[color=#000000]Flight 104
2N8-W91-KAVL-0A7
C172M
6.5 hrs solo; 3 landings
[LEG 1]
"Enroute New Orleans- good VFR weather, longest leg so far... tricky finding W91 among the lakes. Good landing"
Amazingly, my schedule, the weather, and the plane's airworthiness and availability have all come together on this fine September morning. As I prepare 3KK and secure my backpack to the passenger seat so that my flight materials and refreshments will be handy, I feel a little criminal- are they really letting me take this airplane so far, for so long? Should I have made a more formal request? Will someone call me and say "Hey! Wait a minute..."?
I decide to get the hell out of there before that happens, taking off with full tanks into a blue sky peppered with small picturesque clouds at about 8000.
My plan is to break the trip into two days each way, even though I could probably just keep going until dark and probably make it all the way to New Orleans. I don't want to get overly tired, and as I will discover, the weather could force me to divide the trip into two days.
Level at 6500, I head SW for the Robbinsville VOR, my first waypoint. From there I head for the Smyrna VOR near Dover, passing Cross Keys Airport. There's a light headwind, and I make fairly good time to each waypoint, surprising myself with my accuracy in finding them. 3KK has a GPS, but I haven't botherd to learn how to use it except to reference ground speed.
I cross the Potomac River, flying right over the little island midriver that I'd marked on the chart, and soon I'm abeam Patuxent's huge military airfield, about two hours after departing 2N8. I'm using Flight Following, occasionally breaking away to call Flight Watch for weather updates.
Twenty minutes later, I'm over Virginia, passing the point at which I would turn for my alternate at Farmville. The weather looks good ahead, so I press on for the Lynchburg VOR, where I begin my descent.
Smith Mountain Lake scrolls into view, and as I get lower I see that the lake, made by damming a valley, appears not as one lake, as on the chart, but as a cluster of small lakes. Now I wish I'd learned to use the GPS, because I cannot find the airport. I continue south to where the dam is, then double back from there. Soon enough, I spy W91, and approach for a good landing, three hours and forty minutes after departure.
After topping off the tanks with 25 gallons of 100LL, I head to the FBO for a pit stop of my own. It's very quiet here this afternoon, but suddenly I hear excited voices- whooping, laughing- approaching me.
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