One nice thing about having a plane is that your weekend outings can cover a lot more territory. Last night CC mentioned we should visit the West Coast, of Florida, not California. I Initially thought of Venice, Florida not Italy but then Apalachicola came to mind. Apalachicola is a sleepy little old Florida town in the panhandle. Technically not West Coast but it was Gulf Coast.
Driving takes about 4.5 hours each way but the plane made the trip in 1:25. This time is from engine start to shutdown. Our schedule, we left the house around 10:20 and were in the air at 11:00. Arrived at 12:15, saw everything, ate and were back in the air at 2:15. Landed at 3:20 and were home by 4:00. Driving would have had us returning home at 9:20 PM. Basically we saved 5 hours and had a heck of a lot more fun.
When we fly our favorite routing is Direct. The introduction of GPS has made this the norm in most uncongested airspace. Today we could have received direct but I filed to WOUND intersection then direct. Intersections are just points in space defined by radio navigation aids. They make it much easier to communicate navigational paths as I can just request an intersection and ATC then knows where I want to go. In this case WOUND keeps you over land as opposed to flying out over the gulf.
As I was saying Apalachicola is a sleepy town. Even so they have a nice airport. I took a risk and headed out without being sure of ground transport. As we were approaching to land the FBO (fixed based operator) inquired on the radio if we needed fuel. We did and I also asked if there was a courtesy car available. There was so we were set. We landed and taxied to the parking area. I was directed to a space right up front and before I could get out there was a car parked behind the plane idling and frosty cool inside.
So one problem when you arrive somewhere is how do you get from the airport to where you really want to go. In Knoxville Uber came to the rescue. Jekyll has the cool buggies but that is not the norm, OK it is like no where else. If we stay for the night or more we often rent a car. If you just need to a few hours many places have airport cars. Airport cars are there own discussion but basically you buy gas for they plane and they lend you a car. Good deal for both parties. The only problem can be if other people came before you and there is no car to borrow. Today we were lucky.
We headed out for lunch and drove through town and then over the bridge on highway 98 to Eastpoint. We stopped at a local joint called Lynns Quality Oysters. It is a seafood market and restaurant. Nothing fancy but the above picture was from the deck where we ate so the lack of decor is offset by the views.
Apalachicola is known for oysters but since it was not an R month we went with some shrimp and Mahi Mahi dip. The deck was great and the temperature by the water was high 70s, cold in Florida. The one issue is that to make the tasty smoked Mahi dip, they need to smoke fish each day. Some of the tables were directly downwind of the smoker but by seating ourselves strategically we mostly avoided the smoke.
After lunch we drove back to town. It is really only 2 blocks long and built around the tourist trade. We strolled a bit and took at the waterfront and old buildings.
Apalachicola is still rural, as we were strolling, logging trucks were rolling down main street.
The best thing about Apalachicola is the seafood, the gulf and the beach. A bunch of stores selling junk, oh I mean great souvenirs is less exciting. The nice thing about the plane is that we had an open return. When we were through strolling, I used my phone to file our return flight plan and then we drove back to the airport. We paid for our gas and were soon airborne and on our way home. Now to plan an outing for Sunday....
Driving takes about 4.5 hours each way but the plane made the trip in 1:25. This time is from engine start to shutdown. Our schedule, we left the house around 10:20 and were in the air at 11:00. Arrived at 12:15, saw everything, ate and were back in the air at 2:15. Landed at 3:20 and were home by 4:00. Driving would have had us returning home at 9:20 PM. Basically we saved 5 hours and had a heck of a lot more fun.
When we fly our favorite routing is Direct. The introduction of GPS has made this the norm in most uncongested airspace. Today we could have received direct but I filed to WOUND intersection then direct. Intersections are just points in space defined by radio navigation aids. They make it much easier to communicate navigational paths as I can just request an intersection and ATC then knows where I want to go. In this case WOUND keeps you over land as opposed to flying out over the gulf.
As I was saying Apalachicola is a sleepy town. Even so they have a nice airport. I took a risk and headed out without being sure of ground transport. As we were approaching to land the FBO (fixed based operator) inquired on the radio if we needed fuel. We did and I also asked if there was a courtesy car available. There was so we were set. We landed and taxied to the parking area. I was directed to a space right up front and before I could get out there was a car parked behind the plane idling and frosty cool inside.
So one problem when you arrive somewhere is how do you get from the airport to where you really want to go. In Knoxville Uber came to the rescue. Jekyll has the cool buggies but that is not the norm, OK it is like no where else. If we stay for the night or more we often rent a car. If you just need to a few hours many places have airport cars. Airport cars are there own discussion but basically you buy gas for they plane and they lend you a car. Good deal for both parties. The only problem can be if other people came before you and there is no car to borrow. Today we were lucky.
We headed out for lunch and drove through town and then over the bridge on highway 98 to Eastpoint. We stopped at a local joint called Lynns Quality Oysters. It is a seafood market and restaurant. Nothing fancy but the above picture was from the deck where we ate so the lack of decor is offset by the views.
Apalachicola is known for oysters but since it was not an R month we went with some shrimp and Mahi Mahi dip. The deck was great and the temperature by the water was high 70s, cold in Florida. The one issue is that to make the tasty smoked Mahi dip, they need to smoke fish each day. Some of the tables were directly downwind of the smoker but by seating ourselves strategically we mostly avoided the smoke.
After lunch we drove back to town. It is really only 2 blocks long and built around the tourist trade. We strolled a bit and took at the waterfront and old buildings.
No comments:
Post a Comment