Off we go...

Wednesday. Off to the plane garage to pick my plane up after it's annual inspection. I got off light this year, just $1248.00, including an oil change, brake pads, a new ELT battery, IFR recertification and removal of a serious bird nest from the left horizontal stabilizer that required elevator removal to get it.

Well it dawned on me as I was taxiing the plane back across the field that I couldn't just not fly on a cloudless day with no wind, so...

Off we go. And look--the other C-5 is out of the hangar. That likely means that one of them will be heading off to the boneyard soon to join the rest of the 167th's old Galaxy fleet.

Straight out on a heading of 268. Soon I was over the ridges and into the Appalachian range proper.

That little lake below has ONE CABIN on it. Coolest mountain getaway ever.

The ridges are getting serious out here. Not a lot of places to try to land this critter if the whirly thing on the front quits whirling

Interesting firing range down below. But I was getting buffeted by turbulence something fierce so I chose not to orbit for better pics. Pity.

Ah, here's interstate 33, and the town of Elkins, WV in the distance. I'll be setting down there for a bit.

A bit of downtown Elkins as I set up for a landing at their airport. Looks like they used to ave an old railroad roundhouse and turntable down there once, probably dating back to the days of steam engines.

On the ground at Elkins. This is actually the very first airport that I ever landed my plane at after buying it in Kentucky. I was ferrying it home just ahead of bad weather, and I was still unsure of myself at the controls of my new plane, so I didn't land it until the bouncing fuel gauges convinced me that it made sense to set down here for more gas instead of trying to make it all the way home on one tank.

It's a colorful little airport, with all sorts of warbird pictures and models inside. This time I had plenty of time to look around. And of course by now I've figured out how to work airport self-serve pumps.

Come take-off time, I asked the FBO guy if he had any objection to my taking off on runway 32. He just shrugged and said "It's an uncontrolled airport. You can take off from the taxiway if you want to."
Clearly this man did not know who he was talking to when he said that, for I've always wanted to take off from a taxiway, and he'd just given me a green light to do it.

Alas, I did not. I used 32.


Heading south some more, this time following a river valley with a railroad and a highway in it. It was a bit off-course, but my chosen course seemed to want to take me over and around several higher mountain peaks and the velley looked a bit more inviting as I mulled the remote possibility of engine failure. Not that I suspect that my bird, fresh out on annual, is going to have problems, but if it does anyway, I'd rather it be over a highway and small farm fields than a roadless section of mountains.

Hmmm..what's that ahead? Why it's the--

To be continued.