My recent flying adventures

[RV8Squaz]

I had a little break last week from my MD88 training and took advantage of my time off to do some?. You guessed it? flying! On Wed. my trusting copilot Max (my 5 yr old boy who probably has well over a hundred hours logged in the back seat) and I flew the RV to Fort Valley, GA. I have a lot at Plane Living Skypark which is across the highway from the Lane peach packing plant. I parked the plane, walked a hundred yards through the peach orchard and across the highway to the plant. It is set up for tourists and locals. They have a great restaurant, a nice gift shop, a park, tours, and of course you can watch the peaches go through the packing process. Max and I had a delightful afternoon and brought back a bunch of peaches, most of which I have already consumed. The field is a N-S 3000? grass strip, level and in good shape. It is 4.5nm NW of the Perry airport (KPXE) adjacent to Hwy 96. During the peach season I go about every other week to load up on peaches. Did I say? I love peaches! You?re welcome to fly out there with me or go on your own or we can plan a flyout sometime. I don?t believe the field has an identifier yet, but I can get the lat/long next time I get to my airplane. The pattern is to the west of runways 01 &19. Elevation is about 500?. Parking is adjacent to the approach end of Rwy 19 on the west side.

On Friday, Max and I flew out again, but this time our destination was the beach! We flew out to Destin, hung out at the beach for a few hours and flew back in the afternoon. Ahh what a plane! I love my RV. Going to Destin does take some special flight planning as the airport lies in Special Flight Rules area requiring radio contact and a clearance through the area similar to a Class B. The info is readily available on the chart and the FAA and AOPA websites. I also called the FBO to see what we could about transportation. Destin Jet is the new sheriff in town and they mean business. We had 3 people waiting for us as we taxied in, they rolled out the red carpet (ok it was really blue) for us, they had fresh baked Otis Spunkmeyer cookies, refreshments, and a beautiful facility. The best part of all was they handed me the keys to a brand new car to take to the beach for a few hours. They treated us as if we had pulled up in a $5 million dollar jet (there were plenty of them there) and purchased 300 gals. of jet fuel and yet there were no parking fees and never felt pressured to buy so much as a gallon of AVGAS. I did however buy some gas at $4.45 because of the level of service we received and the friendly atmosphere (even though it was against my cheap airline pilot nature. Hey it was discounted from $4.95!). This was a great day trip. It was a lot of fun and it was pretty quick getting down there and back up from the S. Atlanta metro area (near KFFC). I logged a 1.5 down at and average groundspeed of 160 kts and a 1.2 on the way back at a ground speed of 200 kts. The weather was awesome and the surf temp was perfect. Bring lots of sunscreen!


Jerry
RV-8 N84JE 350 hours of some of the finest and most enjoyable flying known to mankind!

[Vern]

Thanks for your story!

[8CW]

Great story! I gotta get back to work on mine...

[bsacks05]

Jerry,
Thanks for the write-up. That RV grin just doesn't go away, does it? I take the family to Lane's about once a month for lunch and desserts. We never get tired of it.
A friend of mine who owns a Rocket recently bought the land across from Plane Living and made the big hangar there into a hangar-home for he and his wife. Good to have some "friendlies" there now. Also, there should be two new home starts soon and another one before the end of the year. My wife takes her RN licensing exams this summer then we will be ready to get started on our house. Plane Living is a great location and promises to be a thriving airpark community in the future.
I have a picture of you and Max from SNF. I will send it to you soon.

[RV8Squaz]

I got some questions from some folks on how to navigate the military airpace enroute to Destin so here goes:


It's actually fairly easy. First, I suggest taking this short FAA course:

https://faasafety.gov/gslac/ALC/cour...e&preview=true

Second, you'll need the New Orleans sectional chart. There is detailed info on the back of the chart.

Basically, you come in from the North over KCEW and contact Eglin Approach (freq. on the chart) and get a clearance throught the corridor. They will either tell you to fly over a couple of VFR checkpoints or they can give you vectors which is what I recommend. I was on an IFR clearance so I got vectors. When within 10 mi of DTS they will ask you if you have DTS and Eglin AFB in sight. When they are sure you will be landing at the right airport they'll switch you to CTAF but they want you to remain on your squawk. Leaving DTS you get a clearance from Eglin approach prior to departure, switch to CTAF, takeoff, fly south over the beach, and contact Eglinn approach again for vectors out of the corridor.

I hope this helps anyone planning on going down there. Good luck and happy flying!

Jerry

Originally Posted by RV8Squaz

I had a little break last week from my MD88 training and took advantage of my time off to do some?. You guessed it? flying! On Wed. my trusting copilot Max (my 5 yr old boy who probably has well over a hundred hours logged in the back seat) and I flew the RV to Fort Valley, GA. I have a lot at Plane Living Skypark which is across the highway from the Lane peach packing plant. I parked the plane, walked a hundred yards through the peach orchard and across the highway to the plant. It is set up for tourists and locals. They have a great restaurant, a nice gift shop, a park, tours, and of course you can watch the peaches go through the packing process. Max and I had a delightful afternoon and brought back a bunch of peaches, most of which I have already consumed. The field is a N-S 3000? grass strip, level and in good shape. It is 4.5nm NW of the Perry airport (KPXE) adjacent to Hwy 96. During the peach season I go about every other week to load up on peaches. Did I say? I love peaches! You?re welcome to fly out there with me or go on your own or we can plan a flyout sometime. I don?t believe the field has an identifier yet, but I can get the lat/long next time I get to my airplane. The pattern is to the west of runways 01 &19. Elevation is about 500?. Parking is adjacent to the approach end of Rwy 19 on the west side.

On Friday, Max and I flew out again, but this time our destination was the beach! We flew out to Destin, hung out at the beach for a few hours and flew back in the afternoon. Ahh what a plane! I love my RV. Going to Destin does take some special flight planning as the airport lies in Special Flight Rules area requiring radio contact and a clearance through the area similar to a Class B. The info is readily available on the chart and the FAA and AOPA websites. I also called the FBO to see what we could about transportation. Destin Jet is the new sheriff in town and they mean business. We had 3 people waiting for us as we taxied in, they rolled out the red carpet (ok it was really blue) for us, they had fresh baked Otis Spunkmeyer cookies, refreshments, and a beautiful facility. The best part of all was they handed me the keys to a brand new car to take to the beach for a few hours. They treated us as if we had pulled up in a $5 million dollar jet (there were plenty of them there) and purchased 300 gals. of jet fuel and yet there were no parking fees and never felt pressured to buy so much as a gallon of AVGAS. I did however buy some gas at $4.45 because of the level of service we received and the friendly atmosphere (even though it was against my cheap airline pilot nature. Hey it was discounted from $4.95!). This was a great day trip. It was a lot of fun and it was pretty quick getting down there and back up from the S. Atlanta metro area (near KFFC). I logged a 1.5 down at and average groundspeed of 160 kts and a 1.2 on the way back at a ground speed of 200 kts. The weather was awesome and the surf temp was perfect. Bring lots of sunscreen!


Jerry
RV-8 N84JE 350 hours of some of the finest and most enjoyable flying known to mankind!

[czechsix]

Hey Squaz,

Good to hear you and Max are having some fun times together. There's nothing better than having a kid that loves to fly with you. I got Skyler his own logbook a couple years ago and he's got something like 150 hours in the backseat now. I wish I had a logbook of all the places I flew with my dad when I was growing up, so I thought it would be a fun way for him to remember the places we went together. He just turned 8 and is upset that his sister is now old enough to start flying with me so he has competition. I really need more seats!

--Mark Navratil
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
RV-8A N2D flying ~ 300 hours now and still lovin' it...

[john stahr]

Jerry, when we get that sheet metal RV painted with that killer paint job, they WILL think you are a 5 Million dollar jet! When you coming west?
John