Part 3 of 2N8-NEW: End of Day 1

[beaky]

I'm talking to Asheville Approach,they have me on radar, and they're giving me traffic advisories, so I decide to circle and climb, to try to pick my way through a gap in the clouds higher up. The controller is very busy with some IFR traffic, so I decide not to bother  him. I make a climbing 270, but things don't look much better higher up. I take up my original heading and descend, trying to decide what to do. Divert to my eastern alternate route? Turn back?  I see a pass ahead, but it's bound to be a trap. Mustn't go down there...just then I hear my call sign: the controller asks me just what I'm up to...?! I explain, and he gently advises me to call first next time  before changing course more than 30 degrees or altitude more than 500 feet: "I just had to move about 6 pieces of equipment around you, and you DO realize you're entering an area where terrain exceeds your current altitude...what are your intentions?"
 My answer requires no further thought. "Gimme vectors to Asheville!"
Two lessons here: don't listen only for your call sign ("big picture"!), and speak up if you're under flight following and need to change plans. This was never covered in all my hours of dual instruction (well, the second part, anyway).



He quickly guides me towards the highway into town, taking me down a bit, but clear of some of the enormous towers in the area...still VFR, and the road is easy to follow.  Here's an approximation of my route after the SUG VOR... LOL!!!



"Have the airport in sight" (see the VASI just right of center?). Sweet. On the real flight, I was number 2 behind a Cessna Dragonfly on an Air Force training flight. Time to land, fuel up, then decide what to do next.


Turns out there's a little airport 10 miles SE that allows camping. Wx briefing shows conditions will allow me the short VFR hop at 3000 feet, so off I go to Hendersonville (0A7). I find out when I get there that they also have fuel, but it wouldn't have been prudent earlier to dig out the AFD and look that up! For ten dollars, I get a nice sheltered parking space for 3KK and myself, and set up my tent right next to her after taking this picture.
 After dark, I visit some locals who are having a bluegrass jam in one of the hangars... nice bunch of people, and some fine musicians. What a nice ending for this days' adventure! Over big slices of watermelon, one of the local pilots chuckles at my story and says," If you'd just gone east at Sugarloaf and gone downslope, you could've been in the clear all the way to Rome... I was over there around the same time! But you made a good choice... there's a lot of aluminum out in those hills..." He was talking about crashed airplanes...


Wow. Almost a whole day of flying, and here I am, in North Carolina. Not as close to NEW as I'd hoped, but as it turns out, 0A7 is exactly halfway between home and my destination!! And I'd been forced to divert  very close to this airport; it's as if this was planned this for me.  A happy accident- this place is cool.


Next: Part 4: Day 2!!