Flight Time–Fort Pierce

Today, I planned a flight to Belle Glade. The weather wasn’t all that good when we got up, but most airports were showing VFR conditions. Those that were not showing VFR were showing mist and/or fog. Belle Glade seemed like a good destination, and it would add a pin to my Visited Airports map.

When we arrived at the airport, one of our partners was just finishing up cleaning the plane after their flight. We talked for a few minutes, then shewed them away because we needed to get going so Susan would be back in time for another engagement.

We departed and flew south toward Lake Okeechobee. The clouds were decently high, but visibility was only about 10 miles. The air was very stable and silky smooth. As we approached the lake, we came upon a line of clouds at our altitude, so I climbed to 4,500 feet to get over them. After crossing the line of clouds, the visibility beyond and to the ground was blocked ahead by clouds. All I could see was grayness in front of me, so I made a slow turn to the right, around the top of a cloud and headed back the way we came.

Thick clouds near Lake Okeechobee

The flight was still young, and we didn’t want to return home yet, so I quickly planned a diversion to Fort Pierce (KFPR). KFPR is a controlled airport with Class D airspace. I was presently above their airspace, but I needed to get down soon if I wanted to land, but I also needed to be communicating with the Tower before entering their airspace. Susan quickly found the ATIS frequency on the map, and I jotted down the details on my kneeboard. I made a call to the tower at 8 miles out and we were cleared to enter the left downwind for runway 28L. I flew the pattern, landed, and exited the first taxiway. Then I was cleared to taxi back to runway 28L for my departure.

When I got back to runway 28L, the airport came to life. All of a sudden, it went from me being the only one landing to a line of arrivals, like you might see at Orlando. We waited as plane after plane landed. After about 15 minutes, we were finally cleared to takeoff.

We were told to take off straight out to the west to avoid interfering with planes landing and departing on runway 28R. After about a mile, Tower cleared us for the right turn to the north and we complied. As I climbed out of KFPR airspace, I had to continue a little west to avoid entering Vero Beach’s Class D airspace. At 3,000 feet, we turned toward directly toward the airport, then flew up the coast to Valkaria. Along the way, we got a nice little shower of rain.

Brightline train near Valkaria

Back at Valkaria, we topped off the tanks and put the plane in the hanger. As we wiped it down, we could hear the rumblings of distant thunder. By the time we left, there was visible lightning nearby. All in all, I’m glad we turned around when we did.

Our flight path is shown below, with Belle Glade at the bottom of the map.

Flight path

Flight Time: 1.8 hours
Total Time: 574 hours