I'll be flying down in Florida, what are some cool destinations?

LeonardMack

LeonardMack

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LeonardMack
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I'll be doing some flying down in Florida over Memorial Day weekend and I'm looking for airport destinations. Does anyone know of any?

I've gone to the website funplacestofly.com and adventurepilot.com, but I'm looking for any other cool things to see and do near airports!
 
Cedar Key(CDK)- seafood restaurant, kayaking, rent poles and fish off the pier.

NASA Shuttle Landing Facility(TTS) overfly the runway. Visit Cape Canaveral after tying down at TIX.
 
Yes, Cedar Key.

Added later: and Venice. If Sharkey's or take a taxi to the more upscale Crow's nest.
 
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I almost forgot to mention all of the beautiful CB we saw while down last May 31-June 12. Heading home we passed by Jacksonville to the East as they closed the airport to all inbound traffic. On-board XM weather was a life saver. Boy is it hot and humid down there. Have fun! Wave when you fly over PMH.
 
lunch at Sharkey's on the beach at Venice is great. KVNC

I love the flight to Key West

KSPG, Whited Airport is a nice little downtown airport in St. Petersburg
 
What about Kermit Weeks' Fantasy of Flight?
 
There is probably almost no place in Florida where you can fly, land, and not fiond something interesting and fun to do. There are small airports dotting the landscape from coast to coast. The obvious places such as Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Panhandle, Tampa/St Pete, Fort Myer, Key West, etc all have the obvious. However, many of the small towns, with their old but well maintained WWII era training airfield(which is where the majority of the airports in Florida found their origins), have their own places to have fun. What I would do is buy one of those out of the way places to visit books, see what is interesting to you, and plan to visit those places. The main issue with Florida flying is the weather. Mornings tend to be calm, and with little convective activity, but by afternoon, it is not unusual to have pop up thunderstorms, or heavy showers. Keeping constant track of the weather is a must, and do not be surprised if you need to scrub, or divert because of weather.

Have fun. Also remember that Florida has made the tourist trap a well oil machine, and there are many of them out there.
 
good point about the weather. A flying mentor likes to take off at sunrise and try to finish the trip before 11 am in the summer given the afternoon thunderstorms.
 
Most of the FL storms you can fly around and they shouldn't keep you from getting to your destination. You may have to wait an hr,etc but they move through pretty quick.
 
Mike5250 said:
Most of the FL storms you can fly around and they shouldn't keep you from getting to your destination. You may have to wait an hr,etc but they move through pretty quick.
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Most do move out of the area pretty quickly, some do not move out and hang for a bit, others pop up in other places. Been flying every weekend in Florida for over three years now, and have been pretty lucky avoiding the pop up thunderstorms. Got caught once in Hernando County. Landed about ten minutes before the first band hit the airport, and about an hour later it was gone, and flew home, though had to avoid a number of heavy showers. Once coming back to the west coast from Pompano. My home port is slight north west, and had to fly over the everglades to avoid the storms in my path. Both times were in the spring, and mid afternoon.

I still would fly in the early morning, and plan to spend the day and leave the next day, or leave in the early evening. I cannot think of nothing less fun than spending time in the air waiting for a thunderstorm to dissipate, so I can land. If I was on vacation and flying I would have a plan B location to spend the day if a thunderstorm was in the area. It is rare during the spring and summer that the forecast does not call for thunderstorms down here, but if you fly smart and preplan there is a lot of flying that can be done.
 
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Skarkys at Venice.


The Hangar at Whitted.


Clearwater Airpark.


Key West




Many good places.
 
Are you targeting a particular part of Florida?
In the Jacksonville area I recommend St Augustine KSGJ for a visit to the old section of town.
In the Orlando region I recommend KISM for a visit to Stallion 51 and Fantasy Of Flight.

Personal favorites:
KTIX
KLAL
KSPG
KCDK
KVRB
KEYW
KMTH
KFXE
 
Mike5250 said:
Most of the FL storms you can fly around and they shouldn't keep you from getting to your destination. You may have to wait an hr,etc but they move through pretty quick.
Click to expand...

I grew up there and spent the first 10 years flying there.
T-Storms are 99% local convective and scattered, not frontal storms like you get in most of the rest of the country. You can almost always navigate around them.

Keep a distance, know you'll probably have to go out of your way a bit, and be prepared to land and let them roll over you if necessary.
 
If you're flying down from Ohio, stop in at Triple Tree (SC00) located near Woodruff, SC. We have a 7000x400 ft. beautiful grass runway, hangar with some beautiful airplanes (Spartan Executive, BT-13, Cub, Stearman, etc) a wonderful gazebo, river, lakes, etc.. Triple Tree is the home of the Triple Tree Fly-In which is scheduled for Sept.4-8 this year. Unlimited camping, bath houses with granite counter tops, fishing, six miles of walking trails, fun, fellowship and hospitality. Let us know if you're going to stop in so we can meet you. There is fuel available at the event but not now. Laurens airport is nearby and has cheap gas.

www.tripletreeaerodrome.com

Rob
864-640-6573
 
Leonard, had I seen this I would have invited you to join us. We started off flying from Key West, to West Palm Beach to hit the National Croquet Club (totally amazing). Then we popped over to Tampa for dinner & a movie, then hit Naples the next day. After Naples, we came on back home to Key West.

FYI... I thought that Croquet was for the old at heart... I'm 34, and had a blast!
 
Thanks for all the suggestions guys... Ended up going to Kermit Weeks Fantasy of Flight. What a cool place. he has quite the collection! Also did some flying around and spent some time in St Pete, Lakeland and Flagler. It was a fun long weekend! I wish I would of had more time.
 
Not to necropost, but added another interesting runway to the collection over the 4th July weekend.
http://www.airnav.com/airport/FD51
aka Summerland Key Cove Airport
Friend of a friend has a house there and we were invited over. Interesting experience landing a 40 ft wide airplane on 20 ft wide runway knowing that your landing gear sits about 10 ft wide so there's about 5 ft of pavement on either side. Makes you think about that centerline :)
Overall pleasant experience, good gateway to the Keys if you rent a house there.
 
moonshine said:
Not to necropost, but added another interesting runway to the collection over the 4th July weekend.
http://www.airnav.com/airport/FD51
aka Summerland Key Cove Airport
Friend of a friend has a house there and we were invited over. Interesting experience landing a 40 ft wide airplane on 20 ft wide runway knowing that your landing gear sits about 10 ft wide so there's about 5 ft of pavement on either side. Makes you think about that centerline :)
Overall pleasant experience, good gateway to the Keys if you rent a house there.
Click to expand...


I can imagine that it was an interesting experience. The Keys are well known for often having strong winds, get a good crosswind at the limits of your airplane and you would really need to be up on your crosswind landing technique.
 
Moonshine, ya shoulda hollered at me!


Sent from my iPad using An APP that doesn't pay me to advertise.
 
Go down to Titusville and you can see the entire KSC complex, grab a car and go over to visit. Pretty darn cool before they put Atlantis on display (I went down there for the next to last Discovery launch).
 
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