Don’t shoot me but, I just stumbled across this article, as to how far away you could see the Charlotte skyline. Granted it is a bit taller than Raleigh’s, so it sticks out more… but, it mentions being able to see it from as far as 100 miles away (Mount Mitchell). Interesting article. And it agrees with me, under the right conditions, you can see it from Pilot Mountain too. 
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Hate to be the bearer of bad news but:
Mt Mitchell to Charlotte - 88 miles
Mt Mitchell to Raleigh - 200 miles
Grandfather Mountain (MacRae Peak) to Charlotte - 81 miles
Grandfather Mountain (MacRae Peak) to Raleigh - 179 miles
Raleigh is simply too far away. More than twice the distance. Even Moore’s Knob in Hanging Rock is still 100 miles away, and that’s half the elevation of Grandfather.
However
I think you probably can see Raleigh from Occoneechee Mountain, roughly 33 miles, and what’s amazing is you shouldn’t need to get on the tower.
The power line cut lines up perfectly with the direction of Raleigh (my line is centered on the PNC tower). So here’s a fun little project for someone here with a good zoom lens. Get up there and try it!
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i think you can see the skyline from the north raliegh land fill hill-park.
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This is not far away but tonight Raleigh looked real good driving in from Knightdale on New Bern Ave . just before Trawick Rd . Between Corporation Pwy . & Trawick Rd.
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Underrated spot…especially at sun rise and sunset you can see just how reflective the PNC tower is
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Another great skyline view is to go to the top floor of the parking deck on the Raleigh side of Raleigh / Duke Hospital on Wake Forest Rd . Very good day & night .
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Leaving Wendell on I-87 you can see the top of PNC just after Exit 9 outside of 540 then you get a solid view of the big 3 buildings just inside 540.
Straight line distance of about 9 miles.
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Update: Success!
You can indeed see the three tallest buildings in downtown Raleigh from Occoneechee Mountain. The visibility was just bad the last time I tried. So there you go. 33 miles. Is that the furthest? I believe we can actually go much farther.
Moore’s Knob in Hanging Rock State Park is 101.33 mi away at an elevation of 2,579 ft. There appear to be no hills or obstacles in the way. The 3 tallest buildings would be very small on the horizon, and could only be seen on a super clear day with a good zoom lens. However, I’m a bit more confident now that it can be done.
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This is amazing! Hope you do get to check out Raleigh from Hanging Rock, you’ll need a very clear day.
For a spot closer than that, but further than Occoneechee, how about Cane Creek Mountain?
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Agreed! I checked out the new park at Cane Creek Mountain and it was pretty nice. They plan to put an observation tower open to visitors at the top of one of the peaks, and you can bet I will try that.
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So there is more to the saga. I actually already made an attempt on Moore’s Knob. How did that go?
Demonstrating the level of zoom I have to work with currently with my humble pocket cam.
Winston-Salem and Greensboro were just barely visible in the soupy haze.
So there was no chance of seeing Raleigh. 
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Having grown up in Mt. Airy, you tend to get the clearest skies during the winter, especially after a strong cold front moves through (IE yesterday). From Pilot Mountain, you can easily see Mt. Rogers in SW VA and the CLT skyline is also visible from there.
I haven’t been to Hanging Rock since I was a kid, but if you had the day off, today may be a good chance for long distance visibility.
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Unfortunately I do not think can get to top of Pilot Mountain due to recent forest fire and unless has been rebuilt the stairway to top of nob is gone. 
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The access to the knob has been gone for a very long time. I’ve never been up there, but my dad has been before I was born. In theory, folks have found ways to get up there, but if you are caught, you will be fined (and banned?) as there are endangered plants up on the knob (and it is really freaking dangerous).
When we were up for Christmas the fire damage is pretty bad on the southern/southeastern face of the mountain, but didn’t look bad on the western/northern side. Then again, we didn’t go to the park, just drove past on 52.
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Sadly, looks like all of the summit access is closed until further notice (not exactly a shock)
Last time I made it to top of Nob was in 1970’s (do not recall exact year just a group of collage boys making day trip and knowing we where invertible so climbed up 
) and stairway was in really bad shape steps missing and many were rotten, several times we had to cling to rock face to get past damage. My understanding is the original reason given for the stairway being completely removed is due to careless people falling off top. Willing to bet “endangered plants” reason was added later, as I seem to recall there was a proposal to rebuild stairs and build fence around top to keep people away from edges.
On clear day I have been able to see Charlotte from several locations around Boone, that’s 85 crow miles. But can only see upper part of tallest buildings.
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Keep in mind you’ll lose approx 8" of height per mile of distance due to the curvature of the earth (assuming no other fresnel zone impedance and equal ASL on either end).
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There you go triggering the Flat Earthers! 
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You can see Charlotte easily from many peaks in western NC.
From Hawksbill Mountain (74 mi). For 100 mi from Moore’s Knob and a shorter elevation, and shorter buildings, I would only expect to see the tips. Moore’s Knob is a much better candidate than Pilot since it’s higher, slightly closer, and the top is open.
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Hawksbill Mountain, NC
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/north-carolina/hawksbill-mountain-trail
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