tlewis95
I drive planes
Decided that I needed a bit of twice-prop time and found someone that was in to pay for half. So why not? Lets do Spring Break the right way. This was a Seminole being rented out of JA at Aurora, IL and just received new paint, interior, and G500 glass cockpit. (Still had a "new airplane smell" when we got back)
Trip started Sunday (3/13) night as we flew into LEX from ARR for a short nap before continuing into ATL (which was crazy smooth and easy) in the morning to get a tour of Southernjets Ops/Sims. After that morning it was down to Panama City Beach, FL (ECP) for a night which kinda sucked for us because we couldn't do much with our early AM departure to Pensacola, FL (PNS) the next morning. That flight was fun being at 1000' AGL down the Gulf Coast for 80nm or so into Pensacola, which was actually way more stressful than ATL, with tons of vectoring and speed restrictions and traffic to call. We spent the night with a friend of a friend of ours (who used to be #3 in command at the NAS) after a nice night on the beach. Then it was early AM wakeup for a special viewing of a Blue Angels practice and tour of the NAS provided by the retired Navy officer we stayed with. After all of that fun, we spent a few hours in the awesome Naval Aviation Museum before making out way out of Pensacola for a stroll around Dauphin Island, AL (4R9). We mostly stopped there because of the cool airport (see pics) and were soon on our way into Nawlins (MSY) for the night. We toured the tower there while waiting for my co-pilot friends doctor to arrive from MDW so that he could take us to his house, where we would spend that night. The morning was spent strolling around the bars, cafes, restaurants, strip clubs, shops, etc of the French Quarter before taking a cab back to MSY for our next leg. I ended up taking our cab driver (oddly enough looking like Morgan Freeman) for a local VFR ride so that he could do some flying in order to cross something off of his bucket list. An hour later, and we were on our way home to Chicago with a stop in MEM for some Rendezvous BBQ and gas. It ended up being 13.8 hobbs total for this awesome 4 day time building run in a great airplane. I apologize for the choppy write up, but I don't want to bore anyone with a 3 page essay on what we did, and the pictures below are worth thousands of words, so enjoy! This is only a few of about 500 that I took too btw.
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N449JA/history/20110314/0140Z/KARR/KLEX (our first leg)
Awesome decoration at TAC Air - LEX
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The only weather we hit was here between LEX and ATL
Beavis and Butthead trying to score
It cleared up well though
"lined up like rocketts" going into ATL
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Final for 26R at ATL
Buying gas at $7.70/gal :drool: at the busiest airport in the world
Delta dispatch. Lots of talk about the earthquake/tsunami still going on
Delta 763 Box
Shooting touch and goes in the B732 sim
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Me wrestling the 732 into ATL during a T-Storm at minimums... :insane: Fun ride. Haha
Getting in and out of ATL was crazy simple. No delay at all.
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Just waited for him on 26R and we were line up and wait, and gone
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We were vectored in a right 270 to head straight over the field to the South for PCB!
Just before a low VFR run down the beach to Pensacola!
These guys have been flying with me just about all over the country now. They provide for some conversations at gas stops.
(could REALLY get used to this) Running the Travis AFB transition route
Crossing over the beach to the inter-coastal waterway
Yours truly in PNS
VERY NIZE
Our special viewing area for the Blues
(L to R - Me, Friend/Co-pilot, Friend we stayed with)
Ended up flying the T6 II sims around a bit too.
The Dunk Tank
F-14s are always bigger in person to me than in pictures
One last reminder on this T6 I guess
DC-3 on skis = win
Getting a lesson on the preflight of an Intruder (the guy we stayed with had done 4 tours off of the boat in them)
I also had no idea that the NC-4 was this big!
Line and delay getting out of PNS...(which there was none of at ATL...)
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Next stop - Dauphin Island, AL! (4R9)
Unfortunately only had time to walk around and take a few pictures here before going to MSY
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Over the Gulf (farthest ive been away from shore)
To the house of the...setting sun....or something
'Nawlins
Hanging out with MSY tower for an hour or so
Bourbon St. the next morning
French Quarter (New Orleans is definitely a town I want to go back and spend more than 18 hours in)
IT WAS ST. PATTIES DAY TOO! But we couldn't get the airplane another day...
Cab driver and I after our flight around downtown. :bandit: (First time that I have done local VFR in a Bravo. Haha)
Being vectored onto a final for 18L at MEM
Parking at WILSON FBO with some Apaches. (I started laughing right around here when I made a FedEx/Wilson connection. :crazy
Letting the Stec 55x fly the 450nm leg home...
Finally home around midnight at ARR with her sister ship 445JA. Now only a 1.5 hour drive to my bed in Rockford.
Hope you enjoyed!
P.S. I apologize again for any choppiness and grammatical errors, but this took me a while to put together and it is getting late. Haha
