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Overview
Charleston, South Carolina is a wonderful place to visit if you enjoy salty air, seafood, and the big tug of a fish on the other end of your line. All of those reasons are exactly why we loaded up our plane and headed to the low country for a fishing competition….who will land more fish, Kevin or Mindy?!
The Flight
For this flight, we flew from our backyard grass trip eastbound to Charleston, South Carolina. This trip was about 250nm which was an easy 2 hour flight in our plane, MoJo.
We took off fully loaded and almost topped off on fuel. We were well within our weight limits but I hadn’t had the chance to fly the plane this loaded up before. This is the first time we have loaded bags, fuel, and ourselves for a weekend getaway.
MoJo performed amazingly…she climbed out of our grass strip and cleared the trees at the end with ease! We left early in the morning. The air was smooth. The skies were clear. Hardly any traffic out. WOW – what an amazing day it was to fly.
We started to approach Augusta, GA and realized that the Master’s Golf Tournament was only about 2 weeks away. We knew the course had to have been looking fabulous for the upcoming tournament, so we decided we wanted to fly over it and take a sneak peek!
We asked the Augusta Tower air traffic controller very kindly if he would point us in the right direction to find the course. He was super helpful and let us know exactly how many miles it was away from Daniels field. I made myself a waypoint on my Garmin Pilot app on my iPad so that we were tracking towards the general vicinity. A few minutes later and BOOM – the most manicured, bright green golf course was beneath us. We did a few laps so that Kevin could get his golf fix for the day and then headed back on course towards Mount Pleasant Airport in SC.
Cruising along in our plane, we both had on our noise cancelling Bose A20’s and bluetoothed in some music to pass the time. The neat thing about the Bose headsets is that you have the option to select a setting that mutes the music any time ATC talks. Although we were not on a flight plan, I always keep my radios on the ATC facility nearest to me so I have some situational awareness of what is going on around me and also it’s set in case of an issue or emergency.
We used Garmin Pilot to navigate around Charleston’s Class C airspace. Our flight plan going direct took us directly over their main airport, so we scooted around on the north side and lined up for a straight in on Runway 17 landing to the south.
Everything was looking great. Airspeed, altitude, lined up on centerline and the wheels were about to kiss the ground. Then, I hear Kevin say “There is a deer on the runway”. Sure enough, holy cow – or should I say, holy deer. 3 large deer were standing on the right side of the runway. I did not see them and was obviously very happy that Kevin did and called out a go-around for me. Another set of eyes are ALWAYS welcomed in my plane!!!!
I quickly added in my power, my carb heat was already in (I turn it off on short final for this VERY reason!), and started working out my flaps. As we flew over the deer’s heads, we saw 2 of them run into the woods were they likely came from and one deer stood on centerline looking at us and ran towards the FBO across the taxiways.
I let the aircraft behind me landing know about the deer so that they could be on the lookout, too. Once I re-entered the downwind, I looked out the window and could see the coast was clear. WHEW!!!!
We came back around and landed this time with no animals staring into my windscreen. We taxied in to the airport’s sole FBO and parked in a tie-down space for the coming days. We unloaded all our bags and headed towards the water for our fishing competition! Who was going to catch more fish…?
Mount Pleasant FBO
The little FBO on the field was very friendly and accommodating. Although they do not have temporary hangar spots, they do have plenty of tie-down spaces and full service 100LL and Jet-A fuel.
The airport is a vibrant little spot! Lots of airplanes in and out. The FBO lobby was filled with handful of pilots all talking about the upcoming weather and flight plans.
While we got situated, we watched a King Air land and many other planes headed out to take on the sky. A very nice place to leave the plane for a few days.
Transportation
They have courtesy cars available or you can call ahead to reserve a rental car. We were lucky and had our friends we were staying with pick us up for the weekend!
So they did just that – they picked us up and we were whisked away to their home in Charleston to start our adventures.
Fishing
We went fishing with Captain Jim Hutson of Explore More Water. Jim is a great host and a father of 2 little girls that he takes fishing, so if you are headed here with your kids, no fear! Jim will certainly be welcoming to your little ones!
We jumped on board his bay boat for a half day fishing charter of inshore catch & release. We were targeting redfish and sheepshead for the day.
Our first spot in the early morning was windy and gloomy. The fish weren’t on and we needed to let the tide run back out so while we waited it out, we decided to visit Capers Island for a few minutes.
Capers Island
Capers Island is an island by Charleston that you can only get to via boat/canoe/kayak. It is a very cool atmosphere and is home to Boneyard Beach.
Boneyard Beach is about 4 miles of an ecosystem that has been eaten up by the salt water and has only left behind the “bones” of what was once vibrant palm trees and plants. As you walk down the beach, you can see the entire root systems of these petrified trees and it makes for quite the spooky landscape!
We walked for a bit and found lots of signs of life – fish, crabs, sand dollars and more. It was fun to walk around and take some photos, but we were itching to fish, so we got back on board with Jim and headed to our next fishing spot.
Fishing Competition
It was time to see who landed the most amount of fish – Mindy or Kevin? Well, you will just have to watch the video below to find out!
Want to flight plan like me? Download Garmin Pilot, available for iPad & iPhones.
Want the aviation headsets we use? Check out Bose Aviation’s A20s and other noise cancelling headsets.
Our preferred aircraft maintenance & avionics shop is in Peachtree City, GA. Visit Gardner Lowe Aviation Services for the best service in the business!
