The day after Mark and I got back from Bermuda, he headed back in to work. I...
...did not. Why go to work when you can tag along on an Angel Flight? :)
It didn't take long to get our IFR release, depart, and turn out to the south. One of the guys in my area briefly worked us before handing us over to Washington Center so we could continue our climb.
Our first leg was short and sweet; we were heading to Greensboro, NC (GSO) to pick up a couple kids that had spent the week at summer camp.
We cruised above the clouds, chatting for a bit...
...before eventually starting our descent down to GSO.
I had never been to GSO before, so I had no idea how absolutely massive the airport is. Lucky us, we got to land on the runway that is in what feels like the next county over from the rest of the airport.
That meant that we got to enjoy a ten minute taxi to the FBO while the tower tried to figure out how to weave us through everyone else that was moving on the airport.
Really. We waited for everyone.
We eventually made it to the FBO, though, and met our passengers. I got to chat with a couple of the camp counselors for a few minutes while they were refueling; I can't remember the name of the camp offhand, but it's specially built for kids with medical issues. The kids get to spend a week doing normal kid things without having to worry about getting to medical help if needed, as everything they might need is right there. It sounded pretty cool!
The FBO finished topping off the plane, so we said goodbye to the counselors and made our way back to the plane. It didn't take long to load up and brief our passengers, and we fired up and started the long taxi out.
We got to wait for a while again for takeoff; there were a few planes in the pattern, and since we're a bit faster, we can't exactly take off right behind a Cherokee without running it over. At least there was a small airliner sitting in line behind us, so we weren't the only ones waiting.
We eventually got to the front of the line, though...
...and said goodbye to GSO. Next up: Charleston, SC (CHS)!
It was a short, pretty flight...
...and we had some neat views on the way in.
Before we knew it, we were on final...
...then parked at the FBO. Frank and I said goodbye to our passengers, and after the plane was refueled, hopped in to head home.
Except maybe not so much. We picked up our IFR clearance, fired up, taxied maybe 30 feet, and the GPS completely died. Frank stopped on the ramp and spent a few minutes trying a couple things to reset the system, but with no luck. We taxied back around to a parking spot and shut down again. So much for that!
Frank made a few phone calls, first to Gary, who handles the plane's maintenance and scheduling, and then to the factory itself. They were all stumped, but talked Frank through a few different things to try to kick the system back online. Meanwhile, I hung out in the back, enjoying the comfy seats while Frank pulled all sorts of panels out of the plane and pushed what seemed like every button he could find.
At one point, one of the factory guys thought that maybe the FBO building was interfering with the GPS signal, so Frank got one of the line guys to tow us to a spot further away, and had them hook us up to some ground power so that he wouldn't run the plane's battery down while he kept troubleshooting. After a little while Frank managed to get part of the system to come back online, which would be enough to get us back home, at least.
While Frank had been doing the troubleshooting, we had been parked next to this. CHS is part military base, so there are a fair amount of military aircraft in the area. I got a good look at the helicopter as we taxied out to the runway...
...and once we got a bit of distance between us and the helicopter, all of our GPS equipment suddenly popped back online. Hmm. Just sayin'.
At any rate, we taxied out to the runway, watched a C-17 do some pattern work, then finally...
...got to take the runway and depart. The C-17 ahead of us had barely cleared the runway when Frank started bringing the throttles up to get the heck out of there hahaha.
Bye, CHS! I'd spent enough time there to last me a while.
It was a little later in the day by the time we got off the ground, and some storms had already started to fire up on the route home. Frank even had the radar on (that greenish arc on the far left side), which was really cool to see in action.
This is just some of what we got to pick our way around as we made our way north. Frank explained a bit how to use the radar, and how to figure out what you need to deviate around, which was really cool to see.
It was really cool to sit there and just watch the massive clouds slide by outside. :)
We eventually made our way back to VA and started to descend for HWY. I had to laugh; one of the guys I know from work was vectoring us for our descent and somehow managed to vector us right through the only real cloud anywhere near us.
At any rate, we made it down just fine...
...and pulled up to the hangar, only a bit later than originally planned. It had been a really interesting day, and I'm grateful I had the chance to tag along!
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