Day 16 - Hilton Head to Wilmington

Tony Cacciarelli • June 30, 2020

Hilton Head (KHXD) to
Wilmington, NC (KILM) - June 30, 2019

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Those are some looooong docks

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High tide flooding

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Original Instagram Post

Clear skies and sunny for the flight today from Hilton Head to Wilmington, NC.

Had an interesting experience trying to preflight the plane. The area where the plane was parked was totally overrun with ants - to the point where if you stood still for more that a second or two you'd have a couple of the little buggers crawling on your shoes. So, I had to do a sort of weird dance lifting up one foot then the other as I went around the plane. I'm sure anyone watching thought I was nuts and I was itchy for the whole flight.

As I was flying up the coast I'd see rows of houses with REALLY long docks that led out to the water. Better not forget anything once you make that hike.

Once I got closer to Wilmington I dropped down and did a few passes along #fortfisher. At first I thought it was like Daytona beach where they have an area that they let cars cruise back and forth. Turns out it's actually a spot where people can park their car on the beach and hang out.

Spent some quality relaxing time at the #carolinayachtclub and got to put my feet in the Atlantic Ocean. Then went for dinner in downtown Wilmington. There's a lot of history in this town and I only got to see a small bit of it. Great waterfront area with lots of restaurants and shops. The tide was coming in and water was starting to flood part of the street. Happens pretty regularly, so no cause for alarm. 😁

Had some great sushi and got a chance to visit with friends. Thanks to @mark.ciarrocca and @thepleasantpalette for their hospitality and showing me around their awesome city!

Tomorrow I’m headed up to Kitty Hawk to check out the First Flight airport and Wright Brothers Memorial.

😀👍🏼

It was a relatively short flight up to Wilmington from Hilton Head, which was a nice change from the 4-5 hour days I'd been doing.

When I was planning everything, I knew I couldn't do day after day of long flights. Not only would it be tough to stay focused and fresh, I wouldn't have much time to enjoy each location. I wasn't trying to complete the trip as quickly as possible. I wanted to be able to spend at least a little time exploring each location, even if it was just for one afternoon and evening.

The A5 has an advertised range of about 425 miles, but I'd decided to always have a bit of extra reserve, so I used 375 miles as my maximum. That still worked out to 4-5 hours of flying time on a single tank. Plus, I had some key points I was trying to hit, so sometimes it made more sense to have a shorter flight one day which would set me up better for a location I wanted to visit a day or two later.

This was the kind of iterating I did for months before heading out. Of course, all that planning could go right out the window if I got stuck somewhere due to weather or mechanical issues, but just being familiar with all the options meant it was easier to re-plan if that happened because I'd probably already done it before.