Roanoke, VA

     My youngest daughter got a call to do an interview at one of her student teaching schools.  Rivermont School is a disciplinary school in the heart of Roanoke, Virginia.  So, we began our plans for flying to Roanoke on Wednesday, July 10th.  Now, I've never flown into Roanoke, but it just happens to be one of those examples used all the time when they are trying to teach you the pitfalls of fly IFR and not paying attention.  GREAT!  The weather kept going back and forth from IFR to VFR to possible IFR.  Finally on Tuesday we made the decision we could go.  I filed a VFR flight plan down and back just to be safe.  Wednesday morning came and things looked pretty good.  Some stratus clouds at 4000 wouldn't be a problem especially if we flew down at 6500'.  Light showers were reported down near Patuxent, but they would probably move out by the time we got down there.  Scattered Thunderstorms were posted for the PM in the Roanoke area, so if we could just get out of Roanoke, we would probably be okay.  I had gone over on Tuesday and prepped 926GZ and all was ready.

     Wednesday morning we headed to the airport and I called for a Standard Briefing.  It's been a little while since I've flown so I hoped it wouldn't take too much time to brush the dust off.  By 10 am we were on our way climbing to 6500' with flight following.  The air was smooth and scattered clouds below us.  A little bit of a tail wind pushed us along at 137 knots ground speed. Wasn't too long before we could see the mountains through the haze.  Now Roanoke is situation down in the valley between the mountains.  Roanoke approach vectored us right in over the mountains and into a downwind for runway 4, even though the atis said they were using runway 34.  Anyway, since I was a little high I did a long pattern in and dropped down on the runway.  Roanoke was very friendly and helpful as was the FBO Landmark Aviation.  Fuel was a little expensive at $7.10 a gallon so I just had them put in 10 gallons.  This would be plenty since I had filled the tips at South Jersey, VAY.  The FBO even had a crew car for us which was a new Toyota corolla.  The car cost us $25.00 because we had it more than 2 hours, but still cheaper than a rental car. 

    Dawn and I did lunch with a friend of hers who had driven to Roanoke from Lynchburg to meet us and then it was off to the interview.  Dawn feels the interview went well, but now we wait to hear.  By 4:00 PM we were heading back to the airport with some dark clouds looming to the south.  After finishing up with the FBO, I called for a briefing and was told the same.  Once past the Lynchburg area, we would be okay on the way home, just a little headwind now.  We loaded up and got our clearance and off we went on runway 4.  Maintaining a heading of 55 until 4500 feet was the last thing I was told and as we split the valley between two mountains, I could see why.  WOW, you could almost reach out an touch the tops.  We climbed to 7,500' for the ride home which was fine except for a short time when I climbed to 8400 for some build ups.  Smooth ride home except for a problem with the talk switch on my side of the yoke.  After some time I realized that if I switch head gear positions with Dawn, I could talk to AC using her yoke switch.  As we approached Philadelphia, we were handed off to Philly Approach.  Since it was about 7 pm now, Philly was really busy and it wasn't too long before I felt like I was in the way.  About 15 miles from South Jersey I requested descent and they moved me east to get out of their routes and we headed down.  Winds were calm down low as we circled for a 45 entry to downwind for runway 8.  Base to final and we glided down the runway to the far end where our tie down is located.  Total flight time was about 5.5 hours with 2.5 hours down and 3 hours home.  All in all a great day of flying and now just hoping for a call back for Dawn.  Until next time, be safe and live life to it's fullest.