Another success story

I just love it when our customers, or one of my past students, email me with a trip they took. I received such an email recently from one of our customers and would like to publish it here. (yes, I got his permission) This is such a great example of how LSAs are contributing to general aviation, and fulfilling dreams every day. Without further delay;

"Believe it or not, I flew to Roanoke Sunday and home today. My son and his wife are there.

I had planned this trip for several weeks, starting with reserving the plane for 3 days back 2 weeks ago. And the weather worked out.
Well, almost...

As prep, that trip to French Lick IN turned into the first leg. My plan was to refuel at Frankfort KY, but French Lick was right on the way, and my bladder somehow knew it was coming up. Soon back on my way, route just north of Louisville, north of Lexington, and into the coal country. It is amazing how the hilltops are dug up and replanted. At 5500 ft, at least half of the surface there looks either done or doing.

My plan was to stop at Kee field, which would leave me an hour into KROA, a chance to stretch and refuel. Well, this place was a nice short runway nestled between a bunch of hills, the kind where the pattern is not rectangular, but rather between the hills. It was kind of fun, like a movie. No one was there and the gas pumps padlocked. On takeoff, best angle of climb is the way to go. Google Earth next time.

So I head to Roanoke, and the clouds start forming, then overcast, and right at the mountain tops. When I checked weather at French Lick, no problem, all to the east.
So I head to my alternate airports, like Bluefield WV or Blacksburg VA. The New River goes through the mountains, and I was following the passes. When I got 40 miles from KROA I tried to contact their approach, but no response x2. The gap between the clouds and ground is getting my attention. Then they respond to my call, after I had decided they would not, and seem amazed that a LSA would come there. Being overloaded with navigating and flying, I was a blithering idiot on the radio, just pathetic, but finally getting my head together and setting down at Virginia Tech airport, which I had had in sight for the last 10 minutes. The controller heard me miscall the runway at Tech because I didn't swap frequencies somehow. They had to tell me.

I bet they are telling stories there about the fool in N79GX. Mortified, I am.

Anyway, all no worries at VT airport. I check weather, system will not clear before dark. Tie down for $5. Enterprise Rental right there, quickly doing the 45 minute drive to Ben's house. Blacksburg is up on a plateau, 1000 ft higher than the Roanoke Valley. On dropping down, weather looked fine, just that one point I could not traverse. Probably 10 miles total. But I'm glad I didn't try any more than I did.

I'm at Ben's at 4p EST after leaving here at 8 CST. Pretty cool. Sat up talking until 11p.

This morning I get around to checking the weather; Ben and I were going to fly to the Greenbrier for lunch. I was even going to do a mea culpa and take another shot at the Class C in Roanoke. But the chances of cloud layers tomorrow was too great. I'd already seen how that worked. Limitations of VFR pilots. So I drove back and took off at 10 EST, had to climb between scattered clouds even today, up to 4500. Beautiful mountains, still some color.

I got radar flight following since the coal mountains have a dearth of emergency landing sites, altho the strip mining does supply more than I would have thought. They handed me off to Lexington Approach, who left me 10 miles from Frankfort. Nice refuel there, and onward over Louisville. Somehow my ground speed dropped to 82-88 mph. Unexpected headwind. If I went lower to minimize it, bumpy. By the time I got to Mt Vernon, I had moved enough in the weather system, I guess, that I was up in the 90s, even 100 at times.

Nice to see familiar places. Carlyle Lake and Edwardsville and the Confluence are old friends now. Intense flooding starting around Carlyle. Mississippi out of banks, too.

Big crosswind at 3SQ, and landing after hours in the air is not the same. I always come in high, would think I would remember. Anyway, I did 3 go-arounds before a very nice landing. One of them I was on the ground but drifting off the runway, so best is just to shove the throttle home and try it again. Still, on the ground at 4p local.

12.3 hours total in the air, 1150 miles. A wonderful adventure, and amazing (and sobering) what I learned. Some things I thought I knew I now know better.

This is a marvelous country that someone like me could do this."