Sun n' Fun - Return Home
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| Well, the party is almost over. It's Saturday morning and time to break camp and depart. |
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Taxiing by the Thunderbirds and Breitling Jet Team on our way to the departure runway.
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| The Sun 'N Fun departure was well organized and soon we were taking off on runway 9R. I flew runway heading for 3 miles or so then turned north. Soon we were passing the Lake Parker and the power plant on the left. |
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We stopped at Ocala Airport to have breakfast and check weather. Things looked a little iffy to the north in Georgia. After takeoff from Ocala, Bruce mentioned that John Travolta's airport community was just a few miles to the northeast, so we headed over there as I had not seen it before. The house was pretty easy to find as it has a four engine 707 jet airliner parked out front.
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| Not too shabby! |
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We continued north aiming for Waycross, Georgia, one of my favorite stops. I figured we could get there ahead of the weather, land and evaluate the situation.
To get to Waycross, we had to cross the Okefenokee Swamp.
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That's a swamp all right.
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Flying over a big railroad yard on the southwest side of Waycross.
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| We barely made it in to Waycross as there was weather to the west, east and north of the airport. It was raining when we pulled up to the FBO. The attendant met us with an umbrella! That's service, my friend. |
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We waited at Waycross Airport for a couple of hours letting the weather blow through to the east. They had BBQ for the Sun 'N Fun pilots. A couple of other pilots were waiting out the weather as well.
Finally, the way was clear and we departed. Look how clear the weather is now compared to the previous picture.
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| I was aiming for St. Mary's Airport in Maryland. The weather there was clear and to the north so we climbed on top. Initially the tops were at 4,500 feet or so. There was some stuff across North Carolina but I thought it wouldn't be a problem to get through or over it. Actually, I thought we were home free weather-wise. |
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Well, after an hour or so the tops started getting higher, and we had to climb to stay above the layer. In another 30 minutes, we were over 10,000 feet and climbing. This just wasn't working so I turned east because I could see from the onboard weather (XM Satelitte) that the weather was better towards the coast. Sure enough, almost immediately the layer started falling away and we could descend. Soon, we started seeing holes. We descended through a hole and resumed our heading to the north, this time under the clouds, around 5,500 feet. Again, I thought we had it made to St. Mary's. But it was not to be. An almost solid wall of green was on the GPS between us and St. Mary's. The ceiling began to descend and of course so did we. Finally only an hour away from St. Mary's we were down to 1,000 feet and starting to get rained on. There was a public airport a few miles in front of us so we decided to land. We landed at Tarboro-Edgecombe airport (KETC).
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| Tarboro airport had this little pilot lounge. Inside was information on motels and taxi service, a bathroom, and even a refrigerator with dirnks. It was pretty obvious we weren't going to make it any further north this day, and Tarboro seemed as good as place as any to spend the night, so we decided to tie the plane down and call the taxi. |
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Not a big airport, but it had everything we needed.
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We found a Comfort Inn in town and had dinner at a Pizza Hut next door. The next morning we looked outside and our hearts sank. It was drizzling and the ceiling was very low. No flying this morning. Checking the weather showed IMC conditions at all the airports in the area. But only 30-50 miles north it was clear. We were so close, but yet so far. All we could do was wait for better weather. The motel was nice enough to let us keep our room past checkout time. We watched an old Tom Selleck western that was actually pretty good: The Shadow Riders. Then I checked the weather and for the first time, it looked like the ceiling was going to lift. And soon, conditions outside did get better. We decided to check out and head to the airport. By the time we got there and loaded the plane, the ceiling was up to 800-1000 feet, plenty high enough to scoot under until it cleared to the north.
Just after takeoff, the ceiling is low but actually isn't bad at all.
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| Soon, the ceiling lifted and started breaking up. |
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| As we approached St. Mary's, it had turned into a nice day. |
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What a difference a hundred miles makes.
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We stopped at St. Mary's airport to get some inexpensive AvGas, then were back on our way. Here we are crossing the Chesapeake Bay.
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| Flying up the Eastern Shore. In ten minutes we'll be landing at Essex Skypark. So concludes yet another aerial adventure. We both had a good time at Sun 'N Fun! |
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