Sid Lambert
Well Known Member
As all of you are well aware, it is winter here in the states. It?s even winter here in the south. After a week of snow, ice, cold and being stuck in the house the weather finally broke on Saturday. The wife and I decided an airplane trip to the warmer south was in order Friday I had planned on finding 80 degrees but our late start in the morning would have pushed us getting home well after our doggies like to eat so we decided to try out Dog Island in the Gulf of Mexico.
I?ve seen a few people ask about it on VAF but no one had any insight on the conditions of the runway or surrounding areas. I made a quick call to the phone number listed on Airnav.com and a gentleman answered. He said the runway looked fine but he wasn?t too convincing. Fine to a non-pilot and fine to an RV pilot may be WAY off. All I took from that conversation is there were no houses or trenches dug through the runway but not the actual condition.
Nonetheless, we loaded up and left north Georgia around 10:30 AM, skirted ATL airspace, climbed to 4500 and then skirted the restricted area around Columbus. It was a wonderful, albeit cool, flight down and only took 1:33 minutes until ?feet wet?. Aren?t RV?s great? I was worried about flying to an island but knew it was only a few miles off shore so we stayed high. Once we got to the water, I realized I could glide in without any problems so I started a descent for a clearing pass to the south. We flew down the runway to check for holes, wildlife or people. On the clearing pass I saw no signs that anyone had landed there in recent times but it looked safe. We setup for a Q turn landing back to the north. I kept up the speed because I wanted to feel out the ground with the left main before just plopping it down in 3-point stance on a field I knew nothing about. I was however pleasantly surprised that the runway was very smooth. In fact, it?s probably the smoothest runway I?ve landed on behind Triple Tree in South Carolina.
After we shutdown I went to pay. I opened the mailbox and there was 1 envelope that was already written on. Just from the date and the situation, I would say the last airplane to land there was in September of last year. I gave my $10 as requested and then set off to find a bathroom. We quickly realized there were no bathrooms. The wife was not so happy about that but it didn?t bother me much. We saw not one person on the island, nothing but abandoned cars and a few birds. In fact, it was down right creepy. After a walk on beach and picking seashells we decided it was lunch time. I didn?t bring any fishing poles so back in the airplane we went. As we taxied out, we finally saw signs of life! A rather large raccoon scurried across the runway looking as bewildered at us as we did him. Take-off was as smooth as landing but we did circle the island once to gain a little altitude.
10 minutes later were sitting in Hamaknockers Oasis at the end of Wakulla County?s grass runway. Decent BBQ with a great location is something I can?t pass up. The locals were very accommodating and friendly. Once stuffed, we headed back to the cold air of north Georgia. Overall, it was a great day. Sunny beach, with fall like temps, good food and 4 hours on the Hobbs. Not to shabby.
I?d plan a trip back to Dog Island when the weather gets warm. I have even read that camping permits are available from the mainland but you need to take your pooh out with you.
Video of the landing...
I?ve seen a few people ask about it on VAF but no one had any insight on the conditions of the runway or surrounding areas. I made a quick call to the phone number listed on Airnav.com and a gentleman answered. He said the runway looked fine but he wasn?t too convincing. Fine to a non-pilot and fine to an RV pilot may be WAY off. All I took from that conversation is there were no houses or trenches dug through the runway but not the actual condition.
Nonetheless, we loaded up and left north Georgia around 10:30 AM, skirted ATL airspace, climbed to 4500 and then skirted the restricted area around Columbus. It was a wonderful, albeit cool, flight down and only took 1:33 minutes until ?feet wet?. Aren?t RV?s great? I was worried about flying to an island but knew it was only a few miles off shore so we stayed high. Once we got to the water, I realized I could glide in without any problems so I started a descent for a clearing pass to the south. We flew down the runway to check for holes, wildlife or people. On the clearing pass I saw no signs that anyone had landed there in recent times but it looked safe. We setup for a Q turn landing back to the north. I kept up the speed because I wanted to feel out the ground with the left main before just plopping it down in 3-point stance on a field I knew nothing about. I was however pleasantly surprised that the runway was very smooth. In fact, it?s probably the smoothest runway I?ve landed on behind Triple Tree in South Carolina.
After we shutdown I went to pay. I opened the mailbox and there was 1 envelope that was already written on. Just from the date and the situation, I would say the last airplane to land there was in September of last year. I gave my $10 as requested and then set off to find a bathroom. We quickly realized there were no bathrooms. The wife was not so happy about that but it didn?t bother me much. We saw not one person on the island, nothing but abandoned cars and a few birds. In fact, it was down right creepy. After a walk on beach and picking seashells we decided it was lunch time. I didn?t bring any fishing poles so back in the airplane we went. As we taxied out, we finally saw signs of life! A rather large raccoon scurried across the runway looking as bewildered at us as we did him. Take-off was as smooth as landing but we did circle the island once to gain a little altitude.
10 minutes later were sitting in Hamaknockers Oasis at the end of Wakulla County?s grass runway. Decent BBQ with a great location is something I can?t pass up. The locals were very accommodating and friendly. Once stuffed, we headed back to the cold air of north Georgia. Overall, it was a great day. Sunny beach, with fall like temps, good food and 4 hours on the Hobbs. Not to shabby.
I?d plan a trip back to Dog Island when the weather gets warm. I have even read that camping permits are available from the mainland but you need to take your pooh out with you.
Video of the landing...
) and set up for a landing. My room mate asked if we needed permission. I smiled and responded, "forgiveness is easier to ask for than permission"! His girlfriend wasn't impressed. The shiny new 172 settled gently onto the sandy grass strip and we taxied to the parking area. Before we could barely extricate ourselves a golf cart drove up and a 80+ year old man jumped out and immediately began interrogating us "interlopers" as to our intentions. "Y'all runnin' drugs?" he queried. My wise guy room mate of course replied "only the expensive ones". Now the old man really was reaching the spin cycle but before he could remove the single bullet from his pocket I jumped in and said "sir, we just want to get some seashells and impress her" pointing to my room mates girlfriend. He then smiled and said, "well, that's different, jump on!" He then drove us down to the beach adjacent to the best spot for shells and we were off. 
