LMEA Flying Club pilot Saves Xmas event for Kids at KLZU
December 2007
Doug Wood, RJ Schramm

Santa's helicopter pilot was not IFR rated Saturday morning, so they had to return to KFTY and drive to KLZU for the special occasion. Being at the right place at the right time, Doug Wood, LMEA Flying Club member saved the day by taxiing across the field to pick up Santa, thus allowing him to arrive at the Flying Machine restaurant via aircraft.

Golfing at Kentucky Dam Village State Park
May 2007
Jeff Leonard

On May 20, 2007 I headed up to Kentucky Dam Village State Park (M34). It is located on Kentucky Lake about 20 miles from Paducah. This is one of at least three Kentucky State Parks that have airports that are part of the park. I did a quick hop up to Jasper, picked up my dad, and we headed out. Even though the weather was great for the flight, I filed IFR direct and was given as filed. The flight took us directly over Chattanooga and Nashville. After this, they changed our course and sent us to Clarksville. This is due to an area around Campbell AFB that is a combination of Alert Area, MOA, and Restricted area. The restricted area was hot and this was the reason for the reroute. If flying VFR, I definitely recommend flight following to help with navigating this area. I canceled IFR when we had the airport in sight and the controller with Memphis Center signed off by saying, "Don't eat too much!" More on this later...

At Kentucky Dam Village, the airport is 1.5 from the park. If you would like, you can set up camp next to your plane. We, however, did not choose this option. We decided to stay at the lodge located on the lake. When we landed, I called the front desk at the park, and they sent someone right over to pick me up. Lonnie, arrived very quickly and helped move the bags and golf clubs over to the van and after securing the plane, off we went. After checking in, Lonnie helped carry the bags again. When offered a tip he flatly refused. The room was $80.00 for the night and was very comfortable. The park received 4.3 million dollars from the state last November and just completed a renovation of the lodge. The room we were in overlooked the lake. In the reception area, there was a large fireplace and huge floor to ceiling windows gave a wonderful view of the lake.

After getting settled in and taking some time to look around, we decided it was time to eat. There is a VERY highly recommended restaurant in the area called Patti's 1880's Settlement, home of the 2" pork chop. (www.pattis-settlement.com) Patti's has a van that will pick you up at the airport, the lodge, or the marina at the state park for free. While talking to Lonnie, he said that if Patti's could not get us, we could use his personal truck to go get dinner. We declined, but he was adamant. This seemed to be the predominant theme at the park. Everyone was very friendly and wanted to make everything great. I called to be picked up and they asked if we had reservations and how many in the group. I told her no, but there were only two of us. She said that she could get us in and put us on the list. The van arrived in about 15 minutes after picking up some others at the marina. The ride is about 7-8 minutes.

When we arrived, the waitress told us it was a 40-minute wait, but since I had called, we only had about 20 minutes left of the 40. While waiting, there is a small gift shop reminiscent of Cracker Barrel. They also have homemade fudge. They seated us and brought out the menus. WOW!, the food looked and sounded incredible. They are known for their 2" thick pork chop that weighs 16 oz. Now I understood the controller's comment! We were not that hungry, so we both got the pork tenderloin, wrapped in bacon, and marinated in their special sauce. This was only 8oz. It was so tender, you could easily cut it with a fork. The flavor was incredible. It came with a salad, one side and a loaf of flowerpot bread. Yes, flowerpot. They bake the bread in flowerpots. Very unique and very good. All this for less than $18. We were both stuffed after dinner, but if you have room, the desserts sound incredible.

After a great nights sleep, we got up and had a buffet breakfast at the lodge. The food was good but not great. Then it was off to golf. The park has a golf course across the street. Since you have to checkout by 11am, they let us leave our luggage behind the counter. The van took us over to the golf course and we checked in there. We were early so we could practice on the range first, but they do not have a driving range. They did however, tell us to go ahead and get a cart and we could get in line and tee off early. Again, very nice and accommodating. The course although not spectacular, was a very nice course. The fairways were wide but you had to place your shots well. If you did get into the rough, you could easily find your ball as I found out many, many times. It was a challenging course but very enjoyable.

After we finished, we went to the pro shop to get a hotdog from the grill. When we arrived, they only had one hotdog and no buns left. They said they were very sorry about that and gave us the last hotdog for free. Did I say how nice they are at the park!!! After calling for the van, they took us to the lodge to get our bags and then it was off to the airport. On the way, I asked the driver if we could take a drive through the campground so I could see it. They have 220 camper spaces and 220 tent spaces. The campground has lots of nice amenities and appears to be in good shape. My only two negative comments are, it is not on the lake, and there are not a lot of trees. It is very open, i.e. HOT!!!!! In the fall, that may be nice, but not in the summer.

We fueled up at the airport before we left. The airport is not getting any more fuel and once they run out, they will be out. They are already out of jet-A and are getting low on 100LL. Because of this, I sampled the fuel before putting any in the plane, but it looked fine so I went ahead and got some. I filed IFR again and since it is non-towered, I picked up my clearance over the phone. They gave me a 12-minute void time. Quick, get to the plane, do my run up, taxi, get in the air and contact Memphis Center. Good thing I had already preflighted. I was almost immediately switched to Campbell Approach and they cleared me to turn on course, through the Restricted Area. The flight home was uneventful except for when Nashville Approach told me to look for traffic just ahead, another small plane. I immediately saw it. However it looked awful big! Just then, they call back and give me another traffic advisory for traffic climbing to 8000' (I'm at 7000') headed in the exact opposite direction. A C130! This was the traffic I saw. He passed above and slightly to the right of us. Beautiful! We never did see the small plane.

The rest of the flight was uneventful and we arrived safely back at Jasper. After a quick bite to eat in Jasper, it was back to McCollum. I was very impressed with the Kentucky State Parks and will hopefully get to try another one of the parks with an airport soon.

Visits to Tompson, Dublin GA and Pickens Co. SC
Feb 2007 - March 2007

Tompson, GA (KHQU) Another nice flight with not much of anything to report. We were sent to the Best Western White Columns Inn for lunch. I was impressed with their cute little restaurant located in the "Inn". We had a really nice meal at a more than a reasonable price. The table had real napkins and real table cloths, the decor was up scale, classy tableware type stuff. It certainly was a big step up from most of the places that we either "ask" for or are sent to. The visibility that day was rather good. On the return flight I wrote down that we could see the Atlanta skyline when we were 68 NM from RYY.

Dublin, GA (KDBN) I am looking at my flight notes and there is not much of anything to report. I have mentioned this more than once before, that I need to do better with my journal stuff. On a separate piece of paper I wrote down the name of the place we ate at, but it's gone as in misplaced, lost. I called Bobby and even though it was just a tad bit ago all we can piece together was that it was a local Bar-B-Q place that was just so-so, nothing to recommend. Now I am not shirking my reportering duties/responsibilities but that is it for this flight.

Pickens County, SC (KLQK) One of these days Bobby H and myself need to do lunch in Florida. That way we can say that we have had lunch in Georgia and all of the states that border on Georgia with these "little" lunch flights. We were directed to the Yanks restaurant in downtown Liberty, on the square. It is a quaint little country type place where we had an enjoyable meal. We both had the chopped steak with either two sides or three sides. It was a lot of food and good, a neat little place to relax and chill out, a place to fly to for kicks or whatever. We landed back at RYY at 3:55 local time which is the latest return time we had on these cool and enjoyable lunch flights. Another great flight, I know this for a fact because we both said so.

Visits to Macon, Winchester and Americus
Jan 2007 - Feb 2007

Well once again I got behind schedule and have four or five lunch flights to report on. I will include them as a single writeup or installation as one would call them. Overall they were all sort of run of the mill, nothing of any really outstanding or earth shattering endeavors.

First Installment
January 17, Wednesday - Macon GA. (KMCN) - 136LM
January 31, Wednesday - Winchester TN. (BGF) - 9459J
February 15, Thursday - Americus GA. (KACJ) - 9459J

Macon Ga. What can I say, it was a place to fly to. The weather was great and we flew "down" at 5500 feet over the top of ATL. There is no doubt that this over the top of ATL stuff is on a first come first serve bases. On the way down we had a "good" head wind since we had a ground speed of 82 knots, it took a while to clear the area. We did not hear anyone else requesting VFR over the top at 5500 feet, good thing.

The FBO is right next to the terminal where Dabs restaurant is located, a four minute walk. The food was OK for being in an airline terminal, I liked it and the price was reasonable. Dab's appears to be a local place that set themselves up in the terminal.

Bobby flew the route back and I knew that he would cut my time considerably, we were climbing out of MCN at 700 feet per min and we had a ground speed of 85 knots, but it was not to be. We decided to go around the east side of Atlanta with flight following. When we got closer to Atlanta, even though we were well with in our portion of the class B airspace, the controller gave us a more easterly heading before allowing us to head westerly towards RYY. That's the way it goes sometimes, it's OK, its a busy place. Bobby H beat my time by only .1, although he probably got in an extra 30 miles or so. We had fun.

Winchester TN. Another nice place to fly to. Not much too tell about this flight, smooth and clear according to my notes, and I wrote down that it was a "good looking airport". I can not exactly remember what I meant by that, probably means that a lot of work was recently accomplished sprucing up the place. We ate at the Country Boys Restaurant and had the $4.99 lunch special.

Americus Ga. Here is a place that I would recommend for a lunch flight or an overnight flight, with one minor drawback. All will be explained. I really can't say much about the flight, I have nothing much mentioned on my little 8G17.

We were greeted by Stephanie and Glen at the FBO; they gave us the courtesy car with directions to Terry's restaurant located in the Windsor Hotel in downtown Americus. Terry's is a cute little sandwich type shop, and the downtown area is also what I would call cute. The Windsor Hotel that is really neat; it is billed as "Welcome to the Victorian Era Windsor Hotel". It has recently been given a first class renovation inside and out.

I asked to see a room but the entire place was full. The two little brochures that I picked up showed some neat type rooms. I am not getting commissions on this stuff or any of the other places that I have written about, there are five "types" of rooms, the "Deluxe Room" goes for $101 to 119 (?) up to the top of the line Executive Suite (2 Bedroom) for $225 to 260 (?). It is a cool looking place, if I remember I will bring the brochures to the next club meeting. One might be able to check things out on their web site www.windsor-americus.com. The hotel front desk person said that the hotel will not pick anyone up at the airport, I wasn't clear about the cab service and AOPA lists two local car companies for rental. My guess is that one could talk someone at the airport into giving you a lift, getting back?

In the future when we find a cool place I will try to get more information and details. Anyway call ahead if you plan on this as a destination. As a side note, the Andersonville National Historic Site and National Prisoner of War Museum is rather close and Plains Georgia not too far from Americus.

A Holiday Journey to South Florida and the Bahamas
December 2006 - January 2007

I sure hope I do not bore everyone with this little endeavor. The wife and I took a little trip around the southeast this past Christmas period and I have decided to include it as part of my "duties." I will provide a lot of "interesting" details, facts and figures, pictures and all kinds of pertinent information, hopefully to mesh into one of the greatest reports of my reportering duties, as Dick P calls it. I want to thank all of the board members for their work in keeping the club functioning and in particular Chris P (and Steve C) for keeping the planes maintained, and my wife Pat for taking the pictures with her neat digital camera (except for the few that I took), for getting them into the system and for making this a fantastic and enjoyable trip. I will be sending this writeup to Gregg L, and hopefully he will be able to blend all of the verbiage with the pictures if my e-mail stuff does not entirely work according to plan. I wanted to have this completed for distribution prior to our January meeting but it just did not work out for reasons that will be mentioned. Let me start at the end of our trip with our arrival home before proceeding with the actual flying and travel stuff.

When one is away from home on vacation, all of the "other stuff" is just put on hold, all of the cares of the world just have to wait. We returned to RYY on January 10, 2007, landing at 1330 hours local time. Truitt was up with a student and heard my initial call to the tower, he landed shortly after that and we had a brief conversation before the wife and I headed home to have a late lunch at our local Chinese restaurant in Alpharetta before it closed for the lunch hour. The rest of the day was spent getting unpacked and squared away, of which included deciding when we were going to deal with the approximately 12 inches of mail each that we both had accumulated. The next day, January 11, was spent (don't laugh) taking down all of the Christmas decorations and packing them up and getting them in the attic. It was an eight hour undertaking. Our computer was acting up for a while but I just shrugged my shoulders and thought that it was just "acting up." I will not bore every one with all of the details, but the computer died, it was the hard drive, the answering machine broke, the CD/DVD player went belly up, (this was the second time, no repairs this time), the vacuum cleaner died, and over the next two weeks I replaced nine light bulbs throughout the house and I needed a crown replaced on one of my teeth. I realize that there are many problems in the world but this report is just dealing with my reportering duties and the stories that go along with them.

At work, when my computer went belly up I called on two of my smart co-workers, Gary and Lewis, and if they could not help me I got on the phone to Greg in the support area and someone was there in short order to take care of the problem. In the meantime I just found another "idle" work site and continued on until my machine was fixed. Well I fixed the vacuum cleaner and the wife fixed the answering machine, I bought and installed a new CD/DVD player along with the speakers, got a GEEK to help with the computer, rewired the house to move the computer from the wife's office (she has her own Power Mac G4 or some such thing that she uses for her photography business) which is down stairs where the router and cable modem are located, to my office which is up stairs in a different section of the house (used a 50 foot ether net cable- hard wired). In the process I am Feng Shui-ing my office. Since I have limited space in my office I replaced the old monitor which is 17 inches deep with a new flat panel LCD monitor. That thing is really neat. I am also making a table top extension to place the monitor and printer on. Now I am not the slowest person in the world, but these tasks have taken me four weeks. Anyone who has rewired an existing structure, going through the walls, ceilings, and floors can sort of understand the severity of this undertaking. Some other distractions included our dog "demanding" her play periods every few hours, and all of the visits by the grandchildren. The wife and I partake in BSOD, baby sitting on demand. In spite of all this I finally got the computer up and running.

Wednesday, December 27, RYY to PFN (Panama City, FL) 240 NM, 1.9 hr
Friday, December 29, PFN to SRQ (Sarasota, FL) 325 NM, 2.3 hr
Tuesday, January 2, SRQ to CLW (Clearwater, FL) 50 NM, 0.5 hr
Thursday, January 4, CLW to MYBS (Bimini, Bahamas) 250 NM, 1.9 hr
Sunday, January 7, MYBS to FXE (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) 70 NM, 0.6 hr
Sunday, January 7, FXE to CDK (Cedar Key, FL) 250 NM, 1.9 hr
Wednesday, January 10, CDK to RYY (Marietta, GA) 310 NM, 2.5 hr

Total miles 1495 NM
Total time 11.6 hr
Total Days 15
Total fuel 156.9 gal
Totally fun
Added one quart of oil during the trip
Sectionals used: Atlanta, New Orleans, Jacksonville, Miami
VFR Flight Following, approximately 95% of trip
Frequencies used: including tower, ground and ATIS (at landing facility) 67 (not including about six calls to various radio places and listening to various ATIS along routes)

All right, our trip in 2739C. I tried to keep better records of what we did and a couple of days after returning I made a little summary and log so as not to forget, seeing that it would be a short while before I would be able to write this trip up. All of the times are tach hours and a few of the distances include ATC routing changes, adding 10 miles or so to a leg, and all distances are nautical and this is a VFR trip.

I shall start off by "setting up" the trip. We normally take a vacation trip once a year in a club plane. We have family at several places in the southeast and normally fly for our visits. We originally planned to stay home this year but decided only about six or seven weeks before to take a real trip, not only to see the family but to actually take a vacation. We came up with a plan to visit the family and either go to Key West or Bimini in the Bahamas. We have been to the Florida Keys once before in 4810V, Freeport, Bahamas also in 4810V, and Marsh Harbour, Bahamas (the Abacos) in 2739C.

I went to schedule 39C only to find that member #1 (I do not actually remember every member that was involved in all of the scheduling scenarios) had it scheduled for about eight days ending on the 28th of December. So I scheduled it for a 12 day vacation beginning on the 29th and put in for a waiver with the board for an extra two days which was granted. Here is where all the fun and games began. About a week before Christmas I looked at the schedule to find that member #1 canceled and members #2 and #3 scheduled the plane in those time periods, with member #2 scheduling it for five days and member #3 scheduling it twice for three hours each with the last schedule ending in the late afternoon of the 28th, if my memory serves me correctly. After talking with member #3 he changed his schedule so as to finish at 1:00 PM on the 27th and I rescheduled to that time period and asked him to park the plane in front of Northside upon his return, where the wife and I would be waiting. A few days before Christmas I looked at the schedule to find that member #3 canceled his flights, so I rescheduled to 10 AM on Wednesday the 27th of December. The reason I am providing all of these details is because "you had to be there" for the feel of the trip, not only that but there is more. All was starting to look up, the wife had business scheduled on the 26th and member #2 was not scheduled to return till the 26th. The Weather Channel was guaranteeing great weather for the 27th, the only problem being that the weather was forecasted to be absolutely horrible on December 25 and 26. Even though member #2 is IFR rated I was going to call him and tell him that he could come back on the 27th. The 26th turned out to be really horrible. We are almost there, I looked at the schedule Christmas morning before leaving for our local family gathering only to find out that 2739C was down for maintenance, "scheduled" to be completed for our departure. I think member #2 was affected by the problem. Well the 26th arrived and I started getting every thing packed and ready for our trip, and I mean everything. It was to be an all day event. Packing and packing up the car, presents included, getting the neighbor's son squared on sitting our dog and cat, the wife's plants, you name it, it was required. The wife was busy all day with clients that had family in for the holidays and wanted family portraits.

Well about 10:30 AM I received the dreaded phone call from Chris P about the problem with 2739C. The gear warning horn and stall warning were not working, and if parts were required it could actually be a short while. Chris P said that Carry of H&L was hot on the job. I will not bore you with all of the alternate type plans that I formulated in my mind, I just continued on with my chores after bringing the wife up to speed. Well around 4 or 5 that evening I was packing the car and at some point when I returned to the kitchen and noticed the phone message was flashing. A message from Chris P said that 2739C was up and running. All was fixed, a wire problem, thank you Chris and Carry. It was still raining as I was packing the car.

The morning of Wednesday, December 27th dawned bright and clear with winds 5-10 knots. All was well. I got a weather briefing and filed a VFR flight plan to Panama City, Florida. We decided to do a leisurely trip to the airport, with a stop at the local Waffle House for breakfast. There is not all that much to tell about the actual flying and thanks to the Weather Channel I was able to plan the trip and avoid any weather-related issues. Hopefully the pictures that accompany this article will fill in the voids. We spent some quality time with the son and grandson doing holiday stuff and took advantage of the almost warm days to be on the beach at Panama City and hike at the nearby state park. We were thinking of staying one more day but the WC guaranteed a Friday departure with debatable VFR conditions the following day. I know that we have members that have flown heavy metal, jets and all kinds of fast aircraft, but for me 2739C posts a "normal" ground speed of 150 kt (on one of my trips I had a head wind that produced 130 kt and one time returning from New Orleans a tail wind gave 182 kt). Getting from Panama City to Sarasota in a little over two hours- just plain neat. Look at a map and figure out what that trip would take by car, providing that there were no traffic problems. The wife's mom lives in Clearwater and her brother lives in Sarasota. That in itself is a two hour trip by car. We have done that.

We spent the New Years period with the wife's brother and his wife in Sarasota. The weather in central Florida was rather warm and sunny. We had quality beach time and I actually went in the ocean several times. We went to a show, lounged around the pool, had a great New Years Eve party, hit some nice eateries, and the women got in some great shopping. The plan was to make it to Bimini next, leaving on Tuesday. The weather guys and reports were not painting a promising picture for that flight. Sure enough Tuesday morning was great in Sarasota, but not conducive to a pleasant VFR flight across Florida because of a frontal system in central Florida. So Bob and I did guy stuff while the wive's went off shopping. Around twelve in the afternoon the weather improved. I called the shopping girls and said that we (Pat and I) were headed to the Bahamas. It took a while to get this new program up and running. By the time we got to the airport and what-not the Bimini flight was canceled due to redeveloping weather and I said that we were headed to see June, the wife's mom, in Clearwater, a mere hop, skip and a jump away. I have nothing but nice things to say about all of the controllers that have dealt with me on my VFR flights. They are great.

The Tampa airspace is a busy place and I received my usual great handling. I was routed somewhat out of the way, but if you ask for help you receive what is, let's say, that which is beneficial for all those concerned. There was a recent article in the AOPA Pilot magazine that explained some of the "unpublished" routing procedures that are used by local controllers to keep things flowing in a safe manner, although it may not be the most efficient for some of those concerned. More on this later. Anyway my 35 NM flight turned out to be about 50 NM, but I had access to the class B Tampa airspace and extra eyes looking after us in such a busy area.

Speaking of the controllers, let me digress a little from this trip and go back to this past summer. We took our oldest granddaughter Katherine on her seven-year trip to Disney World. Since we were in the neighborhood we stopped at Clearwater on the way down and on the way back, so she could spend a little time with her great-grandmother June, Pat's mom. On the way over to Kissimmee (Orlando) the Tampa controllers put us (2739C, Katherine, Pat, and myself) at 2500 feet right over Tampa International (TPA), right over runway 9-27, and on the way back from Kissimmee to CLW (Clearwater Airpark) at 3500 feet, that was a real trip, really cool.

If I recall it was 82 degrees F and clear skies when we departed SRQ. There were a few light rain showers around the Tampa Bay area with isolated thunderstorms in the vicinity. Some time during the preceding hour the Clearwater Airpark received a good dose of rain so the place was rather soaked with overcast skies with the temperature in the low 60s. I kid you not, a mere 35 NM distance, what a change. The first thing we did after getting out of 39C was to dig out and put our jackets on. We had a nice visit with Pat's mom June. June is 92 years of age and still a rather feisty lady. She looks forward to our visits, and we fly down to see her around four times a year. The Weather Channel (WC) promised us good weather for a Thursday departure for Bimini. In fact they were forecasting good weather for the next week in the central Florida area. The same was not to hold for the Atlanta area.

Once again the morning skies showered down upon us with rays of gleaming golden sunshine, light winds from the east, scattered clouds at 2500 to 3500 feet and some broken layers at 5000 to 6000 feet over the Atlantic coast. Scattered clouds at 2500 feet and winds at about 10-15 kt from the east were forecasted for our arrival at Bimini. Well here I sit with the keyboard on my lap along with our cat who has just joined me. She is in one of her rare good moods, requesting a few "pets" every now. Actually she does not appreciate sharing my lap with the keyboard. Back to the story. We had a late breakfast with June, I filed a flight plan, made reservations for a place to stay on Bimini and we headed to the airport in the rental car. Once again I packed up 39C which was getting easier because we had distributed all of the Christmas presents that we brought with us. I pre-flighted, we put on our life vests and took to the gleaming Florida sky, contacted Tampa approach and climbed to 5500 feet after clearing the Tampa class B airspace heading for our way point FXE (Ft. Lauderdale Executive airport).

It was an absolutely gorgeous flight with a small head wind above the scattered clouds, calm, with practically unlimited visibility. The controllers were once again just fantastic with my requests for VFR flight following. During the entire 15 day trip I was given around 14 or so calls for traffic, of which I only saw about 5, and was given two course and/or altitude changes for traffic avoidance. I was amazed at Miami center. When I was handed off to Miami it was non-stop chatter, totally unbelievable. If I recall, in some cases pilots were told what to do and expected to comply without a read back when the instructions were "simple" (that is my recollection). There was only time to get to the next issue of instructions to another aircraft, things were happening. We did not make it to our intended way-point FXE, we were routed about six miles south in order to stay out of the normal flow of traffic for the area. Actually it worked out great for me because the cloud tops right over FXE were above my altitude while the more southern heading gave me plenty of room. I could see a lot of aircraft climbing out of the various airports along the coast and was happy to be in the system.

When you are traveling at 150 kt it does not take long to cover the 60 miles from the coast of Florida to Bimini. I advised Miami center that I was starting a descent, picked up the island/airport shortly thereafter and was advised to go to the local frequency. Miami center did not show any traffic at their altitude of coverage, and no traffic was heard over the local frequency. I made a straight-in for runway 9. Based on the WC, my weather briefing, and my ground speed, or in this case, water speed, I knew that the winds were from the east and sure enough, right down the runway. I sure hope that I am not boring anyone or overstepping my authority with my reportering duties by supplying all of these details and what-not. For this type of a trip/vacation, it shows off the utility of a small aircraft. Well someone might be asking themselves how on earth did I find this airport/island in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of the infamous BERMUDA TRIANGLE. It was easy, I used one of the two VORs in 39C set to the Bimini VOR, plus the panel mounted Apollo GX GPS and my hand held Garmin Pilot III GPS. All three agreed, and precisely navigated us to our destination. I did not use dead-reckoning, the stars, the sun, or pilotage (sorry Truitt).

It was easy to find a place to park, for we were practically the only plane there. As far as the ramp goes the place was practically deserted. One issue is tie-downs, there are none. I carry a tie-down kit with me for trips of this nature. But a problem remains- the ramp is paved. The forecast was for great weather so this turned out not to be an issue on this trip. Going through customs was as easy as it can get, a couple of forms and that was it. We were the only ones at the time. There was a charge of four dollars (it may have been six) for the aircraft based on the weight, good for the entire stay. The information that I had procured for this trip indicated that we were in the off-season and things seemed to indicate that this was a quiet time on Bimini. I had a problem trying to cancel my flight plan. There is a phone at the airport specifically for crew members, to obtain weather from Miami or Freeport radio. It did not work, sort of. I tried about 14 times in various ways and numbers. There is no cell phone reception, Pat's phone showed no service. When we were at Freeport and Marsh Harbour the system worked. On the 14th time I got through to Freeport radio and asked them to cancel my flight plan with Miami. I was ready to go out to the plane and try to remote a call to Miami through the Bimini VOR. More about the phone system later.

The airport is located on the south island and there is one small resort on this island, but we were headed to the north island where all of the action is and our place of residence. Our combined taxi and ferry "boat" fare to the north island was five dollars each which I thought was rather reasonable. I will be giving you a little blow by blow dissertation of our stay on Bimini. Before I get into that I want to say that Bimini is a rather neat place but requires a little fixing up due to a few hurricanes that have impacted the island. Some places are still in what I would call a state of disrepair. Hemingway's old hang out, The Compleat Angler that burnt down several years ago is still just a pile of rubble. For those that want tropical elegance and can afford it, go to the new resort that is being constructed on the north end of the north island. We did not "tour" the resort on the south island. Bimini suited our needs and we would go back again and probably will. Every one was friendly, helpful and courteous, just don't expect too much, it is a real laid back kind of place. In my younger years I dove out of Bimini several times and I can say that not all that much has changed, although change is in the works.

Bimini is a small place, not very long, a few miles and at times not much wider than a football field. We headed to the Bimini Blue Water Resort where we made our reservations that morning from Clearwater. The term "resort" is a massive exaggeration. The BBWR has ten rooms and we were their only guests, talk about the off season. We later checked out some of the other places and found them equally "quiet". This was REALLY the off season. There are basically two roads on Bimini and I use the term "road" loosely, an upper road and a lower road. Golf cart paths would be a better description. Our room was on top of this hill adjacent to the upper road with the beach and ocean right on the other side. It suited us just fine. It was an OK location. There is not much traffic on Bimini and the price was $90 per night, about half of what it is during the "on" season. I will not bore everyone with the details of our stay, we had a grear time and for the middle of winter the water and weather was fantastic, unbelievable, unseasonably warm, temps in the low to mid 80's. A few morning clouds turned to clear skies the rest of the day. The water was so warm that I was in for long periods. We did the usual beach walking, we walked the entire island, and exploring, ate at several places and in general had a very relaxing time. There is a very exclusive resort being constructed on the north end of the island that will include a casino. I would suspect that when this place is completed it will no doubt change the flavor of the island, in my opinion not necessarily for the best, just my opinion.

I had to buy a Bahamanian phone card to use the phones there, the 1-800-wxbrief number did not work, contrary to what my book indicated. I did a trial run with the phone system with my newly acquired card the day before departure in order verify it's operation and to obtain an outlook forecast with Miami FSS. The next morning we took our time and had a leisurely breakfast at one of the local establishments. We returned to our room to pack up and I ventured down to the dock to use the phone with my newly acquired phone card. All went well, called Miami FSS for a weather brief, filed a DVFR flight plan (international) and contacted US customs at FXE to inform them of our approximate arrival time. Off to the airport in the reverse manner of our arrival. We did our customs stuff and paid a fee of $15 each. There appeared to be about 20 people in the "departure" side of the terminal, apparently waiting for a puddle jumper to go some place. They must have stayed at the hotel/resort on the south island because I don't think that there were but six or seven tourists other than us on the north island.

We departed runway 9 and climbed up to 6500 feet over a widely scattered cloud layer. I contacted Miami radio to activate our flight plan and to obtain our squawk code for penetrating the ADIZ. I then contacted Miami center, obtained another squawk code and headed for FXE. I am not sure exactly how the total system works with the ADIZ code thing but "they" probably check the aircraft registration and/or what-not prior to issuing our code so center knows that every thing is on the up-and-up, I don't really know, I just followed the procedures listed in the book and it works. Well, once again the traffic over the radio was non stop. About 15 out from FXE I was told to turn 350 and contact Miami on another frequency. Once again, well, I turned 350 and contacted another Miami controller but was a little uneasy. Here we were over the Atlantic, still in the middle of the dreaded BERMUDA TRIANGLE on a westerly heading and I was told to turn to a heading that would in about 10 or 15 hours put us over Bermuda. I questioned the wisdom of this maneuver with the new controller. He was gracious enough and had the time to explain that they were setting me up for their usual inflow and outflow to FXE, that's what they do. We "compromised" on a 330 degree heading and he further added to expect a turn back to the airport in 7 miles, which I calculated would be in about 2 1/2 minutes. Now that made me feel better, in the loop. Sure enough, shortly thereafter, turn direct to FXE and let him know when I had the coast in sight. I started my descent, got the coast in sight and was told to contact the tower, almost home.

I need to start wrapping this up. It's not like any of us have never flown before, but for me this stuff is, let's say somewhat out of my normal type of flying and is really interesting and some what exciting. I will be honest and say that it is not totally stress-free. Flying over the open ocean and having to deal with this new and different environment adds a little anxiety to the program. Let me tell you all that FXE is one busy place, in no uncertain terms, busy. It is a big place with planes of all types going every which way both in the air and on the ground, especially on the ground. To be honest, I sort of got yelled at by the ground controller. I told the tower lady that I wanted to go to customs so I could exit on the proper side of the runway and required help, she naturally told me where to exist and contact ground. Well, ground gave me a dissertation on how to get there and went on to the next customer. I sort of copied it down. I should have repeated that I was unfamiliar with the place, so I went through the first three pieces of the puzzle and ended up at a place that looked like spaghetti junction. I stopped and called the very busy ground guy again for help. That's when he got a little upset and told me I should have mentioned in the first place my lack of knowledge. So we got that straightened out. Clearing customs was actually a rather pleasant experience except for the fact that I had to take everything out of and put everything back in 2739C. With hardly a glance at our stuff, we are just honest looking folks, we were finished. Pat wound up showing a couple of the custom's people the pictures of our Bimini trip and of the grandchildren.

We taxied over to Banyan Air Service for fuel, weather, and the facilities. This place is something else. I can not apologize for the cost of fuel. At some airports in some locations it is expensive, with everyone charging the same price, although the fuel at SRQ was a few pennies more than here at FXE. I think that us little guys contribute but a small proportion of their income. The business jets were everywhere. This place was new. It was like a palace, I kid you not, it was so gorgeous, clean, neat and what-not that I almost felt out of place. There was even a small aquarium in the middle of this rather large lobby/atrium.

My wife and I had discussed stopping off at our favorite place, Cedar Key on the way back. Cedar Key is located about 60 miles southwest of Gainesville Florida on the gulf coast. Prior to departing for the Bahamas the WC's weekly planner was forecasting another front to move through the southeast during the Sunday/Monday time frame. Sure enough, it was getting close to Atlanta and the trailing edge would swing through the Cedar Key area late that night. Returning to Atlanta that day or the next was not an option. The WC was forecasting good weather for our scheduled return, it would be about 36 hours after the front passed through the Cedar Key area. Things were looking up and going better than I could have written a script for. When 2739C was being fueled I went out to tell the individual fueling, not to be afraid to fill her up. Cedar Key does not have any services and if things worked out we could get back to RYY without another fuel stop. I called Judy, our contact and taxi person at Cedar Key to let her know of our spur of the moment decision to partake in the pleasures of CDK. She would be available to pick us up and our favorite adobe was also available. This time I told ground that I was unfamiliar with the airport and properly copied down another dissertation on how to get to the active runway which went smooth, almost like I knew what I was doing. Off to Cedar Key we headed.

What a great flight to Cedar Key. The weather was fantastic, scattered/broken/clear sky at various locations, a beautiful sun in the western sky radiating a glow about the clouds that could only come from a surrealistic painting. We had a little tail wind with our ground speed above 160 kt, smooth, and the controllers once again doing a fantastic job with this little guy. We had our usual great time in CDK, to us it is such a relaxing place, still a rather unspoiled piece of old Florida. The weather during the day was in the mid 70's to the low 80's (a little warm for that time of year), we had a great time doing the usual- walking, sight- seeing if you can call it that, reading, the wife playing scrabble (sort of a solitaire type game with two imaginary opponents), hanging out, having nice meals, and with me the best of all, having the weather channel to watch once again (no WC at our place in Bimini). The weather that day and the next was horrible in the the Atlanta area with a tornado touching down south of Atlanta. The trailing edge of the front passed through that night with a little rain and a little wind. The way I figured it the next day would be spent having a great time in CDK with slightly lower temperatures while the system cleared out of the southeast with a scheduled return on the 9th, right on schedule. The WC was agreeing with my plans.

Is this a novel or what? Maybe I should get this published. I probably could spice things up by telling you all about all of the great sex the wife and I had on our trip (with each other) in the hope of eliminating any boredom from my readers, but since this is meant to inform the readers of our flying club about flying type stuff we will just stick with those facts. Before retiring the next night I called the Gainesville FSS to get an outlook for our return flight the next day. I wasn't totally focused when he told me that the winds were going to be 20-30 kt basically from the north. I actually indicated that that was OK for the winds aloft but what about the surface winds in the Atlanta area. He reiterated that those were the forecasted surface winds for the next day. I said "oh". I turned back on the WC and they were now giving wind advisories for the North Georgia area for the next day. That night in spite of the disappointing weather briefing I actually had a peaceful night's rest.

Is this a blow by blow description of our trip in 2739C? Are you all hoping for me to get us home so everyone can get on with whatever it is that they need to do? Don't get your hopes up, there is more. We are still at CDK with a 310 mile leg to go. The next morning after breakfast I called up the ATIS at RYY and the winds were already up there with even larger gusts and Gainesville FSS was giving winds at 9000 feet at 47 kt from the north and turbulent conditions below 12000. Well, I am no hero. I called up Bobby H and asked him to check the WC and see what the local on the eights was saying for our (Marietta, GA) area. He said that it was rather windy out already and that the WC was saying 20-30 on the winds, with a wind advisory good for the remainder of the day. Before we left RYY on our trip no one had 2739C scheduled for the next day, Wednesday. I asked Bobby to check the schedule since I was without access to a computer. He did this in short order and found that 39C was still open for the entire day. The WC and FSS were forecasting good weather for Wednesday with some strong winds aloft from the north. So I schedule 39C until 3 PM the next day. I informed Pat of the situation and the plans for returning the next day. Great, she got on her cell phone and checked her messages at the office and rescheduled a couple of appointments, squared things away and off we went for a nice breakfast at one of the local eateries. Fantastic, back on a new revised schedule with a promising outlook for the next day. I called the RYY ATIS a little later and for that particular hour the winds were out of the north at 19 with guts to 27. We had another super day in CDK, with the temperature making it into the mid 70s even after the frontal passage, clear skies with winds around 15, perfect.

Wednesday morning in CDK dawned clear and bright, gleaming sunshine, warm, somewhat light winds, another super day in paradise. I called Gainesville and received a rather upbeat forecast. The only negative thing was that there would be some strong head winds and moderate turbulence below 12000. What was surprising to me was they were forecasting light surface winds in the Atlanta area. I filed a flight plan for later that morning and we headed off for a leisurely breakfast at one of the local establishments with a little walk after. We had Judy pick us up and out to the little airport we went. I dipped the tanks and found 54 gallons of fuel remaining (49 usable). Under normal circumstances our flight back would be a tad over two hours. But today we would be low in the altitude sector with some strong head winds, I figured on 2.5 hours and 14 gallons per hour. That would provide a good safety margin of one hour additional flying time at destination. It was a fantastically clear VFR weather day. Off we went into the earth's lower atmosphere.

We climbed up to 3300 feet. That's what I did, 3300 feet. After trimming up 39C, I set the auto pilot, contacted Jacksonville center, received one of those neat squawk codes that implied that I was set up in the system for RYY, and settled back being a system monitor. I checked the various ATISs up ahead to check on the surface conditions, and sure enough the further north we progressed the lighter the surface winds became even though we had a strong head wind with higher winds aloft. We were only making 132 kt along the ground, but the flight was absolutely smooth, not a ripple, calm as could be, no turbulence whatsoever. Pat was doing her usual reading and scrabble playing, what a great passenger. We were right on course about 25 east of Columbus when an interesting occurrence occurred- 2739C started a light "shake". Over the next 10 miles the light shake became a moderate shake, nothing severe, but certainly noticeable, and the ground speed went from the 132/133 range to and remained at 144 kt without me touching any of the engine or aircraft controls. I left the auto pilot on, it was not like during the summer with thermals creating severe and sudden up and down drafts, just a mild "weather related" vibration. I turned and looked at Pat as she was looking at me. I shrugged my shoulders and said one of my favorite sayings, "its not my fault". For the next 35 minutes we bumped along. I dialed up both the Newnan and Atlanta weather stuff and both reported calm to light winds, and when I picked up RYY, light and variable at 4. All was right with the world below. Approaching Newnan I told Atlanta that I would remain outside class B and would be going down to 2400 feet after passing Newnan. Shortly thereafter I was told to contact McCollum tower and shortly after that 2739C was on it's spot. What a fantastic trip.

Epilogue During the 11.6 hours of flight I did not have to clean the windshield once, bugs were hibernating for the winter. Any club member can borrow my tie-down kit if they have a need for one, provided I will not be requiring it. Any club member can borrow my approved life vests for a trip of this nature. Any club member can borrow my 2007 Bahamas and Caribbean Pilot's Guide, I will be giving away my 2000 year copy at the next club meeting. I have a club waiver for operating at CDK (runway less than 2500 feet). During my unpacking and squaring away of 39C, the fuel truck arrived and the tanks were filled with 60 gallons of fuel. Subtracting the five gallons of unusable fuel, that left a tad bit more than one hour of flying time remaining, what a plane. I called Chris P and reported that the only things I wrote up were a VOR check and my time. Thank you Chris P.

Walter J