Big thank you to Bill Repucci for saving my eclipse day

Travel plans went awry at the last minute. I had been talking with Macon County 1A5 for a week about coming over on Monday. The last call was on Sat afternoon and the answer remained a laicsidaisical "Sure, come on over". I was concerned but then alarmed when I learned of a NOTAM stating they were full. No parking. I had a back up plan of Jackson County 24A but it was on the edge of totality. No FBO which I actually thought was a good thing. I called Mon AM and they truly said come on. IFR fog has just cleared and plenty of room.

On a whim, I called Bill. He lives on a private strip right in the middle of the path. Left a message.

So, Diane and I were taxiing out with ground control expecting me to go to 24A when I feel my cell phone vibrating in my pocket. Its Bill. Come on down! Yee Ha!.

Excellent day. What a surreal experience. Very glad to have gone to the effort. Later learned that Macon was clouded over during the event. Whew!

Going home was different too. Asheville was SWAMPED. I was #7 once they got it sorted. I dropped off Di and then cranked up to commute to work. Took 30 minutes to get through the conga line and in the air. Never had that before.

In the air I swear it was like Ripon but everybody at different altitudes and directions. Asheville set me up for flight following. Handed me off to Atlanta. That poor man. I never got a word in. He was calling collision warnings constantly. Refusing new flight following just like Greensboro, DC center and others. It was a madhouse. I've never seen my ADSB traffic lit up like that. I had to scale down to 20 mile range just to get the targets to separate so I could thread between them.

What an exciting day. I'll review the photo's this weekend with Di.

Thanks again Bill!

Yes

Bill,
I have to agree with you.
Bill Repucci is a nice guy!
He surely has been very helpful to the Pmag crowd as well with all his valuable posts on the subject. Thanks Bill.

Swarming like butterflies!

rzbill said:

Asheville was SWAMPED.

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I've been flying out of AVL for 18 years now, and for the the first time I can recall, they were using both approach frequencies - one for the Eastern sector and one for the Western. This was on the day before the eclipse. I can only imagine what it was like yesterday. I'll have to talk to Darwin; He was planning on flying to Macon Co. with his wife. Bummer...

Thanks Bill & Bob!

Bill, it's good to know you enjoyed your time here at SC86. There are a bunch of nice people who live there!

Sorry I couldn't hang out with you, and the others. The little guy was not doing well but did get outside to see the eclipse.

Bob, let me know, if you need anything else. It was good talking with you the other day.

snopercod said:

I've been flying out of AVL for 18 years now, and for the the first time I can recall, they were using both approach frequencies - one for the Eastern sector and one for the Western. This was on the day before the eclipse. I can only imagine what it was like yesterday. I'll have to talk to Darwin; He was planning on flying to Macon Co. with his wife. Bummer...

Click to expand...

Yeah John,
Darwin and Jan (my hangarmates) were going to join me and Diane at Macon until the NOTAM came out. They went back to a plan he had in place with a parking reservation at Pickens. Have not talked to them at length yet but Pickens is close to where I was so I expect they had a good time of it. I saw them arriving AVL in the RV4 while I was in the ground conga line waiting to depart for work. I enquired on ground freq and he said it was great.