Oh the things you might see!

Samantha returns to the West Coast tomorrow.  She is off to start her new job.  She had a request today, could we fly one more time.  I looked at the weather mid day and it looked like it might work.

After work we headed out to the plane and we had storms to the South, storms to the North and storms to the West.  Around us we had blue skies so off we went.  Sam wanted to get some pictures.  We first went to Saint Simons and then we needed to look at the Bridge.  Must be a Civil Engineering thing.

On the way South we flew past the King Bay inlet and saw one of the Nuclear subs returning to port. 

From there we headed downtown to enjoy the view and the blue skies.

After that it was a quick fuel stop and back to the hangar.

(Photo Credits - All Sam)

Shuttle Tour

CC and I had some time today so I decided to take her on a tour.  Florida is home to KTTS, also known as the the NASA shuttle Landing Facility.  It is 15,001 feet of pavement on Cape Canaveral.  Back in the day space shuttles landed here but now it is just a runway. 

The airspace over the runway is part of a restricted area but it has not been active much lately.  Even when it was, with permission you could usually swing by for a tour.

We  headed South IFR and passing Daytona we let the controller know we wanted the shuttle tour.  On the hand off to Orlanda approach he asked our intentions.  I requested a visual to KTTS and told him we would go missed and would like to continue IFR back North to 28J.

The controller cleared us as requested, we were told to stay our of R-2932, the restricted airspace East of the runway and to not touch the surface.  Tower was closed  so we switched to advisory frequency and commenced our tour.

I stayed high so we could have a steep descent to get a feel for what the shuttle pilots see.  The standard descent rate for jets and stabilized approaches is 3 degrees.  We flew 7 degrees nose down from 2000 feet to get a better feel and the shuttle came in at a 20 degree angle, 7 times a standard approach.

We leveled off over the runway going close to 180 mph, it takes about a minute to fly the entire runway.  This is a lot more than we need.  We can easily land in 1000 feet and departed in 600 today.  You get the view of the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) on the way by and they have a shuttle or a mockup on  the ramp too.

On the way back we were routed right over Daytona Beach airport which is home to the Daytona speedway.  Clouds got in the way of the picture but you can see how it is tucked next to the runways.  Good land use putting noisy things together.

It's a sign!

Last year the girls got me a sign for the hangar.  It was useful because it told me that it was my  hangar.  This year for Fathers Day they decided to be a bit more specific.

The new sign clearly reserves the space for my plane only.

They did a very nice job matching the paint scheme.

This came at a useful time as I needed to take the plane South for some maintenance.  Now I know my spot will be saved.  My AC compressor has been functioning less efficiently lately so off it comes and a new one will be installed.

The trip South this morning went very smoothly.  We departed and had an almost direct flight.  Approaching New Smyrna we were given the runway that would let us roll out and right up to the shops ramp.

The controllers were also very chipper and I received many Fathers Day well wishes.  I made the plane drop even more efficient by stopping on the way back to see family and to get some tasty BBQ at the Daytona Pig Stand.