General aviation is great in that you can make your own schedule and go to ten times as many airports as the airlines have access to. The down side, at least with non-turbocharged, modestly-equipped planes such as N3SK, is that you have to be flexible to account for bad weather. The original plan was to go to south Florida to visit my grandmother (or as the family calls her, "Nanny") and my aunt and cousins. Unfortunately, there was a big clump of yellow and red stuff (read: storms) on the radar pictures stretching from east of Jacksonville across the Florida peninsula and up the east coast to Virginia. Another low pressure system off the west coast of Florida added to the mix. First Flight was out, and if I wanted to still go to south Florida, I'd have to overnight somewhere in southern Georgia and try tomorrow, but still
risk getting stuck down
there for an extra day or two. I called Nanny and told her of the inevitable verdict and, needless to say, she was not pleased. After all, it was beautiful outside from her window and planes can just make it through anything. I promised I'd visit in November, so she felt a little better as we hung up. On my way back from Fort
Lauderdale, I was going to visit my friends Brian and Leon in
Crestview, FL, near Pensacola, so
Crestview became today's destination, as the weather
enroute was fine, just some overcast and broken clouds around 6000 ft for the first half. I had a little time to spare, so my niece Gracie and my sister-in-law Mary Catharine got to go for a plane ride, just as Charlie and Warren did
yesterday. Same route as before (to make it fair), and Gracie had a blast. We may have a budding pilot on our hands, Warren and MC! After we landed, we ate from the airport
cafe's lunch buffet, and I headed to
Crestview. Winds aloft were very favorable, providing a nice 15-20 knot tailwind most of the way to my fuel stop in Columbus, GA, and about a 10 knot tailwind from Columbus to
Crestview. I'm glad I went
IFR because the chart looks like a collage of restricted, advisory, and warning areas, with a few
MOAs thrown in. Brian picked me up in his late father's Buick and we headed home to enjoy the balmy, yet slightly breezy Florida evening. Today's flight totals: 4.9 hours, 540 miles, four states. Trip totals: 28.7 hours, 3288 miles, 18 states.
General aviation is great in that you can make your own schedule and go to ten times as many airports as the airlines have access to. The down side, at least with non-turbocharged, modestly-equipped planes such as N3SK, is that you have to be flexible to account for bad weather. The original plan was to go to south Florida to visit my grandmother (or as the family calls her, "Nanny") and my aunt and cousins. Unfortunately, there was a big clump of yellow and red stuff (read: storms) on the radar pictures stretching from east of Jacksonville across the Florida peninsula and up the east coast to Virginia. Another low pressure system off the west coast of Florida added to the mix. First Flight was out, and if I wanted to still go to south Florida, I'd have to overnight somewhere in southern Georgia and try tomorrow, but still risk getting stuck down
there for an extra day or two. I called Nanny and told her of the inevitable verdict and, needless to say, she was not pleased. After all, it was beautiful outside from her window and planes can just make it through anything. I promised I'd visit in November, so she felt a little better as we hung up. On my way back from Fort Lauderdale, I was going to visit my friends Brian and Leon in Crestview, FL, near Pensacola, so Crestview became today's destination, as the weather enroute was fine, just some overcast and broken clouds around 6000 ft for the first half. I had a little time to spare, so my niece Gracie and my sister-in-law Mary Catharine got to go for a plane ride, just as Charlie and Warren did 
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