Flying Across America - Home Run

Today, we started the final leg of our trip; Bowling Green, Kentucky to Melbourne, Florida. The direct route is a little over 500 nautical miles. At a speed of 140 knots, that should take over 3 1/2 hours of flight time. Since this leg was relatively short and the weather forecast looked pretty good, we decided to take it a little slower and sleep in a little later this morning, so I set my alarm for 6:30 am.

Co-Mar Aviation, Bowling Green, Kentucky

After breakfast at the hotel, we called Co-Mar to come take us back to the airport. The driver arrived quickly and we loaded the van. When we arrived at the airport, Todd worked on the flight plan while I pre-flighted the plane. As we were about to start the engine, a DC-9 arrived and needed our spot to park. We quickly taxied the plane to another spot to make room and to allow the oil to heat up - it was 46 degrees outside.

Once in the air, we found ourselves surrounded by tiny, puffy clouds at 4,000 feet. I maneuvered the plane through a large gap and continued climbing to 9,500 feet. Once leveled it, we continued to the southeast over what looked like cotton balls planted in neat rows from north to south.

We soon left Kentucky behind and entered Tennessee. The winds aloft were pushing us along at 180 knots over the ground. I saw Lookout Mountain standing above Chattanooga before leaving Tennessee behind.

In Georgia, the cloud layer below vanished and the sky was clear, except for haze. Visibility was probably 15 miles or less. Welcome to the south. :-) Also, I noticed the for the first time on the trip, I was starting to get pretty warm in the plane. The other legs were on an easterly heading, leaving me on the shady side. Today was more southerly, bathing me in sunlight the entire trip.

As we approached Atlanta, we asked for a clearance through the Class Bravo airspace. If the controller said no, we would have to fly many more miles to get around the large airspace. But instead, he cleared us through the heart of the airspace on a heading of 170 degrees and an altitude of 5,500 feet. On the descent, our ground speed exceeded 200 knots. That's crazy fast! We crossed directly over Atlanta airport. The funny thing was that even though it is the busiest airport in America, I only saw three jets in the air. Where was everybody?

After passing the airport, we flew past the Atlanta Speedway. I took a picture for my brother and uncle, who are both big NASCAR fans.

Altanta Speedway

Once clear of the Class Bravo airspace, I climbed back up to 7,500 feet for cooler and smoother air. Although we heard reports of turbulence below 6,000 feet, we didn't encounter any today.

Finally, the Atlantic coast emerged from the haze. I decided to detour from the route and flew directly to Jacksonville, Florida, then turned south and flew along the coastline. Last Saturday, I was flying over the Pacific coast; one week later, the Atlantic coast. Pretty cool, and amazing.

Jacksonville, Florida

Next up was Daytona Beach. We passed right by the Daytona speedway, where cars were putzing along the track at something less than 200 mph; can you imagine going that slow? :-)

Daytona Speedway

The remaining towns clicked off one by one as we headed south. Before long, we were calling Melbourne Tower. I was told to fly south along I-95, then follow a Piper in to runway 09L. I did as told, landed, and taxied up to Atlantic Jet Center ramp; the new home of N4857W.

Parked in Melbourne, Florida

Flightaware track from Bowling Green to Melbourne

The flight of a lifetime has come to an end. I am completely at ease and comfortable in my own house again. What will I ever do to top this??