I needed to head up to Chesapeake, Virginia for a meeting Tuesday morning. It’s about a 10 hour drive or 4.5 hours via Breeze Airlines. That’s not bad but the return flight is at 6AM so that won’t work. The other airline options include a stop and take closer to 8 hours door to door. Of course I didn’t consider any of these options, I flew.
Flying myself averaged 4 hours each way and the plane left on my schedule. The trip is 466 nm so airtime at normal cruise is 2:30. With a 25 knot headwind it’s 3 hours. On Monday when I headed up I had a slight headwind until Savannah which then became a few knot tailwind which became a headwind as I approached Chesapeake.
As flights go this was pretty simple. I filed 9,000’, direct CATHY direct. This keeps me over dry land and sets up a 350 straight in approach to runway 5.On departure I did spend a short time climbing through some clouds but then it cleared and was extremely smooth. The scenery starts nice with the coastal view but after Charlseton, it’s mostly just flat green and with the haze, was not much to look at.
I spent the flight looking around for traffic, watching the temperatures, pressures and making sure that the flight was as humdrum as it seemed. I also kept watching the winds aloft to see if my promised 10 knot tailwind would magically appear. Spoiler alert, it did not.
The days are getting much shorter and by the time I was descending to land, the sun was starting to dip and combined with a high overcast, made for a dusky look. The airport is busy with training and I was lucky and arrived at a lull in the action which allowed me to slide in for a nice touchdown.
Overall this was an easy flight. I had flown the route before, there were no enroute obstacles at 9,000’ and the weather was almost perfect (not the winds aloft). Even on these easy runs, I still review the route, the airports, the NOTAMs and the weather but with our modern tools that can be done rather quickly compared to the olden days of paper charts.
I had squeezed the trip in Monday to Tuesday because a front was moving across the country and promised to make Wednesday much more challenging with IFR and weather in the Chesapeake area. Heading home I wrapped up a bit early and was in the air just after 11 AM. Departure was easy and I was once again direct to CATHY at 8,000’. My headwind had no issue showing up and I enjoyed 25 knots on the nose most of the flight. That equates to an extra 75 miles to fly.
Typically I run around 25 gph for 185-188 KTAS. Today I ran a bit over 26 for 191-192 KTAS. With the headwind the fuel burn difference was negligible.
I had left early to stay ahead of all the weather but near Myrtle beach I was showing some rain. My onboard radar confirmed it and I was cleared to deviate. The trip up and back had been perfectly smooth up to this point and even though my radar was just showing light rain above my altitude and off to the side I didn't expect much turbulence.
As I passed this disturbed area I had about one minute of turbulence with alternating up and down drafts which gave me airspeed fluctuations +/- 15 knots. I was watching closely and ready to pull back the power but just as quickly as it came, it was gone. The rest of the flight was smooth and after a quick dive through clouds at 4,000’, my home airport appeared and I took the visual to 14.
I don’t use any fancy flight planning forms, just a pad of paper where I record clearances and frequencies. The flight took 16 frequencies starting with ground and ending with CTAF. Typically on such a short flight I might have half that but the route cuts through a bunch of approach controls so you don’t spend much time with center. Overall a good trip and glad I am home with the rain forecast for tonight.
