Back to Virginia

After almost two months of having fun flying all around South Carolina, it was time to head back to Virginia. I was worried about being able to leave as a few flights I had been planning to go on the previous weekend were cancelled due to heavy smoke from forest fires in North Carolina and Georgia, which was lingering. I actually did one loop around the pattern at Aiken with a CFI on one of those days. The visibility was reported as 5 miles, but the runway had already disappeared into the smoke on the base to final turn. We landed immediately and decided to go another time.

Fortunately, when it came time for me to head back to Virginia, it ended up being a perfect day. It was sunny with fairly light winds (though of course it was a headwind). Knowing that the smoke was worse to the west, I elected for a route that would take me east around Charlotte's Class B airspace. The only area of smoke I encountered was an area with thick haze between Charlotte and Greensboro, NC. Visibility went down to somewhere between 5 and 10 NM. It cleared up by the time I got to my fuel stop at Shiloh Airport in Reidsville, NC (KSIF). The rest of the flight was uneventful. I landed and put the plane away shortly before sunset. It was a great ending to a wonderful time in South Carolina!

Entering the smoke

Watch out for towers!

Shiloh Airport - Rockingham County, NC (KSIF)

Meeting back up with the Blue Ridge Mountains

Home sweet home - the lineup on the ramp back at KHWY

All the airports I visited during my time in South Carolina

Giving Rides in Aiken

While I was in South Carolina, I took the opportunity to give rides to coworkers as often as possible. I told of one who went to a couple of fly-ins with me and is now beginning his flight training. Well, another showed an interest in flying so I arranged for him and his family (wife and two children) to meet me at the Aiken airport one day to go flying.

Aiken Municipal Airport

It was a great day for giving rides. Not windy. Not bumpy. I couldn't have hoped for a better day. The family met me at the FBO, excited and ready to go. As the kids were a bit small to go by themselves, the idea is that the older one (a boy) would go with mom and the younger one (a girl) would go with dad. I took mom up first with the boy and he was extremely enthusiastic. He had a grand time talking (and singing) into the headset. He spent a large amount of time with his face pressed up against the windows watching the world go by below. I think we have a future pilot here!

After I landed, dad got in but the little girl didn't want to go. In all honesty, she is probably a bit on the young side anyway (2ish). I promised to take her for a flight when she gets a little older. As mom was pulling his crying sister out of the airplane, the boy was already climbing back in, ready to go again. I told dad that was fine, and off we went. He had a grand time. We flew over his house and his dad was pointing out all the landmarks to him. Now his dad just has to get a plane to learn to fly in and then when he is old enough (in about 10 years) he can start learning too!

There are a lot of pine trees in the area (that are farmed).
Aiken is also famous for horses, and there are many nice farms such as this one.

There are also lots of peach orchards such as these behind a school. I was told
by a local guy that South Carolina now produces more peaches than Georgia.

As for the Aiken airport, the people that work there are fantastic! It doesn't matter if you are flying an Aeronca or a business jet. They are extremely courteous to everyone. Every time I landed they ran out there to usher me into a spot (even though I had just been there) and chock the plane for me. The FBO is beautiful with a very nice sitting area inside, and rocking chairs on a porch overlooking the airport. There is a pilot lounge, flight planning area, and another large area with couches and a TV. It is really a great place to hang out! If you're in the area, stop by for a visit!

Rocking chairs on the porch - a great place to hangout

Gilbert International Airport

The following weekend I invited a different coworker to go to the Gilbert International Airport's (SC45) fly-in with me. He fits squarely in the "rusty pilot" category: licensed private pilot who used to own a Cessna until family, etc. got in the way so it has now been years since he has flown. He lives closest to the Barnwell, SC airport (KBNL) so I offered to pick him up there as it would be a nice flight down. Combined with me meeting someone at Aiken (KAIK) in the morning to go flying, this gave me a nice long, multi-leg flight from Trenton to Aiken to Barnwell to Gilbert back to Barnwell and finally to my temporary base in Trenton.

All six minutes of the flight to Aiken were uneventful. The flight down to Barnwell was nice as well. It skirts the edge of the Savannah River Site, a Department of Energy site built in the 1950s to process material for nuclear weapons.

Barnwell is a rather large but quiet airport. My coworker met me on the ramp with a friend he had run into there who works at the airport. He showed us around the community hangar with some very nice airplanes that were just about abandoned. At least they weren't rotting on the ramp, but they definitely needed some TLC and hadn't flown in years.

The Barnwell Airport (KBNL)

Cemetery near Barnwell Airport with relocated graves

Barnwell is a small town, but while taking off from the airport there, I saw a very large, well-kept cemetery. My coworker solved the mystery for me. He said that was a cemetery that was created when the Savannah River Site was built. Some towns needed to be relocated and the cemeteries from some of those towns (on the Barnwell side) were relocated to here.

We were a bit late to the party at Gilbert due to a late start because of my earlier commitments and the distractions at Barnwell, but there was still quite the crowd there. Everyone was friendly and remembered me (or at least the plane) from a visit I had made to the same fly-in two years ago! Gilbert is a nice grass strip airpark. The only thing to watch out for is the tower off one end of the runway!

The flight line and departing traffic at Gilbert International. Note the tower.

The hangar that hosted the event at Gilbert

This is a great little fly-in to go to if you are in the area, it is a potluck with tons of tasty food (the people here are good cooks) and is hosted in a pilot's dream hangar/home. The hangar area is huge with a large and immaculate attached shop area. The living quarters are built into the hangar as well. The living room has french doors opening into the hangar area, and he is working on finishing the second floor, which also overlooks the hangar area.

After the fly-in, we went up to fly around Lake Murray, northwest of Columbia, SC and just a short flight north from Gilbert. It is a beautiful lake surrounded by weekend homes. It was a perfect day for flying around the lake. There were no clouds, no turbulence and beautiful blue waters. It made me wish I had floats!

Lake Murray

Vacation homes line the shores of Lake Murray

After our flight around the lake, I brought my coworker back to Barnwell and then headed for Trenton after a long but wonderful day of flying!

Smoke showing some interesting winds on the flight from Barnwell back to Trenton.