Flight Time–Ocala

Today, I chose to fly to Ocala. I updated and briefed an existing flight plan, then headed to the airport. I pre-flighted the plane and was in the air at 12:25. I climbed to 6,500 feet to get on top of a scattered layer of clouds. I flew north along the east side of the Orlando Class B airspace, then turned to the west as I passed Sanford. The restricted airspace R-2910 was active, so I descended down to 3,500 feet to fly below the northwest side of the Orlando Class B airspace. From here onward, the flight was moderately turbulent.

As I approached Ocala, I tuned the ATIS frequency to get the airport information, then contacted Ocala Tower at 10 miles out. Tower told me to call back at four miles out. During those six miles, I heard Tower giving hand-holding instructions to a student pilot. Tower informed him that they did not have radar and repeatedly gave him turning instructions. In the meantime, there were two other aircraft in the pattern west of the airport and a jet on a straight in approach to Runway 18. In my mind, I expected to enter a left downwind on the east side of the airport.

This is when the confusion began. I told Tower that I was four miles southeast of the airport. Tower told me to continue my heading, and he would advise my turns. I asked for clarification, saying, "Do you want me to continue northwest, or turn to the north?" Tower said something about me being southeast, then started talking to another plane in the area. I continued northwest, thinking that he wanted me to enter the right traffic on the west side of the airport. I was just about to cross the airport when Tower told me to remain on the east side of the airport and enter a left base for Runway 18. I made a hard right turn and joined the left downwind - which is what I expected to fly from the beginning. Tower then called my base turn, and I was number two behind a Cessna doing a touch and go. As I neared the numbers on short final, Tower told me to go around, so I added full power and started to climb. Tower then told me to turn left as I passed the tower. I turned left and looked back at the runway, where I saw a jet on short final. Tower apparently decided to make me go around rather than the jet. I entered the left downwind leg again and was told to turn base and follow a plane on right base. I located the other traffic and followed it in for landing. I cannot believe that an airport of this size and with this mix of training planes and private jets does not have radar and do a better job of managing traffic.

Tower told me to turn left at the next taxiway, hold short of Taxiway A, and contact ground. I stopped just short of Taxiway A and contacted ground. I told him that I wanted to taxi to the self-serve fuel pumps. He asked if I was familiar with the airport. I said that I could see the pumps on the north ramp. He gave me taxi instructions and a tip to take the service road directly to the pump. I was quite pleased with his clear and helpful instructions. To give the tower operator a break, he was handling about 6 planes in the air and two on the ground when I arrived.

I topped the tanks and taxied south between the hangars to the ramp outside the FBO. I parked near another Cherokee and shut down the plane. When I got out, a line guy came up to me. I asked about my parking spot, and he said he'd move the plane later. I said let's just move it now. He helped me turn it around and put it in his preferred spot. I'm not sure why he didn't just marshal me there in the first place.

Sheltair FBO at Ocala International Airport

As I walked to the FBO, I noticed a strong horse theme. The funny thing is, I had anticipated this. Last week, I downloaded the Ocala airport for Microsoft Flight Simulator. The simulated version made mention of the horse theme and even included the lawn jockeys that are standing near the entrance.

Collection of lawn jockeys

Collection of lawn jockeys

I walked into the FBO and talked to the receptionist. I told her that I already bought gas, then handed her the $5 "security fee" that I was told about when I called before the flight.

Inside the FBO

After visiting the restroom and filling my water bottle, I headed outside. I walked across the road to the Ocala Breeders Sales. This place had over a dozen long stables, each containing at least 40 stalls. There was an occasional worker, cleaning out a stall. I walked past a set of tiki huts and what I assume is the sales area, where people come to show and bid on Thoroughbred horses. I ran into a lady on a smoke break and asked her about the place. She told me that they have about five big sales a year.

Back at the airport, I planned my return flight. I decided to add a quick stop at Inverness. I had visited Inverness last year while researching the Mesa Pilot Development program. At the time, I was considering joining their program to build 1,500 hours of flight time and be guaranteed a spot in their next regional airline pilot class. During that visit, the office was full of time-building pilots, and the hangar was packed full of training planes. I eventually decided not to join their program. It turns out that that was a good decision because they closed the facility and moved to Arizona.

I was back in the air at 3:30. I climbed to 2,500 feet and flew to Inverness. As I approached and flew the pattern, I noticed that the airport looked dead. I landed, taxied back, and departed. I climbed to 5,500 feet and flew towards Winter Haven. I soon realized that 5,500 feet was right at the tops of the clouds, so I continued climbing to 7,500 feet. I was back on the ground at Valkaria at 5:00.

After doing the normal post-flight cleaning, I was about to head home. I locked the hangar and, as I walked towards my car, I noticed another car a few hangars down. It was the owner/builder of a Van's RV-7. I've talked to him a few times over the years. He recently finished the build and has been doing the required test flights. He saw me and asked if I wanted to go up for a flight. I immediately responded, "Absolutely!".

I had never flown in a homebuilt plane before. I've only flown in a couple tail draggers over the years. This was a pretty rare opportunity that I didn't want to miss. He showed me how to get in and strap in, then started his preflight. Being an experimental aircraft, it does not require expensive, certificated instrumentation. It had two Dyson screens, an autopilot, a NAV/COM radio, and an old Garmin GPS.

David standing beside the Van's RV-7

Once up and running, he asked me if I wanted to taxi the plane. I had never taxied a tail dragger before, so it was an interesting learning experience. Being a tail dragger, you cannot see what is directly in front of the plane. To compensate for this, you must do small "S" turns to get the full sight picture. I taxied to Runway 14, then gave the controls back to the owner. He took off, then let me fly. I climbed to 5,000 feet, then did a 180 turn to the left, followed by a 180 turn to the right. He asked me if I was familiar with the Garmin 430, and I said that I was. He took over the controls while I tuned in the Treasure VOR, set the CDI to VLOC, and he set the Garmin as the input on his Dyson display. The HSI updated to green and he turned the course knob to center the needle on the HSI. He verified that the needle did as one would expect, then I showed him a few other 430 tricks, like pages and sub-pages, including the Nearest pages. I found Valkaria on the Nearest Airports page and clicked Direct. I changed the CDI back to GPS and the HSI on the Dyson screen turned magenta and centered on the direct course. He approached the airport, then maneuvered the pattern. He did one low approach, then came around and landed. Afterwards, I was bubbling over with excitement. I wish the Cherokee had a tenth of the instrumentation that this plane has.

The flight tracks are shown below.

Valkaria to Ocala

Ocala to Inverness to Valkaria

Flight Time: 3.6 hours
Total Time: 716 hours