North Carolina

[alwaysoar]

Hello Tarheels. My wife and pre-schooler and I are planning a visit to No Carolina in April. The pre-text is for my wife to check out the college her son will be attending in Wilson, but we've always been thinking NC would be a great place to live. Jerry lives in Lattimore, but I can't find that I my map. I guess the question I'm asking is: Where's a great place to live in NC (great place obviously includes an airport suitable for Taylorcraft ops and a place where the over the hill crowd can tell lies and tall tales without being contradicted). Relatively inexpensive for a retiree, yet good schools for his daughter, and near enough to city for his wife to find work in the IT field, yet far enough from a city to have some land for chickens and a horse for the aforementioned pre-schooler.
You guys know everything, so I figured it was smart to ask before we go.

Ed@BTV VT
TF 527

[Guest]

Re: North Carolina

Hello Tarheels. My wife and pre-schooler and I are planning a visit to No Carolina in April. The pre-text is for my wife to check out the college her son will be attending in Wilson, but we've always been thinking NC would be a great place to live. Jerry lives in Lattimore, but I can't find that I my map. I guess the question I'm asking is: Where's a great place to live in NC (great place obviously includes an airport suitable for Taylorcraft ops and a place where the over the hill crowd can tell lies and tall tales without being contradicted). Relatively inexpensive for a retiree, yet good schools for his daughter, and near enough to city for his wife to find work in the IT field, yet far enough from a city to have some land for chickens and a horse for the aforementioned pre-schooler.
You guys know everything, so I figured it was smart to ask before we go.

Ed@BTV VT
TF 527

Hi Ed,

My wife and I looked around the Raleigh area and also Greenville, SC. We liked Wendell,NC just east of Raliegh at the 3 o'clock position. Real rural.

Some of the locals lead me to believe that there was more a/c activity south east of Raliegh (might have been Goldsborough).

There are a few small strips nearby. Doesen't seem to have the same aircraft activity as we do up here (Poughkeepsie, NY), I think it is a lot less. Countryside is pretty.

Airplane and house is taxed at about 1% of value. Income tax is something like 6%, a wash with NY. My house taxes in NC are about 1/4 of NY.

New houses start at about $140K for 1350 sq. ft. I used a rule of thumb of $100 a square foot when shopping. My guess is that on average us Yankees will end up with a $175 purchase when we find what we like. A few folks I know have spent about that.

We have not moved there yet but spend some vacation days there each months. My job allows me to work remote from there a few days so I weave that in.


So that's pretty much all I know. Hope it helps, and best wishes with your search. Dave.

[selje]

Re: North Carolina

Lattimore is 4 miles west of Shelby which is about 50 miles west of Charlotte -- long distance from Wilson. My son-in-law who now lives in Lincolnton is from Fairhaven VT. During my 20+years in the Army, one duty assignment was West Point and the Army flying club had a PA-18-95 that I flew out of Newburgh NY. There did seem to be more flying activity there. My opinion is that the ideal location for living is an oval outlined by Greenville SC, Greensboro NC, Charlotte NC, and Asheville NC. I can give more detail by private email or phone. For location, lookup my strip, 29NC on AirNav.

[Jim Herpst]

Re: North Carolina

I would expand that oval a bit (like 75 miles to the south of Charlotte NC) This will put you in the Columbia SC area. I live in Lexington SC (a bedroom community about 10 miles to the west of Columbia) Our cost of living ,land acquisition etc is much less than the NC area. We have two lakes (one of which 1/4 mile from my home with 500 miles of coast line) Our EAA chapter (EAA 242) is one of the largest in the country with almost 300 members. We have numerous grass fields and four nice GA fields in the surrounding area. Columbia is a slowly growing area (But very steady growth). We have much in the way of Cultural activities and the University of SC keeps the college feel to the town. Why am I so high on it? Well I moved here from the North Hills Area of Pittsburgh to attend The University of SC and subsequently graduated and after several years in the Tech business now own a building business. Sure there are things to miss from the North (but not much!!!) . You may contact me off line if you care to discuss this anymore.

[selje]

Re: North Carolina

I also agree that the mid SC area is a good choice. The oval I mentioned has within it the so called "isothermal belt" just east of the mountains which tend to modulate the temperature extremes. See link below:

http://www.isothermal.edu/thermal_be...h_carolina.htm

[lktiller]

Re: North Carolina

Check out Marion County (Shiftlet), NC. About 20 mi. NE of Charlotte, NC. Beautiful grass strip tucked into the foothills of the Smokies. Several Navions on the field. Might even have a place to build a home.

http://www.airnav.com/airport/9A9

[selje]

Re: North Carolina

Check out Marion County (Shiftlet), NC. About 20 mi. NE of Charlotte, NC. Beautiful grass strip tucked into the foothills of the Smokies. Several Navions on the field. Might even have a place to build a home.
http://www.airnav.com/airport/9A9

Shiftlet Field near Marion (McDowell County) is about 60 NM NW of Charlotte. It is a great long and wide grass airport in a valley at the head of Lake James. I live between Charlotte and Shiftlet Field.