The Plan
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| The sun was a little bright, but Kristy and I benefitted from our fancy new Rosen sun visors. The Bear...not so much. |
We planned to leap from Knoxville, TN to Florida on the morning of July 10. For reasons that do not bear repeating here, our arrival in Florida was a day before the rental house was available. Rather than go to Ocala, we would fly farther south to Winter Haven near where Kristy's parents lived. They would receive an overdue reunion with The Bear while Kristy and I spent some time without a teenager in our immediate orbit. And The Bear, likewise, would get a break from us. It was a win-win-win! We booked a room at the Winter Haven Marriot Courtyard for the evening.
We expected low visibility at Downtown Knoxville Island Airport that morning and I filed an IFR flight plan direct to our fuel stop, Telfair-Wheeler Airport (KMQW, Mc Rae, GA, airport #223). Early the next morning, I realized that I had fallen into the trap of flatlander thinking. Crossing the Smoky Mountains would be required shortly after departure from the Island. I filed a new airway route to explicitly manage suitable minimum IFR altitudes over the terrain: VXV V267 DBN V51 IYONU. But because the mountains are almost immediately south of Knoxville, I amended the airway route to include a delay leg to the west that would give us more time and distance to reach a safe altitude in our fully loaded Warrior: VXV ETOWA HRS V267 DBN V51 IYONU. With this third plan, I was finally satisfied with the day's strategy. I did not file IFR for the leg from Mc Rae to Winter Haven as the weather was forecast to be excellent VFR.
Dad and Carol were good sports about getting us to the airport by 7:00 am. They even cooked a fantastic breakfast for us. Knowing The Bear's fondness for watermelon, they ensured that she was well-provisioned with that succulent delicacy before departing.
Whoosh
| Date | Aircraft | Route of Flight | Time (hrs) | Total (hrs) |
| 10 Jul 2021 | N21481 | DKX (Knoxville, TN) - MQW (Mc Rae, GA) - GIF (Winter Haven, FL) | 5.0 | 2291.1 |
A claustrophobic ceiling hung low over Downtown Island Airport at 700 feet. Warrior 481 survived the previous afternoon's downpour with a dry interior, but I discovered water in the right fuel tank and sumped until I was satisfied that I had removed all of it.
We reached Knoxville Clearance on 121.7 MHz from the runup area of the Island and were cleared as filed with an initial heading of 230°. I misinterpreted my own handwriting and read back 123.7 as the Knoxville departure frequency (which sounded correct to my ear because it is the Rochester Departure frequency) instead of 123.9. With a minor correction from Clearance Delivery on that point, we were released immediately.
There is a sizeable hill with homes on it off the departure end of runway 26 that necessitates a higher than normal climb gradient per the obstacle departure procedure. Not wishing to end up in someone's living room, I visually sidestepped the hill right before being engulfed by the low clouds.
Whoosh.
After establishing radar contact, Knoxville Departure called again. "Four Eight One, did you file to ETOWA because of the mountains?"
Astute controller.
"Affirmative. Four Eight One is not a great climber." Departure made an approving sound in response before shifting his attention to other traffic.
After nearly 30 minutes in IMC, we finally broke out laterally at 8,000 feet. The morning sun was intense, but our new Rosen sun visors mitigated the brightness. At least, they helped everyone in the front seat; the Bear was left to manage the brilliant sunrise on her own. We crossed over the western edge of the Smokies, all peaks nearly hidden by the clouds. We flew quite close to Copper Hill, TN where we observed 2017's total eclipse and Andrews, NC where Warrior 481 eventually camped during the week of SurnameFest 2019.
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| ForeFlight screen capture en route to Mc Rae, GA from Knoxville. |
Having reached 8,000' well before ETOWA, I requested direct to the Harris VOR in Georgia as a shortcut now that the delay leg had served its purpose. This shortcut was approved and our estimated time of arrival to Mc Rae shifted several minutes earlier.
Ironic Weather
Once the Smoky Mountains were behind us, the clouds began to thin into something that I would have happily overflown in my VFR days. This was our first time flying in Georgia since I earned my instrument rating. Past experience suggested that summertime Georgia air would rarely exceed five miles of visibility in haze, which is perfectly legal to negotiate VFR, but not particularly enjoyable or comfortable. That morning on an instrument flight plan, Georgia had the last laugh. The air was crystal clear.
Cracks in the earth below revealed characteristic red Georgia soil. It was as though the planet was broken and Kylo Ren had ham-handedly tried to fix it. By the time we reached Telfair-Wheeler (note to the airport authority: this is quite a mouthful to say on the radio), the sky had cleared completely and I cancelled IFR in the air with Atlanta Approach before descending toward Mc Rae.
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| ForeFlight ground track from Knoxville, TN (KDKX) to Mc Rae, GA (KMQW) |
No Frills
Darrell, my ever-present FlightAware stalker, later asked why I chose to stop at Telfair-Wheeler. "I've never even heard of it!" he exclaimed.
I was looking for a quick-turn, no frills, affordable fuel stop. Sitting almost right on the direct line from Knoxville to Winter Haven with fuel priced at $4.25/gal, Telfair-Wheeler fit the need. It was a low amenity field to be sure. The single, 5000 foot long runway lacked even a parallel taxiway. I assumed (hoped) that the place would have a functional restroom. It did. I also hoped that there would be no visible dead frogs to trigger Kristy’s PTSD from Perry-Foley in 2005. I did not see a single one.
I took on 22 gallons of fuel and, once finished, stepped back to admire my faithful airplane. This is when I noticed something odd lurking underneath.
Looking closer, it was clear that the rascally troll that seems to find us no matter where we go had caught up to us in Georgia. I thought we had given it the slip in Maine last year, but no such luck.
The terminal building was unstaffed, but also unlocked. (Because…of course it was.) And inside was...a pay phone! The last time I remembered actually using a pay phone was in 2004 when I called Kristy from one at the Three Rivers Municipal Airport in Michigan to tell her that I had successfully brought our new airplane home.
"Hey, Little Bear!" I shouted. "Come here, I want to show you something." She hustled over and I presented the wall-mounted anachronism to her.
Enough said.
Telfair-Wheeler also sported an impressive, old school airport beacon.
I had never seen chain link used as a hangar door material before and could not resist taking this picture. I call it, "Caged Heat".
"Hey! Can we go now?!" They shouted at me.
Right! We were flying to Florida! We should get back on that.
The Bear, inexperienced with the concept of back-taxiing, was utterly baffled when we pulled onto the runway and plodded along to the departure end before pivoting on one wheel to take off. Kristy explained the concept while I literally “toed” the line down the center of the runway.
Return to Florida Flying
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| “Moderate precipitation” |
Jacksonville Center was incredibly busy when we popped up on frequency requesting VFR flight following to Winter Haven, but the controller methodically managed everyone in bite size chunks and collected information one aircraft at a time. I was impressed. Many controllers would have simply responded with "unable". Once we were in the system, we were warned of "Moderate precipitation, ten o' clock, less than a mile."
I acknowledged while preparing my camera to photograph the tiny wisp of rain that spritzed our windshield. That's moderate? Was this “grade inflation” as applied to weather?
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| Weird Georgia ground features. |
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| A desolate highway slices through the Okefenokee Swamp |
We crossed the state line from Georgia to Florida over the Okefenokee Swamp. Unlike our last trip to Florida, the swamp was not on fire. Having learned our lesson in 2005, we no longer looked for a physical dotted line on the ground depicting the state boundary and placed blind faith in the GPS that we had accomplished the passage. Perhaps our increased capability since 2005 came at the cost of our whimsy.
And so we entered Florida, home to Disneyworld, NASA's Cape Canaveral Complex, super abrupt U-turns, humidity pegged on the obscenely wet end of the scale, and "Florida Man". A mixed bag to be sure.
Toward the Gulf, weather was actively building.
Northeast of Ocala, we passed Jumbolair, Aviation and Equestrian Estates. Sporting a 7,500 x 250 foot runway, the aptly named Jumbolair lays claim to being the longest private runway in the United States. John Travolta famously based his Boeing 707 there before donating it to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society in Australia.
In case the name of the place is not clear enough from the chart, it is also stenciled directly on the southern end of the runway encircled by a blast wall. As a note of practicality, Piper Warriors do not require blast walls at the facilities from which they operate.
Proceeding farther south, the tenuous existence of land above sea level became increasingly apparent. Though clouds continued to pop, the sky remained navigable. Our timing was excellent
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| "Hi, I parent a teenager." |
When you fly general aviation with a Little Bear that has flown in the same airplane since she was five weeks old, that Flying Bear might take certain liberties with personal space in the aircraft cabin. Kristy's expression here says it all. As Pilot in Command, I am pleased to report that this particular footrest arrangement was short lived. Being PIC is not just about radio calls and flying the airplane.
Closer to Orlando, we heard an aircraft cleared to PIGLT intersection. We wondered if there were any other Pooh-related fixes near the House of Mouse. I was unable to find any, but we did note JAFAR, ALADN, EPCOT, and SHREK in the vicinity. Nearby PAOLA seemed rather Disney-appropriate, too.
"Wait a minute! Shrek isn't Disney!" The Bear exclaimed in outrage when another aircraft was cleared to that imaginary point in space. We hypothesized that maybe the FAA didn't know or care about the distinction.
As we cruised southward along the center line of Florida, we heard a frequency handoff occur on Guard. Kristy looked at me in shock. "Wait. Did someone just use Guard for what it's supposed to be used for? And did we really just fly all this way without hearing any idiocy on Guard?"
Indeed we did. There can be a first time for everything, I suppose. I would like to think that the Universe was attempting to rebalance its Guard karma a week after I heard the most colossally stupid broadcast ever on the emergency frequency.
When the wall appeared ahead, it was time to descend for Winter Haven (KGIF, airport #224).
Reunion at Last!!!
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| ForeFlight ground track from Mc Rae, GA (KMQW) to Winter Haven, FL (KGIF) |
After shutting down on the ramp at Winter Haven, we were joined by Granny and Grandaddy almost immediately. It was our first time seeing them since July 2019 when we launched from the airport in Andrews, NC at the conclusion of the previous SurnameFest.
Winter Haven had a very nice terminal that also contained the well-regarded Flightline Cafe.
A beautiful Stearman was parked next to us. Not far from where we parked, I could see the headquarters hangar facility for Waldo Wright's Flying Service. Waldo Wright is a pseudonym for owner Rob Lock, a former professional basketball player who takes paying passengers for rides in vintage, open cockpit biplanes. During the worst of the summer heat, he often spends multiple weeks giving rides at the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, which is where I first met him many years ago.
When I unpacked Warrior 481's tie-down straps, I was surprised by how faded they were. I have owned them for many years and they have always looked brand new as a result of minimal use. For a moment, I was puzzled by their appearance. Then I remembered that they were in service continuously for four months in Dansville last year and brutalized by the same weather that battered my poor airplane. It was hard to believe that my engine troubles only ended a year before. We departed the ramp, leaving Warrior 481 well-secured against the elements.
Wrap Up
Coming from Rochester, NY where there is a significant Italian population, I was particularly amused by an Italian restaurant that we passed called "Floridino's". Perhaps it was founded by a fortuitously named Italian immigrant, but I doubt it. I envision a deadpan tag line for Floridino's: It's Italian. In Florida. I cannot put into words why I am so amused by this name. Maybe I was just punchy from all that time in the air when I first saw it.
We concluded our day of flying having logged 5.0 hours total with the first 30 minutes being in IMC after a well-managed IFR departure from Knoxville. We added two new airports to our map. We encountered a rare payphone and a caged Skyhawk at Telfair-Wheeler, pushed the limits of personal (hygiene) boundaries in an aircraft, debated the suitability of navigational fixes named for Dreamworks properties so close to Disneyworld, and reunited with family after two years apart.
It was quite a day and the adventure was only just beginning.
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