Angel Flight November 16th 2017

     Today’s Angel Flight was the reverse of our flight yesterday (November 15th) …..We returned to Northeast Philly and picked up our passenger Elaine, then flew her back to Greensboro NC were she would continue on to Asheville NC with Phillip (another volunteer Angel Flight Pilot) 

     We departed home base Luray at 8:00am and our flight conditions up to Philadelphia were mostly in the clear with some IMC clipping thru the cloud tops as we flew over PA (We picked up a very slight trace of ice)…. we had a nice tail wind component and the ride for the most part was fairly smooth, which would not be the case on our next two legs ! Flight time up to Philly was 1.5 hours covering 194 miles.

     We arrived at Northeast Philly a little ahead of schedule (with the help of the tailwinds) and Elaine arrived right on time at 10:00am…. and she had that wonderful smile as we greeted each other (this made me feel like she may have received good news with her appointment, and in fact I found out later in our flight that she did !)

     We departed Northeast Philly heading to Greensboro NC on what would be a 3.5 plus hour flight….. Our nice tails winds that we had coming to Philly were now “not so nice” headwinds and quite a bit stronger, and the fairly smooth ride we had, now had a lot of  wave action and some moderate turbulence at times. Elaine handled our flight conditions really well and mentioned that she would rather be in these type of conditions than in rain and clouds where you would not see anything outside……. she is really a trooper !  Even though we were in the air for quite awhile, the time just flew by (no pun intended) because we enjoyed, as always, great conversation with Elaine…… and before you know it…. we were on a visual approach to runway 23L at Greensboro ! Flight time down to Greensboro was 3.8 hours covering 357 miles.

     As we were getting out of 49Bravo at Greensboro, Elaine surprised us with a nice little bag that had two “Philadelphia Famous” Insomnia Cookies …… one each for Captain John and I to enjoy with our hanger coffee that we always are looking forward to after each mission ! Also in the bag, Elaine had a gift for my four year old daughter Mikayla ! Elaine, you are such a sweetheart ….. Thank You – Thank You – Thank You ! ….. Mikayla loved her book !

     After meeting Phillip (Angel Flight Pilot taking Elaine to Asheville), taking some pictures and giving Elaine our goodbyes, and doing the things a Pilot needs to do after a 3.8 hour flight…. we climbed back aboard 49Bravo and headed for home.

     We departed Greensboro on runway 23L, climbing back into clear (fairly unstable air). We were given two vectored turns to the right that got us on our direct course for home, all the while climbing thru to our final assigned altitude of 5000 feet. By now the winds had shifted to the point of giving us a slight headwind component back home ! …. (so two of our three legs today had headwinds) The ride was quite choppy but not as much as before, and the wave action had decreased as well. As we approached home base Luray the winds were blowing straight across the runway and Captain John made a beautiful crosswind landing onto runway 4. Flight time back home was 1.7 hours covering 175 nautical miles.

     After tucking 49Bravo back into her hanger and thanking her for the great job she had done for us today, we enjoyed a nice hot cup of hanger coffee…..this time enhanced by the wonderful Insomnia Cookies Elaine had given us, and boy they were good !

Total flight time for today was 7 hours covering 726 nautical miles over 5 States. This was Angel Flight Mission 413 for Captain John and Angel Flight Mission 283 for Nevin.

Hope you enjoy the following pictures of our flight ……

Please feel free to leave comments ……. We Love Them !

Have A Great Day !