On the way down a thunderstorm got pretty close. As soon as I saw lightning strikes I knew we were close enough, and landed in a field below me, covered up, and waited it out.
Flying through the mountains in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia was interesting. Some of them had a low cloud base, covering the tops of the mountains. I had poor visibility and had to fish my way through the lower mountain tops. Always ready to turn around, but made it through with no problems.
Near Richmond and again at Raleigh, visiting relatives, ended up giving 16 rides one day. Ended up being a long day of flying.
Had several areas that was nothing but trees, for miles. Was a little uncomfortable with no where to put down in case of trouble.
Pucker factor was real high my first time over a wide river/bay/sound. About 5 miles wide of nothing but water had me nervous. After several days of flying over the water I calmed down a little, but still tried to stay within gliding distance of shore when possible.
Flew the whole trip down and around the Outer Banks with the doors off. Nice hot weather. Chilly coming back to PA so kept them on for the trip home.
Met Dave Hynes in Virginia, at one of my fuel stops.... as in Brantly-Hynes. He was instructing in an R44 and came over to introduce himself to me. There were 5 helicopters besides me flying around this airport when I landed, and a few airplanes. Busy place.
Ended up with 16.2 hours of flying. The Brantly flew great, ran great and was a pleasure to fly on a cross country, again.
Here's a couple of the pictures I took while down there.
Flying north up the coast, past Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk.
At First Flight airport. Wright Brothers Monument in the background.
The rest of my photos can be seen here.
Outer Banks 2005