Ten Border Crossings

Leaving one state and entering another on the ground always seems a bit special.  Even on the side roads there is typically a sign and now my car's GPS lets me know about the momentous occasions.  When we fly, unless we are paying attention, we go from state to state typically without recognition.

CC and I went for a quick flight this morning.   The departure was fun.  We were behind a slower Cessna and the tower originally told us to climb to 1,000' before turning.  After liftoff I verified I had the traffic in sight and asked if we could maintain visual seperation and turn early.  It was granted and we easily outclimed and outran the traffic.

We headed West around the South side of the JAX class C.  I had not picked up a code but I was watching the traffic and saw they were using Runway 8.  My path would take me under their final so I gave JAX a call and asked for a code.  The first controller tagged us up and then asked that we fly Southwest to avoid their final and specifically a plane about to join.

We did as requested and frankly she seemed overly concerned.  The opposing traffic was several miles away at the closest approach and 2,300' above us.  Once clear of the traffic, she handed us to the JAX approach North sector and he sent us on our way.  Today's flight was a mixture of pilotage practice, flying for fun and border crossings.

We soon left Florida just West of JAX.  The line between Florida and Georgia runs pretty straignt along the 31st parrallel until it hits the Chatahoochee River where it jogs South to Chattahoochee and then it's straight line over to the headwaters of the St. Marys river.  It then follows the river to the Atlantic Ocean.  This makes for a rather curvy border near Jacksonville.

We headed back North East to look at Hilliard Air Park.  Just East of St. George we crossed back into Florida.  It had been a while since I was last by Hilliard and wanted to take a look.  It looked pretty good.  If I had a more grass friendly plane, I might haved dropped in.  My next objective was Davis Field.  I had seen it on the map before but never looked for it.  It's only 2,500' long so not much use for the Baron.

We followed the railroad tracks until we once again crossed into Georgia and then looked left and there it was.  It was quite old school just looking outside and following the ground features.  Davis looks really nce and we took a swing around and then headed back to Florida.  Rolling out on about a 70 degree heading we were in then out then in then out then in then out of Florida again.

Up by Davis Field and Just East there are some cool places where the river bends such that you could start in Florida walk South, swim across the river and end up in Georgia.  So don't let anyone tell you that Georgia is North of Florida.  While that is mostly true, it is not completetely true.

Once we were done border crossing we headed to the coast, double checked that Mayport and the TFR were not active and then headed back home completing our final crossing.  We made a smooth touchdown and put the plane away until next time.  In all we crossed the Florida Georgia  border 10 times in less than an hour.

Traffic 12 O'Clock high closure rate

 

I had gone down to Sarasota this morning and was on my way back.  Tampa had climbed me to 5,000' and I wsa on an assigned heading.  I heard a Southwest flight get called traffic, 12'Oclock 12 miles and then I was given the traffic, opposite direction at 6,000'.

The controller told me to look for a 737, which is all that Southwest has.  Looking at the traffic display I saw the target and selected it.  The GTN650 xi allows you to select a target.  It then gives you the identifier, aircraft type and closure rate.  The closure this morning was 446 knots.  

This made sense, you can ignore the wicjed headwind I had as it impacted both of us.  My TAS was around 178 knots which meant he was moving 286 knots.  The speed limit is 250 but since he was at 6,000', his TAS was likely around this, my numbers say he was a few knots fast but who's counting.

I had him on ADSB at 12 miles and by tapping the icon I saw that he would pass almost right over me.  Technology is awesome.  So at 464 knots closure, we were closing the gap at 7.7 miles a minute.  This means the gap shrinks 1 mile every 7.76 seconds.  The visibility was pretty good, more than 10 miles.  Lots of clouds out but we were both in clear air.  He had his lights on and I had mine on, including my landing light pulse lights.

This is what I saw at 21 seconds out or 3.2 miles.  Yeah I had nothing.  Typically I find that you pick up traffic about 2 miles out in these conditions.  Let me zoom in, I did not see him but the phone did capture him, my guess is that with the head on profile it was too small a dot for my eyes to detect.

I saw him a few seconds before this picture which was likely right around 2 miles.  This picture is at about 9 seconds before we passed.  

My final snapshot was about half mile apart.  I had already called the traffic but the Southwest crew never saw me.  I am not surprised, with the lighting and looking down, they would have had a small window to pick me out.  The emlargement is the first picture above.  You can clearly see the Southwest colors but in the moment it was a black shape that came and went fast.