Flight Time–LaBelle

Today was aviation day with Andrew. We planned for breakfast at the airport, followed by a flight to central Florida.

I started the day by planning a flight to LaBelle. But there was also a pancake breakfast on the calendar. And the best part was that the breakfast was at Valkaria. I got Andrew up and we drove to the airport.

Breakfast was better than expected. We arrived around 8:45 and there was not much of a line. I thought we must be too early. My flight instructor was at the grill, cooking pancakes, but there was a table covered with additional covered trays. My instructor asked what kind of pancakes we wanted – I went with blueberry and Andrew chose chocolate chip. When the pancakes were ready, we continued to the table with the covered trays. I was surprised to see that they had bacon, sausage, and scrambled eggs. We got orange juice and walked inside. There we found dozens of people. Turns out we were not early at all.

After breakfast, we drove to the hangar and started the pre-flight routine. Once I was satisfied with the plane’s condition, we got in and taxied to runway 10. Soon we were airborne and heading south along the Indian River. As we turned to the West, Andrew captured a great picture of a rainbow arcing over our wing.

The flight was as expected. The clouds were low and limited us to 1,500 feet. Past Okeechobee, we encountered shafts of rain. Approaching LaBelle, it was difficult to find the airport. Unlike other airports in the area that are alone in fields, LaBelle is in town and surrounded by buildings.

Once on the ground, we taxied to the FBO and parked. The FBO looked nice on the outside, but was even nicer inside. We found that, like Okeechobee, half of the interior was a restaurant – Short Cakes. The counter was covered with pastries and there was an ice cream sign on the wall. If I hadn’t just had breakfast I would have surely got something. We looked at the menu and decided that no doubt we’d come back and eat some time.

We were then greeted by the airport manager. She told us about the town and other local attractions. I asked about the DC-3 parked on the other side of the airport and was about to go see it when a man came from the back and started talking to us. I mentioned that I’m looking forward to some flights up north to see the fall colors. He told us that Michigan is the best place to go for fall colors. Then he proceeded to tell us about many other Michigan attractions. He was clearly fond of Michigan… except for Detroit. I told him about our trip to Mackinac Island when I was about 10 years old. He laughed when I told him about my cousin asking about the liquid on the ground and the carriage driver’s response, “Radiator fluid”. (Mackinac Island has no motor vehicles. Transportation is by horse and buggy).

Even though the stories were interesting, we decided we needed to get going before the weather got worse. Heading back to Okeechobee, we found more shafts of rain and had to make a pretty good diversion to get around them. Meanwhile, the iPad was complaining about being too hot. Even so, Foreflight was more stable than usual, only crashing twice during the flight.