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Lake Charles and Galveston visit

tc1234c

Well Known Member
Our son David took a job in Lake Charles, LA. We decided to spend the Christmas with him and pay the area a visit. We were planning to leave on Friday 20th but the forecasted bad weather in this part of the country made us move the trip a day earlier.

The trip is 660 nm long blocked by several restricted airspaces in Florida. A direct flight is not possible. In the past we have flown the shoreline corridor through Eglin restricted airspace. However, the route north of Eglin offers several cheaper fuel stops and that was what we took.

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There are many brush fires along our route. Over Baton Rouge ADS-B showed a TFR south west of the city. We guess it must have something to do with the fires.
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TFR is to our right and covers the bend of the river.
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Further west we encountered overcast sky and strong wind yet air was smooth.

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Six hours later we are cleared to land at Lake Charles Regional. A few drops of rain did not affect us.
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A Sunday morning flight to Galveston

Friday weather at Lake Charles was not too bad. However, cold front passed through on Saturday. It was raining and cold. On Sunday we decided to let David fly left seat to Galveston and practice ILS approaches. He is an VFR pilot and it is my idea to let him experience flying the approach.

From Lake Charles to Galveston is only 93 nm.
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He called Lake Charles Clearance to obtain a squawk code before taxi out. On climb out the approach asked if we had weather radar on-board since there were a lot of left over cold front activities in the area. We had good visibility and could see a few cells around.

A few drops at climbing out (4,500').
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We did not have to deviate our flight path to avoid any cells. After forty minutes Galveston was in front of us. There were a lot of ships in the channel and anchored in the ocean.
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David is having a good time flying.
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I was very pleased that David did a near perfect ILS approach and landing. He seems to feel ease with RV9A.

Break off ILS 14 and circle to left base for runway 36. Following a Cessna and a helicopter on a parallel runway to land.
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On the runway tower commented that he did a good job and the tower did not see our airplane until now because the airplane is yellow! He was looking for a different color. We followed one of the yellow helicopters during landing.
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Need to go back to Lake Charles to have lunch with my wife so we skipped touring the city. Moody Gardens below at take off.
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Passed by two cruise ships.
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Looks like we are having some bad stuff in front of us, but easily avoided.
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What are these in the water?
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There are a lot of petrochemical plants along the coastal area.
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On the ILS 15 approach back to Lake Charles we were given vector to avoid some rain. Of course we were in VFR and was doing practice approach.
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A Cessna and a helicopter were ahead of us doing the same thing. Another airplane was doing GPS approach practice on a different runway.
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About to capture localizer and got a good view of lake front casinos and the port.
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Again, David did a great job. By the time we reached DA the runway was right in front. He put the airplane back to the runway gently. We had a great morning of flying.

Forgot to mention that on the way back David saw a drone flew below and by us. I did not see it and it was not on my ADS-B display. We were told by a Lake Charles lineman that government flies a lot of drones to check on traffic along the coast.
 
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Nice report Ted !

You definitely have the right airplane for your adventures. It's always a "good read" and education happens along the way for me too :)
 
Great trip Ted!

I have yet to venture into that corner. Never been to southern LA. No surprise to me David performed so good. I remember how he explained in details every maneuver on the aerobatic flight with a Navy pilot. How is his book btw? Published? The SyFy one not the textbook.
 
Ted,
flew past you today on the way from Asheville to Sugarland. Nice pics. You captured it well.
I got some help from a fellow pilot on flight following freq. I asked about transit of Houston class B and he let me know about the VFR I-10 corridor. Saved me a bunch of time
 
Bill, Glad you had a good flight. It is hard to read Huston VFR chart and see the shelves of Bravo airspace. I usually use SkyVector to plan my trip. The different charts for Bravo airspace have better depiction of local routes. Below is such a link. Enjoy your stay in the area and have a safe trip home.

 
galveston

We did not have to deviate our flight path to avoid any cells. After forty minutes Galveston was in front of us. There were a lot of ships in the channel and anchored in the ocean.
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Great write-up.
At GLS, your plane was parked right between the terminal and my hangar. Next time you plan to visit Galveston, let me know, the people here are very accommodating. Nice aerial view of my home; it's the high-rise condo near the horizon around 10:00.
 
Galveston

Thanks for the post Ted, I was born in Galveston but I left when I was 3 months old, my parents left and had to take me with them. My Dad was in the Army Air Corps at the time, so I don't remember much. Hope some day to get down that way to see the place. My mom said it was mostly an amusement park when we lived there and the hospital I was born in was run by Nuns, but that is a whole other story.

Thanks again and a very merry Christmas too all.
RT
 
Next time you plan to visit Galveston, let me know, the people here are very accommodating.

Since our son is in the area we will be back often in the future. On one of the future visit we will try to get out of the airport and visit the city.


RT, Glad you enjoy the photo. Merry Christmas to you too.
 
Due to our commitment back in Florida we left this morning (Christmas day). The air was smooth with 5-10 kts head wind. The traffic was very light. At airports we landed we did not see anyone. All I did was enjoy the scenery passing by, check in with the new approach controller and say Merry Christmas when checking out. It sure beat driving or flying commercial.

Departing Lake Charles:
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Scenery along the way:
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Baton Rouge, all the chemical plants:
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Lake Maurepas (foreground) and Lake Pontchartrain.
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The Lake Pontchartrain bridge looks like a thin line dividing the lake:
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When get closer:
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Mobile
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Pensacola
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Rest Stop at Defuniak Spring that is right at the corner of Eglin restricted airspaces. This is about the halfway point.
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The return trip, the weather depiction is for a few hours after we landed.
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Forgot to mention the RV3 we saw at Lake Charles:
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Eglin alternate, south route

Flying relatively low-level VFR from DED to KLVJ, ATC (Eglin APPCH) has also permitted me to fly south of the coast near Destin, over PHIPPS and VARRE, as an alternate to flying along I-10. I've used JKA and 1R8 as mid-trip fuel stops. Both had FBOs with food - YMMV.

IMHO KLBX and T78 frequently have the good fuel prices around Houston. Jennings (3R7) has good fuel prices by Lake Charles.

Come back soon Ted, we've got active RV groups in the Houston metro area.

Carl
 
The air was smooth with 5-10 kts head wind.

Really.. I would have expected a mild tailwind for you today. Sometimes you just can't win. I am crossing my fingers for one on Friday.

Its rare I know. Seems like I have had tails winds twice in the last 200 hrs. Once was enough to get a post in the 200kt club though.
 
Flying relatively low-level VFR from DED to KLVJ, ATC (Eglin APPCH) has also permitted me to fly south of the coast near Destin, over PHIPPS and VARRE, as an alternate to flying along I-10. I've used JKA and 1R8 as mid-trip fuel stops. Both had FBOs with food - YMMV.

IMHO KLBX and T78 frequently have the good fuel prices around Houston. Jennings (3R7) has good fuel prices by Lake Charles.

Come back soon Ted, we've got active RV groups in the Houston metro area.

Carl

Carl,

Thank you for the local information. It is helpful for our future visit. Will see you again either here in Florida or in Texas.
 
Military Traffic

Ted,
I went through P-cola flight school back in the mid 90's and there were military trainers (fixed wing and helo) all over the place, and I imagine it's still the same. Did you have any trouble with ATC vectoring you around crazy to deconflict? Or did they let you just cruise through VFR? What about MOAs... did they mostly keep you out?
 
Ted,
I went through P-cola flight school back in the mid 90's and there were military trainers (fixed wing and helo) all over the place, and I imagine it's still the same. Did you have any trouble with ATC vectoring you around crazy to deconflict? Or did they let you just cruise through VFR? What about MOAs... did they mostly keep you out?


Christmas day everyone was resting. To go through Eglin restricted airspace the only option is along the shoreline. I went through MOAs. I saw one plane took off from NGS (civilian) and climb out through Eglin MOA on my ADS-B. On the way west another plane at my speed and altitude 10 miles ahead of me, an Navy helicopter doing pattern work and a few civilian fix wings landing and take off at CEW. Not much going on. Not much going on at Tyndall MOA neither. On a previous trip I went through the shoreline route of Eglin Restricted Airspace and saw some formation jets. They were either a few thousand feet above or several miles away. No traffic were called. However, ADS-B helped me to locate them.
 
With me being from the Lake Charles, La area and currently residing in Iowa,la 18nm NE of KLCH it's awesome to see a fellow RV'er come to this area. My home airport is 3R7 Jennings, La. Hope that south Louisiana showed you some of that Cajun cooking and hospitality. And the wavy things in the marsh are to help with costal erosion. Did you see those to the west of lake Charles south of sulphur?
 
With me being from the Lake Charles, La area and currently residing in Iowa,la 18nm NE of KLCH it's awesome to see a fellow RV'er come to this area. My home airport is 3R7 Jennings, La. Hope that south Louisiana showed you some of that Cajun cooking and hospitality. And the wavy things in the marsh are to help with costal erosion. Did you see those to the west of lake Charles south of sulphur?

Our son is a new doc in town. While visiting we did enjoy the Cajun cooking. Have to love the home made gumbo. Two of his staff were from Jennings so on departure I took a few photos for them.

Yes, the wavy things are located south west of Lake Charles.
 
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