Flight Time–Williston

The criteria for today’s flight included 1) about 1.5 hours away and 2) cheap gas. Williston fit the bill perfectly and was also a never-flew-to airport. The planned route included crossing the Orlando metro area between Orlando and Sanford, below the Orlando Class B airspace. We’ll see later if that came to pass.

Susan and I departed Valkaria around 2:45 and climbed over Melbourne before contacting Orlando Approach. Soon, I was told to fly a heading of 300 degrees. As I approached Highway 528, I was told to turn to a heading of 270 degrees. At that point, Approach was vectoring me through the Class B airspace, directly over Orlando International Airport. We passed south of the power plant and the city, then crossed over the northern end of the airport.

The power plant north of Highway 528

Downtown Orlando

Once we cleared the west side of the Class B airspace, I was told to resume own navigation and turned towards Lake Apopka. From there, we flew over Leesburg and Ocala before reaching Williston.

The traffic pattern was very busy when we approached Williston. There was a plane off my left wing that was reporting that he was entering the 45 for left traffic Runway 23. I knew it was him because his N number was showing on my traffic screen on Foreflight. I announced that I would follow him. When we entered the downwind leg, I realized that we were number 4 to land, so I had to extend my downwind at least two miles past the airport.

Once we landed, I took the first taxiway to the right and headed towards the FBO. I was looking for the fuel pumps, which I had identified on Google Maps during preflight, but they weren't where I thought they'd be (I checked when we got home and realized that I had mis-identified the pumps). I slowly taxied around the ramp and was surprised when a Cessna Citation pull out directly in front of me. "How rude!", I thought. I'm sure he had places he needed to be, and he didn't have time to taxi behind a slow-moving Cherokee.

Susan spotted the FUEL sign, and I headed in that direction. The pumps were located behind a hangar, where no one would think to look for them. Good thing they put up that sign. As I topped the tanks, Susan went into the FBO. I finished filling the tanks by the time she came back, so I went to see the FBO, too.

The Williston FBO

Walking past the FBO, I was surprised to see a hangar full of sweet business jets. And here I thought Williston would be some small, quiet, dusty, podunk airport in the middle of nowhere.

The jets at Williston

Back in the plane, we took off and retraced our flight back towards Lake Apopka. I expected to make the turn east just south of Sanford. I contacted Orlando Approach while over the lake and was vectored for another Orlando International Airport Class B transition.

Orlando International Airport

Once we cleared the Class B airspace, I was told to fly direct to Melbourne. I turned and enjoyed the peaceful calm of the golden hour, as the sun slowly dropped behind our right wing. I cancelled flight following as we approached Melbourne, then descended into Valkaria. We landed about ten minutes before sunset.

The flight tracks are shown below.

Valkaria to Williston

Williston to Valkaria

Flight Time: 3.2 hours
Total Time: 673 hours