Gatlinburg - Pigeon Forge

Caution - Man running (with) power tools

It was time for my brother-in-law to propose and since we had never met the lucky lady, we were summoned to Gatlinburg to meet her.  It is not a good thing to ignore a summons, more so when it comes from one's mother-in-law.

So, on an overcast Saturday morning we climbed aboard N941WR and headed West.  Well, not exactly.  it turns out they were late in leaving home and not wanting to wait around an airport for them to show up, Nora suggested we just go fly around.  So off we went to Lancaster, SC where we saw this beautiful Fairchild 24.

The winds over the mountains were blowing at over 60 MPH and the forecast was for severe turbulence.  Lucky for us, even with all of 135 HP on tap, the RV-9 climbs like crazy and we flew west from Charlotte at 10,500.  At that altitude, there wasn't a bump in the sky.  That 60+ MPH wind was mostly a headwind so our ground speeds on the way out were limited to around 135 MPH.  I guess I shouldn't complain as a Cherokee or Skyhawk couldn't do that speed even without the headwind. 

Leaving Charlotte and it's overcast behind we soon found ourselves in clear sky.  I'm sure that Atlanta Center didn't believe we were in clear air as they told us twice to maintain VFR and then then came back yet again and asked if we were above a layer of clouds.  The answer to that was no.  In fact, the only clouds we could see were at the western edge of the mountains, fifty to sixty miles ahead.

This made for a relaxing, if not slow, trip to GKT.  The air was so smooth Nora slept most of the way out.  She is just so relaxed as a passenger, I am so blessed to have her in my life.

We had to start letting down while still over the mountains and sure enough, once we were below 6,500' it started getting real bumpy.

West of the mountains it was solid overcast and from a distance, I wasn't sure we were going to be able to get below the clouds.  This was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen, we are over the mountains in clear air, we can can see the Western edge of the mountains and looking beyond the mountains to the West you could see a layer of solid overcast.  However, there was a gap between the Western slop of the mountains and the clouds big enough to fly a 747 through.  We descended at 500 FPM and easily cleared the mountains and the clouds.

Gatlinburg is right next to the mountains so it was a quick letdown to landing.  This series of pictures were taken by Nora as we approached the airport.

The funny thing about this trip to meet the future sister-in-law was that Nora only took this one picture of her family.

We had a nice 30 minute visit and had to depart as the clouds were starting to close in, that and I wanted to get back before dark.  (I really need to get my night currency!)

This picture was taken facing East, under the cloud deck and heading towards the mountains.  Note the overcast at about 4,000' and in the distance, up against the mountains you will see clear air.  Just like when we came in, there was a good size gap up against the mountains and we were able to climb up to 9,500' and smooth, clear skies.

With the wind still blowing like crazy it took us less than an hour to get back.  I like tailwinds that push us along at over 200 MPH!

We were so high and moving so fast that flight following passed us right through Charlotte Class Bravo airspace, dead center over CLT and the city.