Flight Time–Waycross, Georgia

 Today, we knew we wanted to go fly, but we didn't have a destination picked out. Looking at the weather forecasts, it was clear that we couldn't go south or west. Looking at destinations to the north, we decided to visit one of our favorite rail fan locations - Waycross, Georgia.

Due to the destination indecision, we got out of the house later than planned, and therefore got airborne late, too. Around 11:00 am, we left Valkaria and climbed to 6,500 feet. The flight was typical until we reached Jacksonville. At Jacksonville, the smoke from the Canadian fires combined with local weather to drastically drop visibility. For a short time, I considered turning around. As we continued towards Waycross, we descended to 4,500 feet and the visibility improved. By the time we passed Folkston, the sky was clear.

Waycross is a great place to rail fan because it has a large yard and intersecting tracks. We have visited by car twice, taking the drone with us on the most recent visit. The intersection is very busy and there's almost always something to see.

Rail yard "hump" in Waycross, Georgia

After crossing over the rail yard, we continued a few miles north to the airport and landed.

On the ground, we taxied towards the FBO. As we approached, we were directed to a parking spot and asked if we wanted fuel. We asked them to top off the tanks.

Andrew and Susan outside the Waycross Airport FBO

The FBO was small, but nice. We talked to the people running it for a few minutes and asked about nearby places to eat. They gave us some suggestions, then offered us the use of the courtesy car. We accepted the offer and were handed the keys to an old Ford Taurus. It wasn't in great shape, but it was free transportation, so we weren't complaining.

Susan drove us into town to LL Creek Bar & Grill. The place looked like an old mill and the parking lot was full. Inside, we found a lot of people and several parties. I was surprised by the number of youth baseball players that I saw.

After lunch, we drove to our favorite train viewing spot near the intersection. As expected, we were treated to a train moving slowly towards the yard. After 15 minutes, we returned to the airport.

Rail yard and intersection at Waycross, Georgia

Back in the plane, we took off and turned towards Jacksonville. As we approached, we tuned in Jacksonville Approach. We were high above their Class C airspace, so we didn't need to communicate with them, but I always listen in to hear what's happening. As we flew over, we heard calls from Delta, JetBlue, and Southwest planes arriving. Then we heard the controller advise the Southwest crew, "Traffic at 12:00, altitude indicating 5,500 feet, turn 15 degrees left." Given that we were at 5,500 feet, we figured the controller must be talking about us, so we looked out the right-side window and there we saw a Boeing 737 with its lights on heading straight towards us. It was several miles away and soon passed behind us. We continued watching it descend towards the coast, then get vectored to the runway.

Passing Jacksonville, we continued south along the coast. Near Flagler, the clouds started getting thick and soon we were under an overcast sky. We descended to maintain our cloud clearances. Soon, we were approaching the Daytona Class C airspace. Because of our lower altitude, we had to make a decision. We could contact Daytona Approach and ask to transition the airspace, or we could climb and fly over it. About that time, we heard another plane report its altitude and location. It was near us, but at an altitude that I thought was in the clouds, yet we could see it. I decided to go ahead and climb to fly over the airspace.

As we approached the Melbourne airport, we tuned in the Melbourne Tower. We heard the tower talking a pilot who had a British accent. We immediately knew it was a TUI flight. As we passed the airport, we saw one TUI Boeing 787 taxiing to Runway 9 Right, and another parked at the gate. Since I was still high above the top of the Melbourne airspace, I made a few slow S-turns just south of the airport so we could watch the first TUI takeoff and depart over the ocean.

Two TUI Boeing 787s at Melbourne Airport

A few minutes later, we were on the ground at Valkaria.