Original we planned to have our annual family trip to visit Destin, Florida in May. Due to both our boys' graduation and subsequently moving to Indy, we delayed it to early June. The plan is for two of us fly our RV-9A down and the boys will fly commercial from Indianapolis. We have a rental car and a two bedroom condo reserved at Destin. The early morning of 10th, a severe thunderstorm passed through Ohio. I was waken up three times by the noise of thunder. Fortunately, by the morning the storm has past. We drove to the airport at 8:00 am and loaded our stuff. When checked the weather, I realized that wind aloft was strong and opposite to our direction. The best economy and speed altitude is only 4,500'. With the overcast sky and haze we took off from Portsmouth, Ohio.
6/10/2008 - Trip going down to Florida
Due to the relatively strong southwesterly wind, our head wind at 4,500' was 27 kts. The higher the stronger head wind. We flew over Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Over Tennessee and western corner of Georgia, the mountains were really close to us since we flew low. We got to enjoy the beautiful scenery below. Although we had enough fuel to reach Florida, sitting in the cockpit for such a long time is not very healthy. We decided to stop at Dalton, Georgia (not planned) for rest stop. The fuel price at Dalton is more than $6.00 per gallon. Of course, we did not take any fuel there. After Dalton we entered Alabama and encounter clouds at our flight level. We descend to 3,000' to avoid the clouds and get less head wind (12 kts). Our fuel stop is 60 nm north of Destin at Elba, Alabama (14J). 14J is a small airport with $4.88/gal fuel. The facility at the airport is very old. But, it is air conditioned and open (not like a lot of small airports lock their facility when not attended) for pilot to use. We filled almost 30 gals of fuel.
After 14J we were going to fly south west directly over KCEW that is at the north end of the Eglin Air force Base restrict airspace north-south transit corridor. We were going to pick up our clearance from Eglin Approach at there and fly south to Destin. Since there were heavy rain activity over our flight path, we diverted to south before going west toward KCEW. 10 nm east of KCEW I called Eglin approach at 124.05 and obtained my clearance to fly south. From the chart below (click to enlarge) you can see that Destin (KDTS) is right south (5 nm) of KVPS that is also the Eglin air force base airport. While flying south over Eglin, approach told me two of the visual reporting points. Strange enough, I never read about these two reporting points anywhere. First point is NR2, that is an abandoned airfield east and in-between two major Eglin airfields. On the chart it is marked "EGLIN NR2". The second one is "White Point" that is at the north end of the Mid-bay bridge. As I am typing this report I saw those two reporting points on the sectional chart. Well, I rely on electronic chart and did not bring a sectional.
Soon after passing NR2 approach freed us to descend to Destin. Destin being a popular vacation beech during the hot season is filled with jets. The linemen at Destin Miracle Strip Aviation truly rolled out the red carpet service for us (at least for my wife on the right hand side). Before we deboard, the twin behind us started engine and made a lot of noise. We waited for it to taxi out before we got off the airplane. It turns out the airplane behind us was carrying the governor of Mississippi. You never know who you are going to meet at those airports (one time in May I had Michelle Obama's jet ahead of us. Using their golf cart they brought us to the terminal and brought the rental car right to the front door.
Chart
APRS track.
Destin, Florida Vacation
Since this is an aviation related website, I will limit my discussions to aviation. Here are some of the vacation photos: Vacation Photos.
6-15-2008 Return Trip
After 5 days in Destin, we return on Sunday morning. Since our boys flight out of KVPS is at 6:00 am, we got up at 4:00 am and send them to the commercial/military airport. It took almost 40 minutes to drive to the airport. It took another 40 minutes to get to our GA airport (in town) including fill up the fuel tank. We did our weather check, paid airport fees ($10 for landing and $6 a day tie down), loaded airplane (drive right to the airplane), and drank morning coffee. Before departure we first called Eglin Clearance Delivery at 127.7 to get a transponder code. Since we departed before 7:00 am on weekend, the Eglin departure is not open yet, we have to work with Jacksonville Center. The departure runway was rwy 32. Since rwy 32 points directly to KVPS 5 nm away, you are not allowed to fly runway heading. Within 1 nm of departure, you are supposed to turn crosswind, then, downwind toward coast and call departure. We got to the coast and switch to Jacksonville frequency. Unfortunately, I set the radio to monitoring standby frequency and Jacksonville called me before I try to call him. I heard the call and without thinking, pushed the PTT button. What I did not realize was that I was still on Destin CTAF frequency. Since I heard Jacksonville, I thought I had switched. Later I realized that since there was a Cirrus waiting on rwy 14 for IFR departure, Jacksonville called me because he wanted to get me out of the way so he can clear the IFR traffic. They usually wait for your call and don't call you first. Since he called me and cleared me, I just turn north. When he saw me made the turn on his radar scope, he knew I heard him and must had a radio problem. He gave me climb clearance and asked me to ident. I was puzzled yet repeated his clearance, hit the ident and climb. Now Jacksonville is sure that I can hear but not talk. He kept giving me clearance and said ident. After several minutes in climb I glanced the radio and realized what has happened. I immediately hit the swap frequency switch and called out to Jacksonville Center. He was glad that I was back yet he never said anything to that effect. I am sure that he is used to people having radio problems.
Departing Destin.
At 9,500' we were above the layer of clouds. We could see to our east there were a lot areas with rain activities. There were patches of area clear of clouds. The wind aloft forecast indicated that we were going to have headwind all the way back. We planned a fuel stop in Oneida, TN (KCSX). On my WX weather, it showed wind calm, 10 m visibility, and 100' ceiling. Since it was still 3 hours away and the day is early, I was hoping the sun will burn up the ground fog by the time we get there.
Strong Headwind
We were handed off from one approach control to another. By the time we got to Tennessee, Oneida reported to have 800' ceiling. I was not going to take an instrument approach to get fuel. Looking at the fuel remaining (time) on EFIS and the ETA to Portsmouth, I realized that we can make it with 30 minutes of fuel reserve. I called approach to amend our destination and turned right 30 degrees for Portsmouth. In order to conserve fuel, I throttled back to 2,200 rpm and burn less than 6 gph. We arrived at Portsmouth to a clear sky with light cross wind. In 4 hr 9 minutes we made the trip all the way from Florida back. Isn't RV great?
Departing Destin track.
Return trip track