Tales from Braying Dock Manor | Part 1, Florida Trip Version 3.0

On the "Road" Again

23 June 2005, Calhoun, GA. Photo by Cheryl.

In 2005, as newbie aircraft owners, Kristy and I undertook our first multistate cross country trip together by flying from South Haven, MI (KLWA) to Fort Myers, FL (KFMY). For us, it was the ultimate old school style "road trip". We measured our progress on paper sectional charts, briefed each leg with a telephone call to Flight Service, managed the uncertainty of weather ahead simply by looking out the window and landing when concerns arose, and progressed through the sky unencumbered -- but also unaided -- by air traffic control (ATC). It was the adventure of a lifetime. While the journey lacked the relative efficiency of airline transportation aboard a flying Greyhound, we exchanged the frustrating commercial flight experience for an exploration of our remarkable country with our own airplane. It was a journey so epic -- dead frogs and burning baby diaper smells and all -- that Kristy actually scrapbooked the whole thing.

08 June 2011, departing Le Roy on the “Longest Airplane Trip Ever!”

Six years later, Warrior 481 again traversed the atmosphere to Fort Myers, this time from Le Roy, NY. For this trip, The Bear joined us, recently turned four years old and having graduated from a full car seat to a booster. My flying style had evolved since 2005. Still VFR, I routinely leveraged flight following, embracing ATC services for the safety benefits that they conferred. We ventured into towered fields that I would have shunned in 2005 and planned side excursions with greater confidence (e.g., Jekyll Island, dinner with colleagues in South Carolina, flight to the Florida Keys, and meetups with friends in Georgia). While paper charts were still on board as back-up (and actually consulted), navigation relied on an iFly 700 portable touch screen unit that displayed our position on georeferenced images of sectional charts. A flip-phone owner at the time, I used an iPod Touch (seriously) via WiFi to self-brief each flight through DUAT. With these wonderous digital tools, we truly enjoyed a Renaissance in high-tech aviating from the cockpit of our 1979 Piper.

18 July 2021, back in the hangar at Sodus after returning from Florida.

During the post-lockdown summer of 2021, our crew of three (myself, Kristy, and a teenaged Bear long emancipated from the clutches of her Graco booster) embarked on a new journey to Florida. This time, it was with the goal of attending “SurnameFest”, the annual (except for 2020) gathering of Kristy's wacky family. [Author's note: "wacky" is a term used to reflect absolute endearment.] This time, the anchor points of our journey were between Sodus, NY (KSDC) and Ocala, FL (KOCF), placing us within 30 minutes of our rental home for the week, "Braying Dock Manor". En route, I reflected on how our 2021 experience was so different from the "road trips" of the past despite the same pilot being at the controls of the same Warrior. In 2021, I was an instrument-rated pilot with some moderate instrument experience accumulated over eight years. ForeFlight reliably served up charts, airport information, weather briefings, uplinked in-flight traffic and weather, and facile instrument flight plan filing. My humble Warrior was outfitted with a new engine and an IFR-approved, panel-mounted WAAS GPS navigator capable of driving our new two-axis Garmin autopilot, HAL. 

An explosion of capable, relatively affordable digital technology has given new life to our aeronautical pursuits. Say what you will about same pilot / same airplane, these upgrades in equipment, certification, and experience significantly increased our success in going where we wanted to go exactly when we wanted to go there. I will always reflect fondly on that 2005 aeronautical "road trip" to Fort Myers because it was the first. But nearly 20 years after my first solo, it was deeply satisfying to make a cross-country journey so capably and comfortably. Our most recent odyssey brought home for me how much both airplane and pilot have grown.

The journey to Florida and back in 2021 was both fun and successful, a voyage that included flying in a variety of weather conditions, visiting some bucket list destinations, and wonderful reconnections with friends and family.