I had been warned that the fuel gauges as originally installed (i have since mod'd them out) were "uhhh ... not awesome". Fair enough. But I didn't expect to be an hour out and indicate 1/2 gas. Not having a whole lot of piston time you can perhaps hear what i was thinking. "Well, Mr. Ron told me I'd burn no more than 12 gal an hour ... we took off at 11 ... am i supposed to pull this red knob back? Lycoming says not till 5'k. i'm sure it's fine ... but boy you'd look like a real idiot to flameout ..." --- soooo I put the kid onto the firelight looking for "purple airports with the ticky marks". She did AWESOME and comes up with a place on the delta called LaFourche. She's smart enough to tap around, they are open, they do have gas, sweet! and it's down pretty far on the delta, will keep us south of the MSY area. all good. so now we have an updated plan. i convince myself we'll have plenty of gas (headwind, are we really only making 95 kts gs??). As we get in the vicinity we are having a great time looking around -- checking out the delta and chatting (whilst i internally sweat the tanks now being at 1/4 each and the rate at which they got there is alarming). I am hearing a ton of traffic on the CTAF freq, but none for LaFourche -- it's all for Gaullidet. Fine by me. And on the ADS-B (which DID work from foreflight via the GDL-39) there is significant traffic, but it's all low and kinda fast. Yeah -- so i'm diligently doing an excellent job of announcing my inbound-ness and intentions to LaFourche. And quite surprised that folks are zipping under us (at 1'k) and right into this mystery field that must be darn close to where we're going. As we get to a base position i'm looking down (and noting that this is gonna be a doozer of a x-wind) and i see a helo pull right under us. Not a baby helo -- that's a civilian 60 equivalent. And why is there a giant parking lot full of brand new pick up trucks? I have low SA right now. Back to the landing part. I land hard. That could be because I force it down at 50 kts. The only saving grace is that i put it in idle and stick in lap. two bounces later and we're rolling out. I am nervous. Kid is totally fine. Note to self -- 20 kts is a lot of crosswind for this, and you need more practice.
Everyone on here already knows -- LaFourche and Gaullidet are the same place --- AND they are a base for the helo ops that support the rigs. FBO is empty save one young kid who loans us an 86 Caprice. We need AA batteries for the headsets and snickers bar for pilot. into town we go. I forget about those big old grandma cars -- floated just all OVER the road. Back with batteries I do a real once over on the airplane. Plane took 20 gallons total. Huh. Well that wasn't empty. Not gonna lie, the landing shook me a bit. But we're not staying in Gaullidet -- so we are gonna overwater to the right of biloxi. Call some phone number at an airport called Ocean Springs and the guy is super nice, yep he'll stick around and see us in 2 hours. Really you ask? Yep, life jackets on, here we go.
Not gonna lie. Looking down i'm thinking to myself -- "Dude. Really? THIS is your plan? You just pranged one in, you have no flight follow, no flight PLAN and you're gonna overwater just to dodge MSY and Biloxi?" Now I've done LOT's of dumber things in airplanes -- but not with my daughter on board. It was fine. We actually had a GREAT time. There are a remarkable number of little strips down there in the delta -- that was my whole plan if i had to -- just land, beg forgiveness and hope it was one you you guys. Anyway. We made Ocean Springs. Well, we flew right over Ocean Springs 4 times before the Kid goes, "Hey Dad, is THAT it?" Gulp -- it's a driveway, surrounded by pines. "Oh yeah, good eyes kid! Have us down in a jiffy!". Put her down at 40 kts this time, much better.
Apparently I picked a not ok motel. Our uber driver decides we're not doing that and re-directs us to a reservation she makes for us at the casino. and agrees to pick us up at 8 the next morning. Thank you ms vicki! We commence to get our money's worth out of the buffet (jokes on them!) and a great nights sleep. No gambling for us thanks, done that enough already today.
We make a plan at dinner. The plan involves me trying to fix the transponder for the Panhandle military transition area. Even though i really SHOULD be able to hit that corridor w/o a transponder and have every right to --- i ALSO know just how completely idiotic the folks flying those planes are. Distinct memories of Pensacola Approach asking me if I'm lost ring in my brain. Nope -- if we are still primary only then we are going around.
Sure enough -- Biloxi can see us -- but only primary and don't seem like they're keen to deal w/ us w/o a transponder and all the stuff to transit the beach are pretty keen on the idea you should be squawking. So -- around it is. Day 2 was great. between 500' and 3500'. Figured out how to use the Garmin Aera (pretty nice piece of kit really... especially w/ the GDL).
We stopped at Franklin Field. I made a lovely landing at 36 kts. Figured out the fuel pump (go ahead. laugh). and the FBO was fancy! The Kid very impressed.
We blasted.
We got stopped at the florida border by weather and turned around back to Thomasville GA. Landings are now not an issue, oh and there are flaps -- 35 kts at touchdown. Kid learned how to use weather on the iPad. Nice folks at the FBO and we had a lovely stay and some mexican food (yes. in georgia). In the FBO the Kid comments that the pilots in their fancy pilot shirts don't look so happy despite their super fancy turbine sitting on the ramp outside --- "ahhh, we're having more fun than they are kid, i promise." And another superfly cruiser of a loaner car -- ahhh the sweet 6 mpg of childhood!
several iterations of a plan at the mexican flight planning facility...
We can make the rest of this in one day. of course we can. We blast. Back to the gulf and enjoying the view.
The middle part of florida has a lot of lines on the old iPad map thing. we dodged in between 'em for the most part and went to a place called Winter Haven. Turns out that place has some cool planes! We saw some flying boats (Lake Amphibs?) and a nice restaurant. Also Jack Brown Sea Plane base (oh so THAT was why that Cub was in the drink under us on final...) Lot's of cool stuff going on in Winter Haven, have to go back and check that out a bit.
Last leg -- gonna be ripping all the 115 mph we can go! We do. I look over to talk to Kid about the restricted area and .... she's OUT. Of COURSE all the guys at my new home field are out when i get there. "Noooo I didn't miss the field, I was making uhhh ... recon passes fella's, you know to assess the winds and hazards and ... ok i missed the dang field. ok fine! TWICE."
It was an awesome trip. Had a blast with the Kid. She thinks it's pretty neat that I can fly an airplane (sort of). She thinks it's SUPER neat that SHE can fly an airplane -- sort of. I learned a LOT. Sometimes a transponder really does make life easier. Some airplanes land slow. This means they really really do NOT want to lander faster than the speed of slow. Fuel gauges are one of those things that even when you KNOW they are lying can make a fella nervous. when you have slats you want to pump the fuel yourself (elbows, i have a dent now). a lot of folks in the GA world are SUPER nice and accommodating. Grass strips make me seem like a better pilot. There is no point in landing at the threshold on a 5000' runway when there is someone at the hold short, it may be a longer taxi than you think.
Thanks to everyone on here who has inspired this trip and upcoming plane owning adventures over the years. Looking forward to meeting you somewhere out there.
