In Atlanta, we stayed with Ken's brother, my other cousin Scott Wellington. We made a day trip flying over to Augusta GA to go to the Wednesday practice round of the Masters. Great way to spend the day.
Ken and I then flew 3 hours to Winter Haven, FL (GIF) to attend the Sun'N'Fun aviation show for a few days. Next it was back to Atlanta for one more round of golf. On Friday, it was time to head for home, but there was a storm front that was moving west to east over SC, NC, VA, which would make flying home on the reverse course of our trip down a very bumpy and uncomfortable ride. So I filed a flight plan to the north over the Smoky mountains to Charleston, WV for refueling and then east toward White Plains (HPN).
Route: KRYY VXV KCRW HAR ETX KHPN (cut & paste this into http://www.skyvector.com/)
The flight over the mountains requires a minimum enroute altitude of 11,000 feet. I've never taken N242GT over 9,000 feet, so I'm excited to see how the plane performs at higher altitudes. With full tanks, golf bags and luggage, we are close to max. gross weight leaving RYY. N242GT climbs at only 200 ft/min. from 9,000 on up. After about 25 minutes, we level out at 11,000ft MSL and the GPS tells me we are making 190kts over the ground! My plane consistently travels at 142kts true airspeed, so 190kts means a 48kt tailwind!! Yahoo!
My original flight plan called for us to get to Charleston in 2:20, but we were only 20 miles away in 1:40!! I asked Ken how his bladder felt and he said fine, so I decided to not descend, but instead to pick up our second flight plan and continue on White Plains. As we crossed over Charleston, WV, we turned about 40 degrees to the right, putting us directly downwind in the massive tailwind and our ground speed increased even further. We saw the ground speed spike to 225kts at one point, but it was consistently over 215kts. That means we were in a 70kt tailwind!!! Double Yahoo!!
Coming from the west, we basically flew straight in to runway 16 at HPN and touched down in 3:58 total flying time. That's an average ground speed of 178kts from wheels up to wheels down – not bad for a single-engine piston airplane. Apparently, we achieved the second fastest ground speed ever documented in a Trinidad TB-20! Home from Atlanta, covering over 720 miles in under 4 hours! What a trip!
The flight over the mountains requires a minimum enroute altitude of 11,000 feet. I've never taken N242GT over 9,000 feet, so I'm excited to see how the plane performs at higher altitudes. With full tanks, golf bags and luggage, we are close to max. gross weight leaving RYY. N242GT climbs at only 200 ft/min. from 9,000 on up. After about 25 minutes, we level out at 11,000ft MSL and the GPS tells me we are making 190kts over the ground! My plane consistently travels at 142kts true airspeed, so 190kts means a 48kt tailwind!! Yahoo!
My original flight plan called for us to get to Charleston in 2:20, but we were only 20 miles away in 1:40!! I asked Ken how his bladder felt and he said fine, so I decided to not descend, but instead to pick up our second flight plan and continue on White Plains. As we crossed over Charleston, WV, we turned about 40 degrees to the right, putting us directly downwind in the massive tailwind and our ground speed increased even further. We saw the ground speed spike to 225kts at one point, but it was consistently over 215kts. That means we were in a 70kt tailwind!!! Double Yahoo!!
Coming from the west, we basically flew straight in to runway 16 at HPN and touched down in 3:58 total flying time. That's an average ground speed of 178kts from wheels up to wheels down – not bad for a single-engine piston airplane. Apparently, we achieved the second fastest ground speed ever documented in a Trinidad TB-20! Home from Atlanta, covering over 720 miles in under 4 hours! What a trip!
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Pictures: http://jhwellington.shutterfly.com/58
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