Delta recently started flying to HKY, which had previously been without service since USAir pulled out several years ago. When I found out that Delta was going to pull out from HKY in December or January, once again leaving the airport with no scheduled flights, I decided to start my next trip from HKY for the sole purpose of adding HKY to my list of airports. If you're familiar with Delta, you will not be surprised to learn that the three daily flights are on a CRJ, which is the only downside to this trip (I hate that aircraft!)

I left early in the morning, so the drive from Greenville, SC wasn't terribly interesting. It was a quick two hours in the car with my CD's. The last song was "Open Sesame" from Saturday Night Fever.

I was talking to another passenger at the airport and discovered that he wanted to leave the previous day, but the morning flight had been cancelled. He decided to come back the next morning rather than take the bus to CLT. I'm glad I didn't want to leave the previous day since the whole point of this trip was to fly out of HKY! (I prefer both take-off and landing even though only one is required for the list)

The flight to ATL was uneventful with no beverage service. I had an empty seat next to me in row 10, and the flight seemed to be around half full.

I went to a conference in Westchester County. It was interesting, with some fun activities, as opposed to the usual where I try to down more coffee to stay awake. I brought my swimsuit and went swimming in the evening before dinner and the next morning before breakfast, and I had the pool all to myself, which was kinda boring.

On the way back, I left in the morning and took the afternoon flight from ATL to HKY. Because there are only three flights a day to HKY, and I didn't want to take a chance of a late arrival (resulting in having to wait hours for the evening flight), I took an earlier flight to ATL and had a three hour layover in ATL.

Once again I had an empty seat next to me in row 10, and this flight was also around half full. The flight attendant booted the passenger in 8D out of the exit row after she asked him if he would accept the responsibilities of sitting in the exit row. I didn't hear his reply, so I don't know what the problem was.

I then realized that if I sat in the exit row, I would still have an empty seat next to me, and my view out of the window would not be obstructed by the wing. So, I moved my backpack up to row 8 and went up to the front of the plane to confirm this move with the flight attendant who was chatting with the pilots. She asked me which seat I was in, and then said that rows 10-12 are in a different section, and they've already done the paperwork. Grrrrr...... Gee I didn't know the Crap Regional Jet was that sensitive to weight distribution. I hope they took note of the fact that the man she moved from row 8 to 9 weighed twice as much as me. Luckily we did avoid a tail strike upon take-off.

The view from row 10 isn't that bad, so I got decent video of the decent. Here are some photos after landing:

HKY sign as seen from the plane

HKY terminal as seen from the plane

HKY terminal airside (see the reflection of the CRJ in the windows? For some reason my reflection doesn't exist! I was standing on the loading bridge when I took the photo; where did I go?)

HKY terminal landside (sorry for the sunspot; I'm too lazy to edit it out)


Could someone please explain why the town of Hickory, NC has this giant traffic jam? It's only 3:30 PM! What is it like at 5?

The photo is taken from the southbound direction on US 321, which wasn't as backed up as northbound.

Hickory traffic jam

The drive back was interesting with the fall colors, although it was tough to drive directly into the setting sun on I-85. So long HKY! May you have scheduled flights once again someday!