Places to fly within 500-1000 mile radius of southern Georgia?

Rarefied

Rarefied

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Hello all!

I'm still in flight training, but I'm looking a distance into the future. I want to go on a family vacation with the parents that would be based on me flying them to different destinations. This would take a lot of planning, but it would be fun.

I'm trying to get a list together of places we could possible fly. We'd fly to the airport/attraction, stay at a nearby hotel, and go to another place the next day. We'd do this for 8-9 days and be back on the 9th day. So we'd need places that are relatively in line with each other so we aren't zig-zagging to get everywhere. I wouldn't mind flying 2 hours one day and maybe 5 a different day.

I was just wondering if any of you had suggestions for places within 500-1000(maybe farther) miles of Southern Georgia(Specifically Savannah) that would fit relatively in line with other interesting places.

Thanks.
 
I would recommend:

St. Augustine, FL: KSGJ. It's the oldest city in the US lots of great historic stuff to see

Cedar Key, FL: KCDK small historic island with a short runway north of Tampa.

Key West, FL (KEYW): Self explanatory

Saint Simons Island, GA: KSSI

Orlando, FL: (KORL, KISM) or any other nearby Orlando airport area.

Asheville, NC: (KAVL) awesome downtown area

Charleston, SC: (KCHS) very nice historic downtown area

A few more just cause

New Orleans, LA: (KNEW or KMSY) self explanatory

Gulfport, MS: (KGPT) casinos down by Biloxi

Birmingham, AL: (KBHM)

Chattanooga, TN: KCHA

Nashville, TN: (KBNA)

There are many more I could go on and on

Personally I'd recommend a Florida tour, but as a Floridian I may be biased, round the coast , KSGJ, KDAB, KORL, KFXE, KEYW, KPIE, KCDK, and back
 
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It's a 2.5 hour flight from Brunswick to Treasure Cay, so maybe 3 hours from SAV. Check VRBO for cheap rentals. Fly AM to avoid the convection/late day storms. One of the resorts has a fuel credit if you stay with them too. Pays for a couple days of your stay.

Flagler county just north of Daytona has High Jackers restaurant on the field. I highly recommend for a burger run. Cheap gas too.
 
JustinD said:
I would recommend:

St. Augustine, FL: KSGJ. It's the oldest city in the US lots of great historic stuff to see

Cedar Key, FL: KCDK small historic island with a short runway north of Tampa.

Key West, FL (KEYW): Self explanatory

Saint Simons Island, GA: KSSI

Orlando, FL: (KORL, KISM) or any other nearby Orlando airport area.

Asheville, NC: (KAVL) awesome downtown area

Charleston, SC: (KCHS) very nice historic downtown area

A few more just cause

New Orleans, LA: (KNEW or KMSY) self explanatory

Gulfport, MS: (KGPT) casinos down by Biloxi

Birmingham, AL: (KBHM)

Chattanooga, TN: KCHA

Nashville, TN: (KBNA)

There are many more I could go on and on

Personally I'd recommend a Florida tour, but as a Floridian I may be biased, round the coast , KSGJ, KDAB, KORL, KFXE, KEYW, KPIE, KCDK, and back
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I believe I've been to all but 4 places you mentioned :). Good places, I'm looking to go to new ones though, although being familiar with the area might help my stress level. My main thought was to travel north for the first part of the trip, so I don't know if I want to go to Florida, maybe I could swing below on the way back. I'm going to be planning out multiple sets of places to go to, so all ideas you can think of would be much appreciated. Also, any suggestions on getting around town? I believe some airports have cars you can borrow but I don't wanna be dependent solely on that.

Unit74 said:
It's a 2.5 hour flight from Brunswick to Treasure Cay, so maybe 3 hours from SAV. Check VRBO for cheap rentals. Fly AM to avoid the convection/late day storms. One of the resorts has a fuel credit if you stay with them too. Pays for a couple days of your stay.

Flagler county just north of Daytona has High Jackers restaurant on the field. I highly recommend for a burger run. Cheap gas too.
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I'll definitely be trying to fly in the morning to avoid afternoon storms and also give time to visit the local town a little. Thanks for the suggestions. :)
 
Roanoke VA (KROA) fun to fly into, surrounded by mountains. Forget the nearby airport name, west of KROA is the Greenbrier resort, interesting history with the bunker under the hotel. Town has the usual quaint shops. Dayton OH (DAY) and the Air Force Museum. Like blues music? Fly into Memphis (MEM), rent a car, and spend the day driving on the Mississippi Blues Trail. Memphis has the blues clubs (BB King's) in the tourist trap part of town. Pensacola (KPNS) and the Naval Museum, seafood, beach etc. Just east is Destin, great restaurants and the beach. I think it's called Mountainaire in NC I believe, and it's up towards the top of a mountain w/ a golf course and restaurant I think. Might need prior permission to land there.
 
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Your family like the beach? Fly into Marco Island, FL for a couple of nights. It is really pretty with a nice airport. Then down to Key West before going to Bahamas! That should eat up 8 days!! :)
 
LT4247 said:
Your family like the beach? Fly into Marco Island, FL for a couple of nights. It is really pretty with a nice airport. Then down to Key West before going to Bahamas! That should eat up 8 days!! :)
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I can definitely see doing that and having fun. But for this trip I'm thinking heading more north or west.
 
Maybe if you were more specific on what appeals to you we could come up with destinations for you.
 
PNS-go see the museum and get lunch at Mcguires.

X47- I agree with above. Good restaurant on the field and go hit the beach.

DZJ-The Aviator restaurant in town. Go up to the highest point in GA (Brasstown Bald).

CDK-Good seafood. Pretty area. Make sure your brakes are good.

DHN- Tour Army Aviation Museum. Drive up the road to Moton Field and see Tuskegee Museum.
 
mscard88 said:
Maybe if you were more specific on what appeals to you we could come up with destinations for you.
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Anything that isn't in Florida or along the coast of Georgia. Most of everything interesting in those areas I've been to before.
 
Matthew K said:
Anything that isn't in Florida or along the coast of Georgia. Most of everything interesting in those areas I've been to before.
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Well if you're looking at 500-1000 miles with a light aircraft like a PA28, I think you'll find by the time you arrive, you'll be tired and running out of daylight. Personally, with a 160 kt aircraft I plan on no more than 500 miles if I plan on seeing the sights that day.
 
Velocity173 said:
Well if you're looking at 500-1000 miles with a light aircraft like a PA28, I think you'll find by the time you arrive, you'll be tired and running out of daylight. Personally, with a 160 kt aircraft I plan on no more than 500 miles if I plan on seeing the sights that day.
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The 500-1000 miles is collective. It'd only be 100-200 miles a day.
 
I haven't gone out west, so I can't really recommend a lot of stuff out there. Ironically, my wife and I like to fly to the Georgia coast and Florida, especially Destin. Based on our interests, I'd say hit stuff along the smoky mountains. I have flown to Asheville, Chattanooga and Gatlinburg, and those were pretty areas. Given the distance you're allowing, there's probably tons of other places you could see, too.
 
rbridges said:
I haven't gone out west, so I can't really recommend a lot of stuff out there. Ironically, my wife and I like to fly to the Georgia coast and Florida, especially Destin. Based on our interests, I'd say hit stuff along the smoky mountains. I have flown to Asheville, Chattanooga and Gatlinburg, and those were pretty areas. Given the distance you're allowing, there's probably tons of other places you could see, too.
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How bad was Gatinburg and the like burnt up from the wildfires? If I went to KTHA maybe I could stop at one of those places on the way.
 
mscard88 said:
Douglas GA, restoring the Twin Mustang there.
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While you're there, look in on the rebuild(s) of the B-17's at the next hangar over and visit the flight training museum in the barracks and classrooms that were built when that was a training field in WWII.
 
Unit74 said:
I don't think the cylinders will be up to temp before you are descending!
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Haha. I mean for a 8 day trip you can't go to far each day without having a sizeable fuel bill at the end. 100-200 miles a day could change to longer, just depends how I plan it out.
 
Something like this may be of interest to you.
Savannah to Kitty Hawk
Kitty Hawk to Williamsburg
Williamsburg to Monticello/Shenandoah Valley
Shenandoah to Dayton (Air Force Museum)
Dayton to Ashville (Biltmore Mansion)
Ashville to Savannah
 

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^that seems like a nice tour!

The Dayton Air Force Museum is a MUST I've been 3 times and still feel like I haven't spent as much time there as I'd like!
 
Matthew K said:
How bad was Gatinburg and the like burnt up from the wildfires? If I went to KTHA maybe I could stop at one of those places on the way.
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I went before the fires. Flying over the mountains was neat since middle ga is flat as a pancake. The gatlinburg and pigeon forge area is/was very pretty.
 
MickYoumans said:
Something like this may be of interest to you.
Savannah to Kitty Hawk
Kitty Hawk to Williamsburg
Williamsburg to Monticello/Shenandoah Valley
Shenandoah to Dayton (Air Force Museum)
Dayton to Ashville (Biltmore Mansion)
Ashville to Savannah
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Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely present this as one of the options to my family. Ideally, I'd like to stop at KDZJ in north Georgia as a family member has a place near there. Say do you know of a good route planner for computers? I see your on your using wingx pro on your ipad in that pic, I should be getting a ipad mini around new years as I don't have one at the moment.

Hey! I see your in Waynesboro, that's about an hours drive from me!
 
Blairsville is a nice area. My wife's grandparents had a summer home there. I have a brother that lives west of Blairsville in the Blueridge area. I enjoy flying up in that area. I usually fly into 1A3.

Yes, I use WingX on my iPad for my flight planning and in-flight GPS. It has a neat feature on the route planning screen where you can open your route in Google Maps. It makes a neat summary of your cross country route without the clutter of seeing it over a sectional map.

Yes, I'm not far from Savannah. Do you fly out of KSAV? I actually hangar my airplane in Millen (2J5) since our local airport in Waynesboro does not have hangars or fuel. It's an extra nine minutes down the road but well worth the extra drive to have my plane hangared and protected from the weather.
 
MickYoumans said:
Blairsville is a nice area. My wife's grandparents had a summer home there. I have a brother that lives west of Blairsville in the Blueridge area. I enjoy flying up in that area. I usually fly into 1A3.

Yes, I use WingX on my iPad for my flight planning and in-flight GPS. It has a neat feature on the route planning screen where you can open your route in Google Maps. It makes a neat summary of your cross country route without the clutter of seeing it over a sectional map.

Yes, I'm not far from Savannah. Do you fly out of KSAV? I actually hangar my airplane in Millen (2J5) since our local airport in Waynesboro does not have hangars or fuel. It's an extra nine minutes down the road but well worth the extra drive to have my plane hangared and protected from the weather.
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I do fly out of KSAV:).

Wait, someone actually uses 2J5 :p? I drive by there quite a bit and it always seems desolate, I think I've only seen a plane outside the hangers once. I sent the airport manager an email once but never received a reply. How much do they charge for hanger space there?
 
It's like having my own private airport...well almost! :)
There is a Piper Cub on one side of me and a Cessna 182 on the other. I bump into those guys occasionally but not often.

Hangar space is VERY reasonable. If interested you should call Grady Saxon at 478-982-2563. He can provide you the details. The price varies depending on how long a lease you sign up for and whether you make a single payment for the full lease or make monthly payments. Fuel is very reasonably priced too.

If you ever drive by and see the airplane in the attached picture, stop in and say hello.
 

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