Lake Spotting

Decided to head back to the mountains today. When I started that way yesterday I could see some lakes off in the distance, so before getting in the plane tonight I got on Google Earth and came up with a flight plan. Heading ENE from Dalton you can fly over three lakes in a sequence, staring with Blue Ridge Lake, about 30 miles away, and then Nottley Lake (Blairsville) about 10 miles after that, followed by Chatuge Lake about 15 miles further out. There's a little airport in Blairsville, so I decided to take off from Dalton, head east-ish and fly over the lakes, then turn around after the third lake and land at Blairsville Airport to take a break.

Had a nice take off and climbed to a couple thousand feet before turning east. To make sure I didn't run into a mountain, I decided to climb to 8,000 feet above sea level, which is a good 2,000+ feet higher than the highest mountain in Georgia. At around 6,000 feet I started getting into clouds. They're one of the more realistic features in FSX:

At this point I'm roughly over Fort Mountain. I believe the road winding away below me is Highway 52. Anyway, I got to altitude and proficiently trimmed in for about 100 knots and holding my altitude between 8,000 and 8,100 feet. From there, the lakes were easy to spot, as was the airport. After about 30 minutes of flying, maybe a bit more, I got to the final lake and turned around, lining back up on the Blairsville runway.

As is my habit, I came in too high and too fast. I've really got to work on that. I landed pretty rough, with one tire in the grass even. Of course, that still counts as a landing, so I taxied to the one building and take a break. After reading some bed-time stories (to my son, not to the folks at the airport), I got back in the plane, taxied back out to the runway and took off for home. This time I settled in at 5,000 feet, which feels pretty low when you're flying over some of those mountains. While cruising, I got this close-up exterior view showing the detailing of the aircraft models in FSX:

Pilot looks kind of nerdy. I hope in the next version you can pick a different outfit. Anyway, a short while later I found myself almost out of the mountains. From the cockpit, I could easily identify Ellijay to my south and the major highways in the area, including 52 which crosses Fort Mountain out of Chatsworth. In fact, here's a picture from the cockpit just south of Fort Mountain at around 4,500 feet (after I had started my descent):

The winding road starting on the far left and then cutting through the image is Highway 52. I've ridden that climb from Chatsworth on my bicycle up to the Fort Mountain park entrance. Takes about an hour at the rate I climb. Anyway, there are two peaks in the foreground, one on each side of the support strut you can sea outside the window. The peak to the right of the strut, and further away from me than the left-peak is Fort Mountain.

So from there I continued my descent towards the Dalton airport. At about 2,000 feet I banked to the right to fly the downwind leg parallel to the runway, flew out over Dalton, did a 180, and continued my descent to land. This landing was much smoother than the one in Blairsville.