A nice sharp clear fall Saturday morning, light wind out of the west, a brisk departure to the west off of Greenville’s runway 28. With a short flight planned, light on fuel, and we just about could have busted the class C airspace if we had a mind to.

By the time we leveled out at 4500′ I noticed we had a lot of headwind, and a groundspeed of only 89 knots, which helped to steepen that initial climb. We climbed up and circled the Pinnacle Mountain fire area, with due regard to the TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction).

For those who may not be aware, there’s been a fire burning in this area for almost two weeks now, and is reported to be the largest fire ever in Pickens County. Smoke does not make for good picture-taking conditions when you have to keep some distance, but you get the idea.

That’s actually a cloud on the right. There was a pretty good cloud deck to the north of the area. Unfortunately, they weren’t rain clouds.

Heading back east, we got the wind behind us and promptly hit 177 knots groundspeed. By the time we got back to the airport, that wind was mixing down to the surface, giving us winds gusting to 20 knots and not aligned with any runway. We managed to land without too much excitement, though, which is a good thing.