Flight Time–West Palm Beach

Today I wanted to fly to another new-to-me airport and the weather forecast looked pretty good to the south. I chose to fly to a small airport just south of Palm Beach International Airport.

The flight started as usual. One difference is that I made sure that my iPad mini was connected to the ADS-B device before I started to taxi. I departed Valkaria on Runway 32 and turned to the south. Once clear of the Valkaria traffic pattern, I contacted Orlando Approach and asked for flight following to KLNA. Approach asked me what altitude I wanted and I asked for 5,500 feet. I flew along the Indian River until I passed Stuart, then decided to pass by a large cloud to the west. Soon after making this decision, Approach told me that my flight following was cancelled and to squawk VFR. I was caught off guard, as I didn’t request to cancel flight following, and now was when I needed it most. Approach quickly came back on the radio and asked if it was me who wanted to cancel flight following and I said, “No, I would prefer to keep it.” Approach apologized and told me to keep my squawk code. I was pleased with this decision.

Soon afterward, Approach told me to follow the shoreline at 1,000 feet or below. Luckily for me, there were no clouds on the south side of the large cloud that I was bypassing, so I was able to easily descend clear of the clouds.

Clouds beginning to tower above me

I descended to 900 feet and followed the shoreline past West Palm Beach. Along this route, I flew over the infamous Palm Beach Country Club.

Lost Tree Club golf course, West Palm Beach

A little further south, I flew past Mar-a-Lago Club and Palm Beach International Airport.

Palm Beach International Airport

A few miles further south, Approach told me that a frequency change was approved, but to maintain my squawk code until I landed. I made my first position report to Palm Beach County Park, but was surprised to hear no one else making traffic reports to that airport. I noticed a few other planes near the airport on Foreflight, but still no one was reporting to the airport that I was flying to.

There were, however, planes reporting to Lantana Traffic. I soon realized that Lantana Airport also had Runways 10 and 28 and one of the planes was on downwind to Runway 28. I was able to identify this plane by his icon on Foreflight, so I concluded that Palm Beach County Park and Lantana were the same airport. I updated my position reports to Lantana Traffic and landed on Runway 28.

After landing, I rolled to the intersecting runway, turned off Runway 28, then turned onto Taxiway Charlie. I reset my transponder to VFR and taxied back to Runway 28. I was number one for take-off and was soon back in the air.

Once clear of the traffic pattern, I called Palm Beach Approach and asked for flight following back to Valkaria. I was given a new squawk code and told to fly west, avoiding the tall antennas in that direction. I stayed low because I had the uneasy feeling that I would bust the Class C airspace if I exceeded 1,600 feet. But then I convinced myself that I was not told to stay outside the airspace and that I was talking to Approach, so I was good to keep climbing. Even so, I stayed below 1,600 feet until I was outside the Class C ring before I continued climbing up to 2,500 feet. I could not climb any higher due to the clouds, and they were too tightly spaced to find a gap to fly up through.

I stayed below the clouds nearly all the way to Stuart, then I made a change. I so blue sky along the coast, so I turned towards it. I had to descend to 2,200 feet to get below the last cloud, then I was in the clear. I started climbing to 3,500 feet. I needed to get above 2,500 feet to fly over the Stuart Class D airspace. Right as I was starting my climb, Approach told me to turn left to a heading of 280 for departing Stuart traffic. Uh, I couldn’t do that without entering the clouds or entering Class D airspace without permission, so I responded, “Unable due to clouds.” Approach responded quickly and said something unintelligible and I continued to climb straight ahead. I could see that the departing traffic was not going to be a factor.

I followed the coast the rest of the way back home. Just south of Sebastian, Approach told me to stay at least five miles east of the airport to avoid parachute jumpers. I replied, “Will do.” A few minutes later, I was told to squawk VFR and frequency change was approved. I tuned in Valkaria Traffic and commenced setting up my pattern entry for Runway 32.

After landing, I taxied to the fuel pump to top the tanks. There was a Cessna 152 parked at the pump and two girls were struggling with the hose. I wasn’t sure if they were trying to get it out or put it away. The struggle went on and on, with both practically climbing into the box for better leverage. Eventually they succeeded at whatever it was they were trying to accomplish, and they got back into the plane. Soon, they started the engine and taxied away. I noticed that something was hanging from the right side of the plane, so I called them on the radio, but got no response. I tried again a minute later, but still no response. I decided that I tried my best, then taxied to the pump. Before I shut down the engine, one of the girls thanked me for letting her know about the item hanging from the plane. Yay!

The flight track is shown below.

Flight track to and from West Palm Beach

Flight Time: 2.6 hours
Total Time: 632 hours