Time to Start the Return Trip

It is time to start the return trip......  before the weather changes.

Today there will be no clouds however there will be headwinds from the NW. Up to 40 kt at 6000 feet are predicted. My objective is to go beyond the Appalachian Mountains if possible, but with this wind I will surely progress quite slowly and will also most probably find "wave" and high turbulence over the mountains since the wind is perpendicular to them. I will see how it all works out....

Effectively, as anticipated the wind was strong and has slowed me down; it has taken me almost 4 hours to complete 300 nm (With this airplane, in the absence of wind, one should expect 100 nm/hour) but at least I have made it beyond the Appalachians!. I have also encountered periods of wave in the mountains section with steady smooth strong lift beyond the marker..... and with rough turbulence in between. Sometimes I had the feeling I was inside a washing machine...


Today I will be facing headwinds, so I start early before these are at full strength.

 As the earth rotates east the sun shows up over the Atlantic ocean at Kitty Hawk. As I was taking this picture I realized that that for several years I have been only enjoying sunsets over the Pacific ocean....

N669TW awaiting at the airport in Manteo ready to fly again. Today we were the first to hit the runways.

Crossing the Albemarle Sound. The NW winds are cold.

The Roanoke river at Clarksville. 

With the purpose to face less strong winds over the plains, today I was flying relatively low (alternating between 2500 and 4500 ft). Apparently this was too low for some air traffic controllers and 2 of them gave up on me about providing flight following services along the way. 

The Dan and Roanoke rivers converge at the Fleming corner. The Dan river (on the left side) carries more sediments ("chocolate" water) than the Roanoke.

Landing at Roanoke on runway 34 with cross-wind from the left.  The Appalachians on the background.
The shadow of the airplane seems better aligned than the real airplane!
I need to fill up with gasoline again, stretch my legs a little bit, get warm and assess the weather conditions over the mountains before continuing.

These are the Appalachians from above with beautiful valleys in between the ridges. Looking SouthWest.

The Appalachian mountains and valleys. Looking NorthEast.

Another valley in the mountains....

Finally I land in West Virginia; at the Raleigh County Memorial Airport (KBKW) in the town of Beckley.

Apparently they need a larger hangar for the size of airplanes they have. 

It also looks like the Southern charm has disappeared; No nice reception, no courtesy car, no shuttle. I have to rent a car to go to downtown and find myself an hotel.
It's OK.

Here my little N669TW in comparison.

My Tracks today: 

(The first track between Manteo (KMQI) and Roanoke (KROA) is missing. Not sure why [?])

The second track from Roanoke (KROA) to Beckley (KBKW) is below:  (Notice the rugged mountains extending from NE to SW)

Totals for the day:

• 301 nm
• 3 hours 48 min.

It is said that any big journey starts with a first step. Well, this was my first step in the way back home! 

Viva West Virgina. 

All best,

Eduair    ;-)