Thoughts & Ramblings: Flight Time

This weekend, I planned a flight to Panama City to see my cousin’s new place. Unfortunately, the weather has not been cooperative. Both days, there’s been a AIRMET for low clouds covering most of the gulf coast of the US. In addition to this, it has been foggy in the morning here in Melbourne. I cancelled the Saturday plan but was determined to give it a try today.

Susan and I left home, in the fog, and drove to the airport. Soon after leaving the house, we were shocked to find that the fog was actually thicker the further south we drove. It was so thick, we could barely see the runners running the Melbourne Marathon along US 1. The fog at the airport was not much thinner.

We knew we had at least an hour to kill before we could think about departing, so we went for a walk. As we passed around the end of one of the hangars, we saw a cool Experimental aircraft sitting half way out of its hangar. It had Revo written on the tail and was made from Carbon Fiber. I’d never seen anything like it before. We walked up and started a conversation with the owner. Turns out he had built this plane himself from his own designs. He has his own company called Saurenman Aero Works. He told us how he used to work on Sean Tucker’s aerobatic planes, how he strapped a jet engine onto a Waco, and how he was part of a team that took two Yak 55s and attached them together to make a Yak 110. He also told us how he became the owner of a Sukhoi aerobatic plane, even though he hated it after flying it for the first time. He went on to tell us about his wife’s Pitts S2B and how she made him go talk to Piper about a possible job, which to his surprise, they offered him. Needless to say, we found him very interesting. He even suggested that I talk to Piper about their currently open Senior Test Pilot job, even though I have no test pilot experience. The theme of the conversation came down to, "Don't say no to opportunities".

The Revo

The Yak 110

Meanwhile, over an hour had passed and the fog was now gone. I checked the time and decided to go to Perry rather than Panama City, due to the time available to get there and back before dark.

We departed the airport at 11:15 and turned northwest towards Orlando. I contacted Orlando Approach with the hope of getting another Class B transition over Orlando International Airport. After a few back-and-forth questions and answers, Approach was able to grant my wish. The problem was, he wanted me to cross the airport at 3,500 feet, but there was a cloud layer at that altitude, so I asked for higher or lower. He asked if 3,000 feet would work, and I said yes. I may have spoken too soon because as I approached that altitude, I realized that we would be just 100 feet below the clouds. As I came to this realization, Approach told me to descend to 2,500 feet. It was like he could read my mind.

Orlando

Once clear of the Class B airspace, we were cleared to resume on navigation, so I turned toward Lake Apopka and climbed up to 4,500 feet. We passed by the familiar landmarks and airports on our way towards Perry.

As we approach Cross City, we saw that a change was coming. There was now a nearly solid undercast ahead of us along our route and I could not see an end to it. I tried to get the weather for Perry on Foreflight, but there were no towers available to provide us with ADS-B In weather data. I then tuned the Cross City automated weather frequency, and it was reporting clouds at 1,400 feet. It was now decision time.

I continued to fly towards Perry as I pondered what to do. I didn’t like the idea of flying over clouds with no visual reference to the ground and I didn’t know if it was clear enough to land at Perry, which was still many mile away. I also didn’t like the reported bases of the clouds over Cross City. I decided to turn around and go see just how low the bases of the clouds actually were. As I did a slow 360-degree turn to the left, I discovered that the bases were actually around 2,000 feet, so I had no problem getting below them and into the traffic pattern to land.

After landing, I pulled up to the fuel pumps and shut down the plane. A man came walking out from the FBO and asked if we’d like help fueling the plane. I said, “Sure”. As he filled the tanks, Susan and I gathered our things and put the sunshades in the windshield. We walked into the FBO and asked about nearby diners and the man gave us some ideas and handed us the keys to the crew car. Then he mentioned that we might have to jiggle the driver’s door to get it to open. The joys of the typical courtesy car LOL.

David outside the Cross City FBO

After lunch at the Taste of Dixie Diner, we returned to the airport and prepared for departure. For the return trip, I planned to take a little detour to pass over Tavares, Mt. Dora, and UCF. Based on this, I did not get flight following. Instead, I descended below the Class B airspace and flew along at 1,500 feet, where I wanted.

Mt. Dora

The University of Central Florida

After passing UCF and the Bithlo Towers, I turned direct to Melbourne. As we flew over Melbourne, Susan said something about the Renaissance Fair. Apparently, we flew right over it.

The Brevard Renaissance Fair

We were on the ground at 4:40. After topping off the tanks, I taxied back towards the hangar. Along the way we passed by a family in a tail dragger airplane. We recognized the car from our chat this morning. I continued and we put the plane away in the hangar.

While driving back to exit the gate, we saw that the family was back at the hangar and the Pitts S2B was out of the hangar. I quickly turned around to see what was going on. Turns out that they were about to go do some aerobatics, so we stuck around and watched them take off, fly around, do a high speed pass, then land. I’m sure it was a thrill for the non-pilot that got to ride along in the front seat!