May 22, 2023 - Flight to Florida
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OK, I'm headed down to Florida on a flying vacation. The plan is to fly down on Monday, stay with my flying buddy and brother-in-law Bruce in Sebastian for a few days, then fly back on Friday. The forecast calls for afternoon thunderstorms every day in Florida. We'll see!
I headed for Augusta, Georgia first, because I wanted to see the Augusta National Golf Course where they play the Masters Golf Tournament. Then I flew down the Savannah River for a while, before heading for Waycross Airport in Georgia, one of my favorite airports. Weather became challenging at that point and I had to fly down the west side of Florida to avoid thunderstorms. I was able to cut across central Florida south of Orlando and make it to Sebastian. Overall flight down took about seven hours airtime.
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| About to start the takeoff roll at Essex Skypark at 8AM Monday morning. |
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Passing by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge with Annapolis at cebter in the background.
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| It was very misty and visibility was crummy. But check out that smoke down below. |
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Tailwind! I am making over 200 mph over the ground! Gotta like that.
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| I thought this was the James River at the time but it is probably the Pamunkey River. As you can see, the sky is filthy. |
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| Entering the downwind at Harnett Regional Jetport Airport (KHRJ) in Erwin, North Carolina. This is one of my favorite stops when heading down to Florida because they have low fuel prices, a courtesy car, and a nearby Waffle House. |
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After I landed, there was no terminal! I remember they used to have a nice one. I figured they must be building a new one behind this chain link fence.
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| I did eventually find this temporary terminal. The FBO attendee was very friendly and gave me the keys to the courtesy car. |
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Looking back at where the new terminal is being constructed.
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| I enjoyed a tasty breakfast at the nearby Waffle House. |
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| Back in the air, heading south. I pass over this grass strip airport with multiple runways. |
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I come to the Savannah River, north of Augusta, Georgia.
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I follow the river southeast, and soon come to the place I am looking for, just to the south of the river. It's one of the most famous golf courses in the world, if not the most famous: the Augusta National Golf Club.
This shot captures the entire August National Golf Club course, and some of the Augusta Country Club golf course at upper right.
At left, what looks like part of the golf course is actually the Tournament Practice Range. Eighteen acres in all. Four hundred yards deep. State of the art. The golf course itself is in the center of the picture.
The large building at far right is Berckmans Place, sometimes called Berckmans or BP, a 90,000-sq.-ft. non-public shopping and dining complex built in 2012. It operates for one week each year, during the Masters. Entry passes for the week cost $10,000 and require Augusta National's approval; there is a 10-ticket limit. The price includes free dining at Berckmans' five full-service restaurants, each of which can seat hundreds of guests: Augusta's Seafood, Calamity Jane's, Ike's Place, MacKenzie's Pub, and the Pavilion. Bathroom stalls are attended and cleaned after each use. There is a pro shop and four putting greens dubbed the "Putting Experience": three slightly smaller replicas of holes 7, 14, and 16; and a "composite course".
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This shot shows the northern half of Augusta National. The first hole runs top to bottom on the left.
Augusta National Golf Club has about 300 members at any given time. Membership is strictly by invitation: there is no application process. Membership is believed to cost between $100,000 and $300,000 and annual dues were estimated in 2020 to be less than $30,000 per year. Notable members include Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Roger Goodell (NFL commissioner), Lou Holtz, Jack Nicklaus, Condolezza Rice (former Secretary of State), Lynn Swann, Rex Tillerson, Peyton Manning.
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| Another shot of the club house area. Unfortunately I did not know what I was looking at and did not get any pictures of the southern half of the course, including missing the famous "Amen Corner" of holes 11, 12 & 13. |
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At top center is the big Clubhouse, near hole 1, which dates to the 1850s and has a well-stocked wine cellar; and a practice range.
At upper right is Butler Cabin, near hole 18, a former plantation house where tournament winners are presented with a green jacket.
At far right is the Eisenhower Cabin. In 1948, Dwight D. Eisenhower and his wife Mamie were personally invited to Augusta by Roberts. Eisenhower took a liking to the club, becoming a member, and hired Roberts as his executor and financial advisor. Roberts had the house (Eisenhower Cabin) constructed for Eisenhower on the grounds. During his presidency, Eisenhower visited Augusta National 29 times.
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| A good look at the Augusta National Par course. |
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| This map was invaluable for figuring out what everything was. |
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Looking west at Augusta Country Club, which is just south of Augusta National. I didn't realize this was a separate golf course at the time. |
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| Now looking north, still at the Augusta Country Club. But you can see the southern part of Augusta National at the very top center. |
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Daniel Field Airport (KDNL) is to the south, and is a non-towered airport.
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| The area south of Augusta Country Club is not quite as upscale. |
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Continuing southeast down the Savannah River.
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| Passing downtown Augusta. |
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| Soon after leaving Augustus, I'm over forest. By the way, South Carolina is on the north side of the river, Georgia on the south side. |
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| Following the Savannah River through a sea of trees. |
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Some nuclear power plant cooling towers emerge in the distance.
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| Looking north into South Carolina. Nothing but trees. |
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The huge Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in the middle of nowhere. Each unit is a Westinghouse pressurized water reactor (PWR), with a General Electric steam turbine and electric generator. Units 1 and 2 were completed in 1987 and 1989, respectively. Each unit has a gross electricity generation capacity of 1,215 MW. During the construction of Vogtle's first two units, capital investment required jumped from an estimated $660 million to $8.87 billion. Two additional units utilizing Westinghouse AP1000 reactors have been under construction since 2009. In 2018 costs were estimated to be about $25 billion.[12] By 2021 they were estimated to be over $28.5 billion. Upon completion of Units 3 and 4 in 2023, Vogtle will become the largest nuclear power station in the United States. |
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| A quick dip below the rim. |
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| The river starts winding back and forth. |
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| I pass over what looks to be a big, abandoned factory. |
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I made a quick stop at Hampton County Airport in South Carolina to stretch my legs.
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| The ramp at Hampton County Airport. Not much going on at this airport but it is attended. |
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A nice touch.
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I had intended to fly the river down to Savannah and then fly the coast south. But upon leaving Hampton County I decided to just head straight for Bacon County Airport in Alma, Georgia. They had a great gas price.
After awhile the weather started deteriorating on me.
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| By the time I got to Bacon County, there was a broken layer at 1,000 feet. |
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| I landed and pulled up to the self-serve pump. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the pump to work so couldn't get any of the $5.00/gallon avgas, an excellent price. It looked like it had rained here recently. |
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The airport was unattended but they did have a nice little terminal. There was probably some keys to the courtesy car somewhere behind that counter.
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| Some well-worn furniture for the tired pilot to get some rest on. |
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| I left Bacon County and headed south to Waycross Airport in Georgia. I have been here numerous times before; it's one of my favorite airports. |
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| On final for runway five at Waycross. That's a prison off to the left. |
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| I was met right away by an attendent who topped off my RV-7. He asked me if I wanted to borrow the courtesy car to go into town for lunch. The avgas price wasn't bad -- $5.70 -- better than my home airport. |
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I love all the World War II airplanes hanging overhead in the lobby. At center are their famous coke and popcorn machines. Waycross is just a nice, friendly airport.
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| Southwest of Waycross is a huge CSX train yard. |
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Looking northeast with Waycross town at center.
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| Heading south, I'm almost immediately over the Okefenokee Swamp. Looks like just another forest at this point. |
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I checked my in-flight weather radar picture, courtesy of ADS-B In. Florida's east side was lit up like a Christmas Tree: light green, dark green, yellow and red. It was obvious I'd have to fly down the west side which was relatively clear.
I subscribed to XM Satellite weather for many years. It fed my GPSMap 496. It worked well and was invaluable on my long cross-countries. I liked it. But with my new Foreflight Sentry bringing in ADS-B In data reliably, I didn't really need to be paying $35/month for the XM Satellite weather anymore. Plus I didn't like some of their recent advertising. But like everything else, it was the money. So I cancelled it last year.
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| Heading southwest, the weather began to clear up a little. |
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Even as the weather cleared, well-defined rain squalls started popping up.
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| Could that be the Suwannee River down below? |
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I've left the swamp and am actually seeing some blue sky now.
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| Some wierd wispy cloudlets to the west. |
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Passing by what looks like an airport community.
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| Flying past Gainesville, Florida, home of the University of Florida. That's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, popularly known as "The Swamp", down below. It can hold over 90,000 people. Go Gators! |
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Although I'm flying in the clear, the weather off to the west looks decidedly nasty.
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| Continuing south, paralleling the bad weather to the east. |
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The big cumulous clouds are building into T-storms.
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| South of Orlando, things cleared to the east so I headed directly for Sebastian. |
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| Looking north watching Orlando getting pounded. |
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| Looks of lakes in central Florida. |
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I'm heading into the wind now.
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| In the last 50 miles, I had a couple of rain storms to steer around. |
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Last rainstorm to the south.
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| And then I was in the clear. The last 20 miles to Sebastian was perfect weather: blue skies and sun. |
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| Sebastian Airport in sight! |
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| On downwind for Runway 10 at Sebastian. |
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| Bruce was standing on the ramp when I taxiied up. We tied down the plane and soon we were at our favorite place: the Tiki Bar on the Indian River! |
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Bruce enjoying some Mango Cart at the Tiki Bar.
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