Powered by Lycoming: Hilton Head Island (KHXD)

Last weekend, I flew with my wife and two friends of ours (Dan & Krista) down for a brief visit to Hilton Head. I'd been wanting to fly into Hilton Head ever since I got my license...well, actually, ever since I visite Hilton Head Island, and rode my bike over to the FBO, and poked my nose through the chain-link fence and watched aircraft takeoff and land. How cool would it be to fly to the beach? Well, as it turns out....pretty stinkin' cool. Early Saturday morning, we drove to the airport and pulled

the Diamond out of the hangar. Dan (a fellow pilot) was kind enough to manage the preflight and to figure out how to sump the tanks for water. We packed our meager changes of clothes into the back of the DA40, crammed the ladies in the back (note the very spacious accomodations in the rear of the DA40), and headed south as fast as we could (which was about 145kts ground speed). We took off just in front of a sweeping cold front that was blistering its way south from Canada. In Coshocton, there was a

high overcast...perhaps 14,000-16,000ft..but the further we went south, the sunnier it got...and the more cloudy it got on the ground. South of Charleston, WV, the light poofy clouds at 3000ft began to consolidate and join forces to become a beautiful low overcast layer. It was really smooth and peaceful on top, and Dan did an excellent job of hand-flying the Diamond all the way down to our first stop for fuel in Shelby County, NC (KEHO).

Bright Sunny VFR on Top over West Virginia

A hilltop farm in Virginia peeking through the breaking clouds

Midfield turn over Shelby County, NC (KEHO) to join the downwind pattern for Rnwy 23

Short Final for Rnwy 23 at Shelby County - I like this photo (obviously NOT taken by me)

Once we arrived at the peaceful airport of Shelby County, we discovered that the FBO was closed. Hmmm. We all needed to hit the bathroom, and I had specifically picked this stop because it had a newer terminal building. Well, fortunately, one of the hangars was open, and there was a very friendly guy just sitting in there reading a book. I love small airports! He offered us bottled water and the use of the bathroom, which the ladies appreciated. And, then, we sat outside in the early morning sun until 10:00AM rolled around and we could buy some 100LL to continue our journey. Sure enough, at 9:50AM, the weekend calvary appeared and brewed a pot of coffee, filled us up with AvGas, and sent us on our way with a cheerful smile. Did I mention that I love small airports? We had a short leg (1hr20min) in front of us to get down to Hilton Head, and we all wanted to feel the sand between our toes soon. So, it was on down over Columbia, SC's airspace, and straight towards Hilton Head. Upon arrival into the Hilton Head airspace....it was pretty busy! There was a US Airways Dash-8 and a couple of other aircraft ready and waiting for departure, and four planes in the pattern and getting in line for landing. It was BUSY!

After landing, we were met immediately by a line attendant that took our fuel order, and let us borrow his golf cart to take our luggage back to the terminal. Talk about service! I was really impressed with the service that we got from the FBO at Hilton Head - even though we just had a small single, we felt like we were treated as if we had just stepped off a Gulfstream jet. we stood in line F-O-R-E-V-E-R at Hertz for our rental. Person after person was turned away because there weren't any cars left. I was starting to get a little worried about the status of our rental reservation, and when we went up to the counter, the lady said "You're not

going to believe what car I have left." Oh no, I thought...we'll be in a full-size van or a truck or something - I had just reserved a mid-size rental, but at this point, I didn't really care as long as it had wheels to take us to the beach. We ended up with a brand-new Volvo S80, which the ladies fell in love with immediately. I did have to admit that it was fairly nice, although not quite as nice as my nearly 200,000mile Passat. Well, we were whisked quickly to the beach, swerving in and out of traffic between the blue-haired ladies with dark sunglasses hunched over their steering wheels.

Relaxing by the pool...trying to get a little sun exposure before we hit the beach.

The wide, wide hard-packed beaches at Hilton Head Island

Seashells on the beach at Hilton Head Island

Scaring the locals with our red, red sun-burns.

Preflighting the plane to head back to Ohio.

After one short day, unfortunately, we had to start heading back. There was a thick line of rain that was moving over the Appalachian mountains towards Charlotte. I was fairly nervous about flying back, and thought that we might just have to wait it out for another day, but duty called - or actually, Dad called and wanted the airplane for travel the next day. Cloud tops were about 5500-6000feet over charlotte, and patchy rain, but no real convection or thunderstorms, so I figured that we'd be okay, although we might have to dodge some rainstorms. Since we were needed a reliable fuel stop on the way back, I planned to stop at a destination I'd hit before - Rock Hill, SC. Their FBO is really nice, a beautifully-equipped lobby, and is very spouse-friendly:). After a quick fill-up and some fresh coffee, we climbed back into the airplane and headed back to Ohio. Leaving the Charlotte area was very pretty with the fading light of the sun streaming in under the clouds. It wasn't meant to last, however, as we headed towards the grey abyss of the rainclouds over the mountains.