Coming down to Charleston was a real treat this past week – got to see former Chugach Peaks’er and good friend Philip (P-Diddy) Casey, shoot a few weddings, and do some flying. Also managed to squeeze in 4 Jimmy John’s sandwiches. Check the blog below for some of the wedding images. Today we did about 4.5 hours of flying – taking off near Charleston at Mt. Pleasant Regional Airport and doing a stop in Hilton Head, before continuing down to St. Simons, Georgia, a small island near the Florida border. Philip is currently a student pilot and working on his private pilot’s license, and with about 20 hours of time right now he is really coming along and becoming a good pilot. He wanted to work on some radio communications and navigation so I offered to go up and fly the plane while he practiced his radio calls, bouncing from controller to controller through 6 different areas. It was a lot of fun and a good learning experience! When we got to St. Simons, we were extremely hot and sweaty (air temperature was 90 degrees.. Density Altitude was 2000ft even though we were at sea level!), so we hopped in a cab that had just dropped some other pilots off, and got dropped off at a Southern BBQ restaurant right by the beach. Then we changed into our swimsuits and dropped our bags with a nice couple who watched our stuff while we swam. After cooling off and getting very refreshed, they offered to drive us back to the plane. Very nice people! We stopped in Reidsville, GA to fuel up for the return trip and noticed a big commotion in the parking area.. Lots of people standing around. After some investigation we found out a 16 year old named Chance was about to do his first solo! He had just turned 16 a few weeks prior and is now on his way to becoming a private pilot. It was a lot of fun to be part of that, after just randomly stopping in at this small-town-America airport, one of hundreds just like it scattered around the country. General Aviation really is a big part of this country and most people don’t realize how important it is for local economies and average hard-working folks that keep them relevant. General Aviation is not just fancy Gulf Streams and jet-set execs flying around the world.. This kid is the local Sheriff’s son and has a passion for aviation and a supporting family. Beautiful to see! What a good day..