Recent fun trip to Marco Island from Tucson, AZ and flight down the Keys past MTH Marathon

[Jim02U]

On Monday Mar 9 I flew my RV6A to HDC Hammond, LA from 57AZ in Tucson, with a fuel stop in BPG Big Spring, TX, then flew to MKY Marco Island on the 10th, with a fuel stop at FPY Perry-Foley, FL. On Thursday the 12th, I flew a friend from Marco Island down the Keys from Key Largo past Marathon over the 7 mile bridge before landing at MTH. After a break we flew back to MKY. Here is a video:

On Friday the 13th I departed MKY and flew around Marco Island before heading north along the FL west shoreline.

I was lucky and had good weather for my trip. On day 1, I had to fly well south of Baton Rouge to get around storms before landing at HDC Hammond. The rest of the trip I had good weather, but on my return trip, I had 40 kt headwinds in West TX and all of NM. It was slow going, but not too turbulent at 6500 the rest of the way to Tucson. Fortunately I gained a couple hours from timezone changes from Hammond (CDT) to Tucson (MST) and got home well before dark.
It was a fun trip that had been on my bucket list for several years and I finally got a nice break with the weather along the gulf in both directions.

 

[GoFly]

We love flying down to marathon, just like you were doing. Thanks for reminding us how pretty the view can be

 

[455 Bravo Uniform]

Very nice. I hope to make that trip one day soon. Thanks for sharing the short vids.

 

[jeanathon]

Neat!