Hi to our RV family of friends!
I have to APOLOGIZE for the delayed post to this thread but I am having MAJOR computer malfunctions. I’m thankful Scott “Scoot” Card is here to help, and we’ll hit it hard on Wednesday to figure out what is going on: I can’t get into my website to upload pictures AND the connection here is very, very slow
UPDATE 4/10/13: My VAF family of friends (Mike Bullock) got me back online, and pictures have been added)
Like and ‘Audio Book’, please try to imagine what I am trying to describe with the written word. I will do my very best to get pictures up via another source (that Scoot helps me with, thank you!
Our flight briefing on Monday night (April 8th) took nearly an hour with a break in the middle for PIZZA (thank you Indira!). Once complete, flight leads gathered for their brief and then we called to file our flight plans.
Something I wanted to try was to file ONE flight plan for Alpha flight. If you pull up an international flight plan (with instructions), it says you can enter the number in your flight in BOX 9 then enter their data (TYP/RV6 N212JC) in the remarks section. When talking with the briefer, he skipped over this box. I asked about it, and he said that it is NOT EVEN AN OPTION for him on the computer system!?! No worries as he was able to ‘my flight plan’ and I was able to give the Name, RV Type, N number etc for each of my wingmen. Our filed route of flight was X51 direct MBPV with a planned speed of 150 knots, 9500’ MSL with ETE 3:30.
This is my third trip here, and I really hope that some of you can also fly here and enjoy the beautiful water and friendly ‘belongers’ who live here.
Tuesday, April 9th was our departure day from Homestead (X51) to Providenciales (MBPV), Turks & Caicos and it started at 0515. After getting packed up, we met the group in the lobby at 0600 for breakfast, and all were ready to depart the hotel at 0630.
We loaded up the three (3) minivans with 17 people, and I arrived in Minivan #1 to the airport ~0650 with Minivan #2 in-trail....where's Cookie....what happened Cookie!?! Well....it's probabaly a GOOD idea to do a flight 'Check-in' at the hotel PRIOR to departing... Tanya was part of the convoy, however, a phone to call to her Van had her IMMEDIATELY turn around and go back to the hotel to pick up John & Dani Wilson...sorry about that!
Minivan #3 arrived to the airport to find everyone readying their airplanes, canopy covers were draped over tails, bags packed, and thorough preflights.
Jailbird & Indira
Sugar Daddy & Trophy Wife
Here the ‘donning’ of the life vests for the now-customary group picture:
Alpha Flight:
Rosie, Keys and Bill ‘need a call sign’ Wootton turned-props at ~0740 and were wheels up at ~0753.
The subsequent flights were separated by 10 min, and here’s the line up (leads listed first):
Bravo Flight:
Jailbird, Taco & Belle, Opie (Doug Dodson-Glasair I FT, my skypark neighbor)
Charlie Flight:
Cookie & Scoot, Sharkbait & Steph
Delta Flight:
Sugar Daddy & Trophy Wife, Moody Blue & Bun, Deuce and Laura McFarland
I contacted Homestead (Reserve Base) airport for clearance through the Class Delta airspace which was granted. Once clear of their airspace at 2500’ MSL (RVs climb GREAT at sea level), we switched to our tactical frequency assigned (by me) to Alpha Flight. The time from takeoff from X51 to the coastline is <10 minutes at best and then you are ‘feet wet’.
Minutes after crossing the coastline eastbound, we contacted Miami Radio (122.2) and opened our flight plans individually as ‘briefed’ by the briefer.
There were no BIG clouds to speak of on departing the coastline, and Alpha flight climbed to 9500’ MSL. As we reached Andros Island, the low level clouds ‘starting’ popping up everywhere.
By the end of the first flight hour, we could see ahead (100nm) that the flights might have to either climb or descend below the clouds (I like to climb to conserve on the fuel). Sure enough, as we got closer, I thought that we were probably going to be climbing to 11,500’.
I gave Bravo flight a call and let Jailbird know that I was ‘thinking’ about climbing (they were ~40nm behind us). Next thing I hear on the Miami frequency both he and I were using: Jailbird called Miami Center to let him know that his flight was climbing to 11,500’. Peer pressure caused me to cave so I called Miami Radio with “…What he said…” Up we went….and the deck started ‘climbing’ up to us so…Up we went again... to 13,500’ for about 20 minutes. That's Keys high and to the right:
Once on the backside, we were able to get back down to 11,500’ where we stayed (until my Garmin 496 VNAV function alerted ‘time to descend’)
Something I failed to mention is that during the flight, we ‘gabbed’, lied, told stories (there I was…), took pictures of each other’s planes, remained silent and just soaked in the view…lots of fun! Flight leads also passed on information to other leads…and I can’t tell you how many times I forgot to hit the ‘Monitor’ feature on my SL30 after a ‘flip-flop’. Here’s what I heard more times that I care to admit (but will): “Rosie, Miami center is calling you on 126.1” I had flipped to the tactical frequency for other flights and forgot to press Monitor, YiKeS!
Miami Center handed us over to Providenciales (Provo Approach) at ~60nm, and with an on-course heading of 117 degrees as we continued inbound. Look at my ground track to Provo, and you can see that I flew a slight dogleg to line up, runway heading (110 degrees).
Here the 'downline' from 11,500' to 1000' MSL:
And here’s something NEW TO ME (Jimmyb, Seismo, Scotty take note): Provo approach told us, that by 25nm to the airport, our flight needed to be separated by…get this…NO KIDDING…10nm…yea….Riiigghhtt…that’s NOT going to happen.
Linear Mode
