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Atlanta trip for a Cousin's funeral

crabandy

Well Known Member
Unfortunately I needed to go to Atlanta for a Cousin's funeral/celebration of life, Fortunately I was able to take the RV and make the most of it. Thanks to Rebecca and Kyle for responding to my inquiries about the Atlanta area.

I busted Lil' Dude out of school a couple hours early, it was their 100th day of school and they dressed up as 100 year olds. He had on a plad shirt, suspenders, bow tie, a cane and we popped the lenses out of some cheap sunglasses.

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It didn't take long to pop the lenses back in the cheap sunglasses, It couldn't have been a nicer February day to fly southeast.

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I was a little disappointed he wouldn't wear the cannulas, had to stay lower and slower burning more gas. Still made it from the KC area to ATL area in a smidge over 3 hours and about 22 gallons.

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These clouds looked like surf-able waves....

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We had the pleasure of meeting Kyle from VAF when we landed and really enjoyed him sharing his favorite dinner spot with us, it was Amazing! His suggestion for RYY was also really good, they had a reasonably priced rental car waiting pulled up to the plane when I got there and an up front $20 overnight fee. For the area and the service definitely worth it, $7.14/gal 100 LL not so much.
 
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Originally we were going to stay at my cousins' neighbors that were housing all of the out of towners, Such great hospitality. But a 6 year old can only put up with parents talking for so long, he needed an out and we decided to stay at a Hotel with a pool. We stopped by Wal-mart and bought a swim outfit that ended up being way too big around the waist, dumb dad move. I was just about to ask the front desk if they had any safety pins before I used my dress shoe laces when I spied his suspenders from his old man outfit.....

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We'd skipped lunch for the funeral and had a little time to kill before the reception after and hit up a place close to where we had dinner with Kyle the night before for appetizers and a drink. He demanded to wear his bowtie from his old person outfit.

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Of course the WX forecast changed form several days before and we were going to deal with a cold front and associated clouds/precip/icing on the way home regardless of going a state or 2 north or south. We Hung out with family for breakfast till lunch time and then headed to the airport. Kyle had mentioned this train museum:

https://southernmuseum.org/

Lil' Dude was insistent we had to see the train museum before we left, I caved since we very well might be staying the night away from home when we approached the cold front anyway and he'd patiently hung around all the parents chatting for hours with nothing to do. As Kyle mentioned I would like to go back and spend the time it deserves as a Smithsonian Affiliate, the building processes is intriguing. Wooden forms in halves, casting sand and molds, lathes, drill presses and other machining equipment as it was laid out in their factory.

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I was torn on heading north to Kentucky, or straight west to the Arkansas/Louisiana border to meet the cold front. I ended up choosing the southern route, if we had to stay overnight it should be warmer and probably have local Cajun food. We still had 19ish gallons on board so we left the $7.14 gas on the truck and head to KHAB for $3.95. Couldn't get a car to grab a late lunch and let the wx move around some more so we headed for the cold front about KPBF.

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Approached the cold front and turned the AP heading bug Southwest bound. view out the right....

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And the Left, our "out" in this case.

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Our controller via flight following was doing a great job, giving us current/recent Pireps in addition to what was reported on Foreflight. Cloud bases weren't reported less than 2000, and most were reporting 6000 with scattered lower clouds. ADSB was showing some breaks in the line. 5 Awos/asos were all favorable backing up the ADSB and Pireps, I wasn't buying it. Besides, plan A is to turn left to better weather and enjoy another night in warmer temps with Cajun food in my belly.

Between layers the vis was really getting low, I'm fine with IFR but not gonna play with ice. Turned a smidge left and ducked below the scattered layer, as expected it was lower than the METAR's and Asos/Awos was reporting but good MVFR for a couple miles and right back to 6000 OVC. Crossing the Mississippi at the cold front.

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Since we'd successfully passed the cold front and skipped lunch we were definitely focusing in on food, snacks in the cooler weren't going to cut it. It didn't take long to figure out Gaston's was within 5 miles of a direct line home and an hour out. The Vultures on base to final followed by the evening sun definitely made the one way approach more challenging than it needed to be, somehow I still managed an acceptable landing.

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This quickly became Lil' Dude's new standard for fly-in restaurants.

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Sunrises and sunsets are great, from the airplane they are even better. To top off the evening I rolled the mains onto the runway without even a squeak nailing the night wheel landing to finish the flight, that's not always the case....

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"Little Dude" ain't so "little" anymore! It won't be long til you have to drop the adjective. :cool:

-Marc
 
Throughly enjoyed your write-up and pics. I hope “Dude writes his own Tales From the Right Seat! The thing is… he’s going to have a rather slanted view of how people typically get around in the world, like when I told my daughter the three of us were going to the beach together for dinner. She was puzzled. “because the plane only holds two people, mom, so how are are three of us going to get there?” For normal humans, its a two hour drive to the coast.
 
Throughly enjoyed your write-up and pics. I hope “Dude writes his own Tales From the Right Seat! The thing is… he’s going to have a rather slanted view of how people typically get around in the world, like when I told my daughter the three of us were going to the beach together for dinner. She was puzzled. “because the plane only holds two people, mom, so how are are three of us going to get there?” For normal humans, its a two hour drive to the coast.

I can only Hope that as well, possibly even have his own build log one day!
 
You're a good man! My little dude just turned 19, it goes by fast, so keep doing what you're doing!!
 
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