April 1st: Off to Florida!

A while ago, my buddy Dave had asked me if I might want to go back to Sun N Fun again. I'm not really one to turn down the chance to drool on lots of airplanes, so in early April, we packed up his plane and headed south.

He has a Cessna 210, which is a bit faster than my C172.

We had a bit of an interesting departure from HWY; right after takeoff we had traffic in our face, then Dave had a hard time getting the landing gear to retract, but we eventually got it all sorted out and were on our way.

Visibility was great once we cleared the scattered cloud layer, but we wound up stuck in a mountain wave and Dave (or more accurately, the autopilot) had a hard time holding altitude. At least it was a smooth ride!

We continued south...

...and after a little while, landed at Lowcountry Regional (RBW) in SC.

We took a short break to grab a snack. There were some pretty cool planes in their hangar (including a C140)!

Dave was already in a great mood...he spent the whole time grumbling about how lazy the line guys were there and how he had to top off his own plane. I had to keep reminding him that he manages HWY, not RBW.

Dave eventually got his plane topped off and stopped grumbling, and we were off to Florida.

Bye, RBW!

There was plenty to see on the next leg of the trip. We passed a few big fires...

...some neat looking marshy rivers...

...a really interesting shipping facility in Georgia...

...and then flew directly over a jet on final for Savannah (SAV).

After a while, though, the clouds started creeping in.

I was really looking forward to this part...I don't fly in weather like this very often!

Right after I took the picture of my iPad, we went into the clouds. I always like flying actual IFR...it's so neat!

The further we got into the weather, the bumpier it got. One of the controllers climbed us from 4,000' to 6,000' to avoid some slower traffic, and it got even bumpier. (And of course, the traffic wound up being just close enough to our speed that we weren't able to ever really pass them and descend back down for a better ride.)

As we got closer to Kissimmee, the clouds started to break up below us.

They vectored us right over one of the Disney parks, which was pretty neat.

They lined us up on final...

...and a few minutes later, we were on the ground in Kissimmee (ISM).

They had the rental car ready for us, so we unloaded the plane, then drove over to visit Dave's daughter-in-law and granddaughter for a few minutes since they live so close to the airport. After that, we checked into the hotel, spent a few minutes settling in, then went back out to grab dinner.

There was a Steak n Shake nearby, so we went there. It's one of my favorite burger places, and the one near us recently closed, so I try not to pass up any chance I get to have some! After dinner we went back to the hotel and split up; I grabbed a shower and headed to bed. I wanted to make sure I was ready to go for the first day of Sun N Fun!

Lunch at Easton (ESN)

Back in February, we lucked out with a good weather day for flying. We figured we should make the most of it, so we decided to fly to Easton, MD, for lunch.

It's not every day that you get nice clear skies like this in the winter!

We had to cross the Chesapeake Bay to get there. I thought the patterns in the shallow water were pretty neat.

It took a few minutes to cross the bay...

...and get to Maryland. The water was so cold that you could see patches of ice here and there.

We started our descent...

...and entered the left downwind for Runway 22.

Ta da! Parked right out front at the FBO.   :)

Their cafe always has really tasty stuff. My cheeseburger with guacamole was really good, and it didn't take long for me to inhale everything on the plate.

After stuffing ourselves, it was time to head home. We basically retraced our route in reverse.

Over the patches of ice...

...over the Chesapeake Bay (I thought the cargo ship was pretty neat)...

...then around the restricted airspace before turning west toward Warrenton.

For part of the flight, you can follow the Rappahannock River. If you stay just on the north side of the river, it keeps you clear of all of the restricted airspace in the area.

Everything seemed normal as I set up to land, until I turned base. For some reason, the airplane wasn't descending as fast as it normally would. I figured maybe it was just me being a little rusty since I hadn't flown much lately. The problem continued onto final, and it wasn't until I was less than a half mile out and still too high and fast that I happened to look out the side window and immediately found the problem - my flaps never came down!

The flaps are meant to help you descend at a steeper angle as you come in to land, and without them, it's a little harder to get the plane to slow down and descend (especially if you're not paying attention and don't realize that they never come down). I added power for a go around, re-flew the pattern, and did a no flaps landing (and a very nice one, at that). I taxied back to the hangar with visions of expensive maintenance bills and a new flap motor floating through my head.

Luckily, my hangar neighbor, Gary, was nearby. He's been a mechanic longer than I've been alive, and he's usually my first stop if I'm not sure of something. (I'm very lucky to have him as a buddy!) I asked him if I could pick his brain and explained what happened.

He hopped up under my panel, had me turn on the master switch (battery), then poked at a handful of wires. A bunch of sparks shot out! Turns out the flap motor was fine; it was just a loose wire. Gary found a new screw, tightened everything back up, and we were good to go. It had been a fun day (and a good learning experience)!

November 26th: Flying and Cars and Food and Fun

The storms from the night before hung around into the morning, so when we woke up and looked outside...

...this is what we saw. It didn't exactly bode well for our plans for the day! The weather was forecast to improve as the day went on, so we had breakfast and coffee and hopped in the car anyway.

It was pretty cool to see some of the skyscrapers hidden in the clouds. While it didn't look the best at first, the weather did eventually improve enough so that...

...Megan and Marcus could make their first skydive! They were pretty excited.  :)

I spent several years working at a dropzone and already have a few tandem jumps under my belt, so I decided to put my money toward something a little different.

It's not often you get the chance to cruise around Dubai in a gyrocopter, after all!

It unfortunately didn't have dual controls, so I didn't get to do any flying, but I made sure to soak up as much as I could from the pilot about what flying a gyrocopter is really like. (Short answer: very fun.)

Frank, the pilot, is an expat, too; he's originally from Hungary. We chatted for a couple minutes while he fire up the engine and waited for the skydiving plane to load up and depart. Then, it was our turn.

It was pretty neat to not need a big runway to get in the air! This is looking back toward the dropzone and Dubai Marina. It's definitely one of the more scenic airports I've flown out of!

We turned out toward the water after we departed, and the views kept getting better and better.

We started out by flying around the Palm. It was incredible to see from the air.

This is Atlantis; it's a giant resort that sits on the very far end of the Palm.

After the Palm, we cruised past the Burj Al Arab.

We flew past a few of the beaches...

...and eventually wound up near Downtown before turning around to make our way back to the dropzone. You can just see the Burj Khalifa hiding behind the clouds.

There were huge open cutouts in the canopy, so the views were incredible.

Somewhere down in the maze of light brown buildings is where we'd had tea (and stuffed ourselves) the day before.

The view looking toward Dubai Marina. You can just make out the runway for the dropzone near the middle of the frame.

All too soon, we were on final...

...then back on the ground. It was such a cool experience, and a really fun way to see the city. Also, I may need to add a gyrocopter to my shopping list.

My ride came with video and pictures, too!

It's hard to beat a background like that!   :)

After I landed, I met up with the others. Megan and Marcus really liked their skydive; Megan liked it so much that she mentioned maybe going back for a second one sometime. We got all of our things, made a quick stop at their house to regroup, then headed over to...

...Lime Tree Cafe for lunch. I got a frittata and it was delicious.

After lunch, we did a little window shopping. I'm always impressed by how massive the supercars like these are.

I mean, I could probably fit one of these in my budget somehow. Right?   :)

We also went to Tomini to check out their selection; I somehow don't have any pictures from there. They specialize in classic cars, and their collection is incredible. One of the employees noticed that we seemed to really appreciate what they had, and asked us if we wanted to see their vault. Of course we did! He took us through a garage door and into another roomed stuffed with awesome cars, some stacked two high on racks. It was fantastic.

We eventually finished drooling on the cars, said thank you and goodbye, then went to a more 'normal' car dealership so Marcus could try to sell his car. Megan and Marcus weren't going to be in Dubai much longer; Marcus had accepted a new ATC job in New Zealand, so they needed to start prepping for their move. We all hung out at the dealership for a little while before leaving Marcus to handle the car stuff himself and grabbing an Uber back to the house.

A shower, some wine, and another Uber later...

...we were downtown at Basta, eating some delicious Italian food.

The view from our table was pretty sweet, too.

Mark had done a bit of research ahead of time, so after dinner, we went upstairs, passed through a door marked 'Private', and wound up at Poppy, a really neat speakeasy. We had almost the entire place to ourselves, and we hung out for a while, enjoying our tasty drinks.

After Poppy, we went over to Nippon Bottle Company for another drink, then crossed the lobby..

...and wound up at another bar with outdoor seating. Not a bad view!

We wrapped up the night with wine, some shisha, and a sweet view of the Burj Khalifa. It was 1am by the time we made it back to the house, and we all went straight to bed. It had been a very fun day!