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Minnesota - Florida trip by RV-6A, part 1

AlexPeterson

Well Known Member
After about 7 trips from Minnesota to Florida in the RV, I decided to finally share one!

Finding a weather opportunity which spans from MN to southern FL, in order to make the trip in one day, is challenging in the winter. I've made the one way trip perhaps half the time in one day. February 28th, I took off in the early afternoon from my home base of KANE, Anoka County in the Twin Cities area, to overnight in Kennett, MO, which I did. It was about 3:15 flying time, with nice tailwinds. Kennett is a great airport, with two "personable" airport vans available for use.

This is what I was leaving:
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Distinct line where snow ended:
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Gotta love this, level near St. Louis, truing at 162 burning 7.5 gph:
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After the overnight in Kennett, I took off for Tuskegee, AL, and passed Cedar Creek Reservoir in AL:
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Stopped for fuel and visited the Tuskegee museum, which contained a Stearman and Cub, both restored to better than factory:
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Florida!:
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My wife Gerry and I took a day trip to Key West. Driving from Fort Myers to Key West is about 6.5 hours each way, or around 55 minutes via RV! It was my third trip to KEYW in the plane. Here we are about to go "feet wet" near Marco:
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Very strange to see all the blue on the 430:
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Key West Int'l in upper right. The man-made island in the foreground is owned by the Navy for housing, and includes a campground where my parents have stayed for many winters.
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Don't let the glare from my white legs blind you:
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continued...
 
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Minnesota - Florida trip by RV6A, part 2

While we filed a DVFR flight plan to direct on the way down, we chose the scenic route back. Talking to the Navy as we were in Boca Chica's class D:
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Turning north near Marathon:
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Rainbow at Naples:
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Beautiful west coast of FL, north of Naples:
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continued...
 
Minnesota - Florida trip by RV6A, part 3

A weather window opened for returning north on March 10th, with the only weather being in FL. I took off from Fort Myers at around 3:00pm local, flying under a 2500' overcast for about a hundred miles, but with good vis. My destination for the night was Wetumpka, AL. After some wonderful southern hospitality from Dan Horton and his wife Patty, I took off for home the next morning.

Needing to be properly escorted on my way, I had the treat of seeing with my own eyes Dan's beautiful craftsmanship in flight:

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Bucking nasty headwinds (40 knots +) at 4500', I chose to fly around 1200' agl for a couple hours enroute to my fuel stop just north of St. Louis, KSET. It was quite choppy down low... Approach took me right over the arch, and I snapped a quick photo, not able to look through the finder as I reached to my right.
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After a quick turn at KSET, the rest of the trip to MN was nice, even finding a tail wind the last 1/3 of the way! From Fort Myers to home was 9:03 flying time. Probably about 8 hours on the way down. Great machines! Keep building, it is well worth it!
 
Nice pics Alex - doesn't it still amaze you how the RV can turn winter into summer so quickly?!
 
Thanks for sharing your story, fun stuff. I'm working on the tipup canopy on my RV9a.;)

Jim Fogarty
 
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