Cross Country II continued

On Saturday, April 25th, I traveled from HKY to 35A (Union County Airport) in South Carolina.  I departed around 7:45 am to very calm winds on the ground.  My preflight weather briefing indicated a high pressure system on the coast of NC.  High pressure systems naturally rotate in a clockwise direction.  Therefore, a high pressure system centered on the eastern part of the state would expose the western part of the state to the trailing end of the high pressure system.  As a result, the winds at 3500-4500' were coming out of the south, and directly against my flightpath to 35A, at around 12-15 kts.  This headwind increased my ETA from ~53min to 1.25hr.  and increased the cost of the flight by about $30.  The ride back was a little more time efficient and impacted my wallet a little less.   

For the most part my flight was rather uneventful.  I contacted ATL Center on the ride down for flight following and they sent my to CLT approach as I was a little closer to their airspace. As I approached 35A they had me switch to the advisory frequency (that frequency used for air-to-air communication) and terminated my flight following.  The airport in SC  did not have any type of in-flight weather radio weather services. However, I was able to listen to a surrounding airport to and determine their winds and altimeter setting.  To confirm that these winds were comparable, I flew over the field to check the windsock before landing.  I will be updating the page later this week with video of the union county airport and some commentary....

for now, I have to get going to work.  I will publish the events of the return trip later today or tomorrow!