts are just guesses and my gut told me we would have nice weather for the way home except for the wind.
All week I had been watching the Jet Stream dipping South and it was going to be something to complain about. Our expected clearance had a bit of a detour West, but actual clearance had us joining the airway in a direct manner. Our first destination was Blue Ridge airport. We had used Martinsville, VA as a fuel stop before when we were flying to Charlottesville. Good runway, cheap gas and friendly people. I also really like the airport identifier, its MTV, how cool is that.
Why stop, the plane holds enough gas to get home but the gas at Harrisburg was on the high side so I just bought enough to meet the minimum to wave fees and a bit more to have generous reserves, remember we had left New Jersey light due to the short runway. Back to the route, the direct route took us very close to the Camp David prohibited area and the Washington DC special flight rules area. The chance of letting us bust through was low so a gentle detour over Hagerstown VOR would make everyone happy.
Initially the winds on departure were a bit better than forecast. We had no headwind. This did not last and soon we saw the number start to climb. I had filed for 6000 to try to stay below the worst of it. I would have gone lower, but the mountains made 6000 the minimum safe choice. The views were great, and we made it down to our stop in 1:36 which was only 7 minutes longer than a no wind time. During our descent we had a preview of things to come though with 30 knot winds.
MTV did not disappoint. The computer estimated we would take 98 gallons. One issue with the Baron is that the larger fuel orders take longer to pump. A few weeks back I suffered through a painfully slow pump at New Smyrna that pumped at about 6 gallons per minute. The MTV pump almost had the opposite problem, it seemed to pump close to 25 gallons per minute, it had quite a kick and I had to be careful to not use full speed as I neared topping each tank.
The departure from MTV was smooth and we were soon climbing into the worst of the headwinds. I had filed for 8000 to keep us out of a cloud deck and because the winds were basically the same at 6000. This was confirmed later in the flight as we heard reports from other nearby aircraft.
Charlotte had no love for us as well. I had filed the airway which you are supposed to use to stay out of their way and in their wisdom, they assigned us one a bit further East. I had hoped that the winds would be more cross and less head. You can hope all you want but through most of the Carolinas we had 30+ on the nose, I snapped this picture with 39 and I believe it peaked at 41.
This is when the extra speed of the Baron really shines. The Bonanza topped out at around 170 but in the Baron I can easily push it up to the mid 190s, I dialed in 192 which meant we were making at least 150 knots even with the headwinds.
We eventually worked South of the monster winds, and they diminished and became more of a crosswind and from Savannah home we had less than 10 knots. We had mostly stayed above the clouds but on our last segment had fun darting in and out of the puffy buildups. Our arrival we easy with a straight in to 23 and a quick taxi back to the hangar.
The direct no wind route without stops should have been 3:35, it took us 4:06 or 30 minutes and 20 gallons more than planned. We had had more favorable winds most of the trip and I had burned about 10 gallons less than planned so the net was 10 extra for the trip. We had enjoyed perfect weather for our sightseeing so the scales balance. Overall another successful adventure.
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