Claimed 2 for Operation Fly today

[jsstevens]

I can't say that Operation Fly influenced me to get in the air, but it did influence what I chose to do while flying.

I had a nice flight from Orlando Executive (KORL) to Inverness (X40) this morning. I claimed both airports (pending).

It was a bit cooler this morning and the flight out was very nice and smooth at 2500 ft. I landed at X40, parked in front of "Whiskey Bravo Air" and got the requisite picture (pic 1). They are very nice folks. I chatted with them for a few minutes, had a drink of water and left.

I taxied out toward runway 1 and saw both a large tractor and the large flocks of birds it was stirring up, so I turned onto the runway at A2. I decided that the runway behind me would be a waste and so I back taxied on runway 1. There was no traffic at 40 today, so I felt that was the better choice than risking tangling with the tractor & birds or wishing I had more runway. The takeoff was smooth, and I turned toward Orlando at about 500 ft. I continued my climb up to 3500 ft. - above the little puff balls that were forming (pic 2). When I tuned in KORL tower it was _busy_. Since I was still over 20 miles out I just listened for a while. I also pushed over just slightly to improve my ground speed and get under the class B shelf of Orlando International. See lake Apopka (pic 3) I called in at 12 miles and was vectored toward the airport, then told to make a 270 left turn and head south. Just before I would have busted the class B lower shelf, I was cleared direct to the numbers. I was getting threaded between jets, TBM 850's and a couple of Cessnas on training flights. It was not particularly hairy - the tower was doing a very nice job - but it was nice to see & hear that much traffic!

Anyway, I flew and I'm excited. And I wouldn't have picked Inverness except it hadn't been claimed yet.

John

 

[denverpilot]

Kinda fun ain't it?

 

[SkyHog]

I can't say that Operation Fly influenced me to get in the air, but it did influence what I chose to do while flying.

I had a nice flight from Orlando Executive (KORL) to Inverness (X40) this morning. I claimed both airports (pending).

It was a bit cooler this morning and the flight out was very nice and smooth at 2500 ft. I landed at X40, parked in front of "Whiskey Bravo Air" and got the requisite picture (pic 1). They are very nice folks. I chatted with them for a few minutes, had a drink of water and left.

I taxied out toward runway 1 and saw both a large tractor and the large flocks of birds it was stirring up, so I turned onto the runway at A2. I decided that the runway behind me would be a waste and so I back taxied on runway 1. There was no traffic at 40 today, so I felt that was the better choice than risking tangling with the tractor & birds or wishing I had more runway. The takeoff was smooth, and I turned toward Orlando at about 500 ft. I continued my climb up to 3500 ft. - above the little puff balls that were forming (pic 2). When I tuned in KORL tower it was _busy_. Since I was still over 20 miles out I just listened for a while. I also pushed over just slightly to improve my ground speed and get under the class B shelf of Orlando International. See lake Apopka (pic 3) I called in at 12 miles and was vectored toward the airport, then told to make a 270 left turn and head south. Just before I would have busted the class B lower shelf, I was cleared direct to the numbers. I was getting threaded between jets, TBM 850's and a couple of Cessnas on training flights. It was not particularly hairy - the tower was doing a very nice job - but it was nice to see & hear that much traffic!

Anyway, I flew and I'm excited. And I wouldn't have picked Inverness except it hadn't been claimed yet.

John

Great!! Sounds like a really fun day.

Some of my favorite flights have been ones in which the clouds are just starting to form as you described....there's just something cool about dancing with cloud babies.

 

[jsstevens]

Yes, it was fun.

And I should correct: I only claimed 1. I didn't realize until later that I couldn't claim my home field.

I would have claimed 2 anyway. I planned to leave an hour earlier and fly to Brooksville (KBKV) as well, but there was a scheduling mix up so I left later and didn't have time. As it was I taxied up just as the CFI and his student drove out to get the plane.

I'm looking over the maps and there are a ton of unclaimed airports in my area. It'll be good motivation to go places and good practice flying into and out of unfamiliar airports.

Thanks to Nick (and anyone I'm leaving out) for restarting this.

John