Planning a flight during the summer in Florida can be challenging. A typical day starts off very nice and clear, but around lunchtime, the cumulous clouds start building and by early afternoon, there’s usually one of more thunderstorms nearby. If you’re lucky, these don’t last long, and it clears up again by late afternoon. With this in mind, I planned an early morning flight to Punta Gorda, which is located on the Gulf Coast, near Fort Myers.
Andrew and I ate a small snack for breakfast and were at the airport by 8:00 am. We did the normal preflight and were in the air by 8:40. We climbed to 4,500 feet and enjoyed the clear, smooth air. The only clouds were high cirrus and a few distant cumulous. The flight took just over an hour. At ten miles out, I contacted Tower and was told to report entering the downwind for Runway 15. I flew the pattern and landed, then exited the runway on Taxiway Charlie.
| Approach to Runway 15 at Punta Gorda |
During planning, Andrew noted that Allegiant Airlines flies from Punta Gorda. We were very surprised to see so many Allegiant planes parked at the gate.
| Line of Allegiant Airlines planes |
After stopping on Taxiway Charlie, I contacted Ground. Ground cleared us to taxi to the Air Center. We didn’t really know what to expect because both Google Maps and Bing Maps show the location of the Air Center as an empty field, but on approach, it was clear that there was a nice facility waiting to be explored.
After the long taxi, we were marshalled into a parking space a few spots from a private jet. After shutting down, another private jet parked a few spots down from us.
| Air Center at Punta Gorda - air side |
The Air Center is practically new and is very nice. At the front desk, I gave my information and accepted getting gas in lieu of paying the $15 parking fee. Andrew and I looked around, bought some snacks from the vending machine, and chilled for a little while on the couch.
| Air Center at Punta Gorda - street side |
While we were waiting and enjoying our snacks, the crew from the recently arrived private jet came in. I couldn’t help myself and asked who he was flying for. This led into an interesting conversation about the amazing performance of the Embraer Phenom 300, his flying career in the Air Force, and the catching of a 19-pound catfish on a recent fishing excursion in Alabama, complete with video evidence.
After talking for about 15 minutes, we decided to get moving before the skies got too cloudy. We did our preflight and started taxing just after 11:00. We departed Runway 15 and turned to the west to get a view of the city.
| Departing Punta Gorda |
| Punta Gorda, and Port Charlotte beyond |
We circled over Punta Gorda while climbing to 5,500 feet and turned back towards the airport. Just east of the airport, we flew past a large cloud that was growing directly over a small fire in the fields below. The cloud was an odd combination of white and orange and had blueish smoke around its base.
| Large, smoky cloud over a fire |
As we continued east, the sky was now filling with small, but growing cumulous clouds. Most were still below us, but some were higher and required some maneuvering to get around. In the distance, we could see the makings of a thunderstorm sitting somewhere between Sebastian and Vero Beach. We did not want to get too close, so we altered our path to the north and made a wide arc around it.
By this time, the clouds were now getting pretty big and the gaps between them were getting smaller. When the next large gap presented itself, I started descending to get below the cloud bases. Off to the east, it was clearly raining pretty hard.
| Thunderstorm over Sebastian |
As we approached Valkaria, it sounded like the pattern was full of planes. Our traffic display showed too many triangles to count. I decided to overfly the airport at 2,500 feet and continued to the beach. This little extension of the flight allowed enough time for several planes to depart the area and now there were only two remaining in the pattern. I entered the pattern and landed on Runway 14. We topped off the tanks and returned to the hangar, all while we heard thunder rumbling in the distance to our south.
When we got home, Andrew noticed an article about a computer glitch that had caused the grounding of flights across the country. That explains the large number of Allegiant planes at Punta Gorda.
The flight tracks are shown below.
| Valkaria to Punta Gorda |
| Punta Gorda to Valkaria |
Flight Time: 3.3 hours
Total Time: 607 hours
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