April 13, 14, 15, 2018
On Friday, April 13, 2018, my friend Rick and I were flown by Chuck in his Mooney from Houston to Lakeland, Florida, to enjoy a day and a half of the Sun-N-Fun Air Show. The flight there and back was probably as instructive and enjoyable as actually walking around Sun-n-Fun, checking out the vendors and watching the airshow…. if not more so.
This track shows the route we took getting there.
This gives you an idea of our altitude and speed (the ‘valley’ in the middle is where we landed to refuel):
We left when it was still quite dark.
We flew over a low cloud base just after take-off and it was spooky to realize a glowing area below us were the lights from Galveston, trying to shine up through the clouds. Soon enough, we saw the moon rising and not long after, the sun.
Finally up at 9,500 feet, we cruised east as the growing light revealed various areas on the ground.
We decided to land at Jack Edwards National Airport near Gulf Shores, Alabama, to refuel.
With a full tank, we again headed east, flying over the white sand beaches that range from Gulf Shores to well past Destin and Panama City, made a turn to the southeast just south of Wakulla Springs and kept an eye out for traffic.
When we got to the area near our destination — Lakeland Airport — there was a very specific track we were required to follow, which avoided other traffic and other air activities. Chuck made it look easy! We got close and spotted the giant green and red dots on the taxiway (which, today, was being used for the runway). We made our turns, then a quick final to land just past the green dot, and we’re there!
We had hardly gotten out of the plane before we started to see all kinds of interesting aircraft flying around. It was a very enjoyable day and a half.
This being the first time any of us had flown to Sun-n-Fun, we had heard that getting out of the airport when the show is over can be quite dificult… and long! So, our strategy was to re-position the plane from Lakeland to a nearby airport called Plant City Airport. Plant City is actually closer to our hotel, so getting there at departure time would be easy. So, all three of us piled back into the plane on Saturday afternoon, and waited for the “window” that would open soon, letting us fly out. Well, apparently, a lot of other pilots had the same idea. We ended up being number 95 to take-off, and there were at least 100 other planes behind us. But it could have been worse… we just got lucky and got ahead of a Coast Guard C-130 which slowed things down for those behind it.
We had spent half a day on Friday and all day on Saturday at the air show, so we decided that was enough and we would plan to head back the next morning. But there was a large cold front heading our way and it looked uncertain as to whether we would be able to head back to Houston. Rick had to be back Monday morning, so he took a commercial flight (they can usually fly over a cold front) back to Houston. So Chuck and I planned out next moves. We figured we should get as far into our journey as we could before having to land, so we headed for Lake City in northern Florida, landed there and waited out the weather.
The front came in about an hour after we landed, rained a bit, and there were some strong winds, but nothing bad. We waited another hour for the worst parts to pass over and get beyond us, then jumped back in the plane, and started heading west. Chuck and his plane are both equipped for IFR flight (when you can’t see the ground, basically, due to some clouds or weather). That helped a little, getting out of Lake City at least an hour ahead of VFR conditions (where you can see the ground). We bounced around at lower altitudes because, well, when you fly IFR you have to do what they tell you to do. Eventually, the air smoothed out a little, and we got to fly a little higher, and the major bumps were behind us. We were also having to fly a bit slower, so the return trip was longer. Overall, it had been a long day!
This is our return route:
As you can see, when we finally were lining up for our final descent to the home airport, it was dark. Yep, long day!
This is what our altitude and speed looked like on the return trip (the valleys are Lake City, then Picayune airports):
It was a fun trip and (for me) very educational. I learned a lot more about IFR flight and flight following, and even if the air show had been a bust (it wasn’t, it was very cool, too) then just the long flight in the Mooney was a great experience.
Note: If you enjoyed this or any of my other blog entries, I suggest you subscribe to this blog so that you are automatically notified when I make a new entry. Go to the top of this page, and look along the left side for the subscription field.