Northeast Flying Summer Roadtrip

Leg 13 - 7/20/2022 - Philadelphia, PA (KPHL) to Gatlinburg, TN (KGKT)

Leg Stats

• Time Enroute: 4.3 hrs
• Distance (direct): 461nm
• Distance (actual): 532nm
• Fuel Used: 45.4 gal

Our final overnight stop of the trip was a bit unplanned. Since we lingered in Philadelphia as long as we did, our flying trip actually started to run fairly close to another trip my wife had planned with her brothers in Gatlinburg, TN. That was due to start on Friday, and since we were still in Philly as of Tuesday, I decided we should just fly by Gatlinburg on the way back and drop her off. The only complication was a quick succession of 2 cold fronts that were due to pass through, but there was a brief window of good weather on Wednesday morning. I carefully checked the common ATC assigned routes and selected one, filed IFR and prepared for a 7am departure from PHL. I called up Philly Clearance and got the dreaded "Ehhh... this is going to be a full route clearance, standby...". I ended up getting assigned an insane route which was 200nm further than what I filed. The majority of the insanity was well down the road, so I decided to accept it and deal with it later, since VFR weather prevailed over most of the route, and I could always divert or change the plan as needed. Departure out of PHL was quick and easy, they departed me off 27R and we were more or less cleared on course immediately. After I got to Charleston, WV, I queried the approach controller there about my route and he said to me: "What the heck is this route?". He immediately offered me direct, but due to some weather I negotiated a few other waypoints which would avoid it, and fortunately trimmed around 170nm of flying off my route pretty easily. The weather in Gatlinburg was cloudy and MVFR with light rain, and I planned the approach. Unfortunately the last plane in before me, a 182, explicitly declined to cancel in the air (despite the ceilings being well over the FAF altitude), and had of course forgotten to cancel. ATC sent me over to advisory to beg them to cancel while I got a delay vector. Unfortunately, he wasn't on frequency, but someone at the FBO managed to track him down and got him to cancel. Got cleared for the Runway 10 approach (with a decent tailwind) and, as expected, broke out 3 or 4 miles before the FAF. Made a circling approach to 28 and landed normally. The FBO met us at the airplane with our rental car, and we quickly loaded our bags and booked 2 nights in a hotel in Pigeon Forge. Being from Orlando, I am accustomed to tourist traps, but Pigeon Forge takes it to another level. Every other place on the main road is a wax museum, mini-golf course, dinner theater, or some other bizarre attraction. What a zoo! We did find a couple good breweries though, and we had a nice relaxing time in the area. On our last night, we drove up into Smoky Mountains National Park and then enjoyed the sunset over the mountains from our hotel's rooftop terrace.

Trip Leg Navigation