Angel Flight #3

I did my third Angel Flight on Friday. This was to help transport Mary back home to South Carolina from her chemotherapy in Philadelphia. She has been doing this for over a year, making most of the trips back and forth with Angel Flights.

I hurriedly finished up seeing patients in the office that morning and got out and on my way over to the airport by 11:40. Grabbed a burger through the drive-in and preflighted the plane. All was good and departed Wilkes County to South Hill, Virginia. This was the designated drop-off point for her first leg from Philadelphia. I was picking her up here for her final leg home to Hartsville, South Carolina. The flight over was good, as I had a 2000 foot thick overcast layer to get over and then beautiful sunny skies all the way there. I also had a 35 knot tailwind giving me a ground speed of 200 knots all the way over. Descended thought the cloud layer and landed uneventfully. The airport here is configured in the same direction as that at Wilkes County, 19/1, but about a thousand feet shorter than home.

I got to the terminal and found Mary and her sister, Bobbie, having a snack and talking with the pilot from their first leg, Richard. We signed the necessary waivers, loaded the luggage and were off to South Carolina. Bobbie sat up front as co-pilot. She has no formal training but was very interested in the way everything worked. I was happy to explain it all to her. Mary sat in the back just taking in the scenery. We had to penetrate the cloud layer again to get up to cruising altitude and this time, encountered some light ice accumulation during the final 400 feet. My TKS system performed flawlessly, with the only ice accumulation seen on the wing tips, which is not protected by the TKS. Once we were above the cloud layer, the outside temperature quickly rose to 9 degrees C and the small amount of ice was gone.

We were able to get direct routing to Hartsville, which took us over Raleigh-Durham International at 8000 feet. With a solid cloud layer below us, it was exciting to see the departing commercial airliner traffic pop up through the layer and continuing climbing en route to their destinations. ATC was great at keeping us direct and preventing any issues with traffic conflicts. About an hour into the flight, the solid undercast broke into clear skies, just as we were beginning our descent. We announced our arrival to Hartsville, and touched down, taxiing to the terminal for drop-off. Mary departed and thanked me for the ride. Bobbie needed a lift to her home in Concord, NC, which was directly on my way home, so we loaded up and departed for Concord. Takeoff allowed us to overfly the nearby Robinson Nuclear Power Plant. After a short, 20 minute flight, we touched down at Concord, and I walked Bobbie and her luggage in to the terminal.

With my passengers at their destinations, I departed on a VFR flight back home. This was my first VFR flight in quite some time, as I usually file and fly an IFR flight plan, regardless of weather. However, the weather was great for the short hop home. As I stayed below the Class B airspace of Charlotte, I marveled at how fortunate I am to be able to have flying as a break away from the ordinary and as a way to enjoy exploring the country. Being able to quickly get to different places and met new people is an extremely rewarding experience. Crossing the Brushy Mountains, I had the airport in sight and entered the pattern to land on Runway 19 at Wilkes County. Having flown 450 nautical miles since lunch, I was home in time to take my kids out to dinner at their favorite Japanese Steakhouse.