Page 15 - Volume 15 Number 1

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Changing Tides
Back on the mainland, Charleston is filled with historic homes and surrounded by historic plantations that are open for tours. Such places are great for filling an hour, a half-day, or more, depending on their size and location relative to your chosen airport. While some (myself included) may recoil at how most of these places came to be (built by slave labor), they still hold an important history. If nothing else, they can serve as critical reminders of what enslaved people endured and of the utter inequity of the “system” in place in those times. The Magnolia Plantation and Drayton Hall are both popular destinations and very close to CHS airport. Whereas the picturesque Charleston Tea Plantation is closest to JZI. If Mount Pleasant and LRO airport is your area of choice, the Boone Hall Plantation and the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site are both mere minutes away.
Like so many of our coastal areas, Charleston and treasures such as Fort Sumter are under imminent threat from climate change and rising sea levels. The sea level in the Charleston area is now 10 inches higher than it was in 1950. The pace of rise is accelerating and is currently at about one-half inch annually. Multiple studies of the problem estimate that, without significant intervention, the rising sea levels will begin to swamp Fort Sumter’s parade grounds within a decade. If South Carolina is on your flight agenda in the near future, plan some extra time for touring or consider how best to utilize your downtime to take in some of the sites of this beautiful state. KA
Copyright 2021, Matthew McDaniel
First publication rights granted to Village Press for King Air magazine.
All other rights reserved by copyright holder.
Matthew McDaniel is a Master & Gold Seal CFII, ATP, MEI, AGI, & IGI and Platinum CSIP. In 30 years of flying, he has logged over 19,000 hours total, over 5,600 hours of instruction-given, and over 2,500 hours in various King Airs and the BE-1900D. As owner of Progressive Aviation Services, LLC (www.progaviation.com), he has specialized in Technically Advanced Aircraft and Glass Cockpit instruction since 2001. Currently, he is also an Airbus A-320-Series Captain for an international airline, holds 8 turbine aircraft type ratings, and has flown over 90 aircraft types. Matt is one of less than 15 instructors in the world to have earned the Master CFI designation for 9 consecutive two-year terms. He can be reached at: matt@progaviation.com or (414) 339-4990.
JANUARY 2021
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 13