Flight Time–Perry

For today's flight, I decided to go to Perry. This was our intended fuel stop for the flight to Panama City on February 9, which was diverted to Cross City, due to low clouds. The weather forecast today was nearly perfect, so no issues with clouds were expected.

Susan and I departed Valkaria at 10:40 and headed north. Near Daytona, I contacted Daytona Approach to pick up Flight Following. I avoided contacting Orlando Approach because I wanted to take the northern route, and Orlando has been routing me to the west lately. At Flagler Beach, we turned to the west, crossing Palatka and Gainesville. Daytona Approach handed us off to Jacksonville Approach, who later handed us off to Jacksonville Center.

Somewhere along the way, I noticed something unusual. The Directional Gyroscope (DG), which is used to show magnetic heading and must be manually adjusted to match the compass periodically, was off by over 40 degrees. Normally, it is only off be 5 degrees. Like I said, unusual. I then looked at the vacuum gauge and it was showing zero. Soon after this, the DG started spinning rapidly as it lost vacuum. Luckily, I have been carrying static stickers in my kneeboard pocket ever since I started taking IFR training back in Seattle, many years ago. I pulled one out and covered the DG so that I wouldn't be tempted to believe the false information that it was now showing.

As we approached Perry, I cancelled Flight Following and began to descend from 6,500 feet. Susan asked me to descend slowly to avoid pressure in her head, so I turned to the north to circle Perry. As we came around the west side of the airport, I realized that I was still too high, so I did a right 270-degree turn to lose more altitude.

Once on the ground, I pulled up to the fuel pump and waited for a guy to finish topping off his twin engine plane. We waited so long that another pilot pulled up behind me as I waited.

After filling up our tanks, we parked the plane and walked to the FBO. The building was very nice but completely deserted. We had a quick snack then left the building. We had enough time to do a bit of exploring, and there was a nice park and a Technical College nearby.

Perry-Foley FBO

Our first stop was Forest Capital Museum State Park. Like many state parks in Florida, there was a fee to enter. We entered without paying to take a quick look around. The main building, although deserted, contained lots of information about the first settlers to the area. Logging Cypress trees was the big industry back in the day. A little later, another couple came in and Susan asked them if they had change for a $5 bill. They did, so Susan took the ones so we could pay our entrance fee on the way out.

Outside the main building was the Cracker Homestead. It included a house and several other buildings that would typically be found together in a settlement. We casually checked it out, then departed the park, but not before Susan could get in a bit of swing time at the playground.

Cracker Homestead

Next, we walked across a large field to the Big Bend Technical College. I was still hungry, so I asked if they had a cafeteria. Unfortunately, they did not. We took a quick look around, then returned to the airport.

We were back in the air at 3:30. I climbed to 5,500 feet and contacted Jacksonville Center. We were then handed off to Jacksonville Approach, then Orlando Approach. For this flight, I was planning to fly south to Kissimmee, then head east to Melbourne. Approach had different plans for us. We were told to descend to 4,500 feet, but I told the controller that I was unable due to clouds and suggested 3,500 feet. He was fine with that altitude. He then started giving me vectors to cross through the Class B airspace. First was 140 degrees, then 150 degrees. These headings made me wonder if he was going to take us over Kissimmee, but then he told me to turn to 85 degrees, which turned us back towards Orlando International Airport. Remember earlier when I mentioned that the DG was not working. Therefore, I had to rely on the compass for my heading. That is not too much of an issue up high, but down below the clouds, it is nearly impossible. The ball inside the compass swings wildly with every bump and twist caused by the turbulence at that altitude. For the next 20 minutes, I focused intently on keeping the plane on the prescribed heading and altitude. Finally, on the east side of the airspace, I was handed off to the next Orlando Approach controller and cleared direct to Melbourne.

Terminal C at Orlando International Airport

The next 30 miles or so was stress free - or at least it felt that way after dealing with maintaining heading with a compass. That was all about to change as we approached Valkaria. I dialed up the automated information for Melbourne and it said that winds were from 360 degrees at 19 knots, with gusts to 24 knots. That would mean we'd be landing with a pretty strong 40-degree crosswind. That works out to be about 12 knots of crosswind, which is pretty close to the maximum that a Cherokee can handle. I came in a little bit fast to ensure that I'd have good aileron and rudder authority. As a result, we landed long but safely. That was not how I expected the flight to end, given how nice it was most of the day.

The flight tracks are shown below.

Valkaria to Perry

Perry to Valkaria

Flight Time: 5.2 hours
Total Time: 687 hours