I flew home this weekend with a buddy of mine in one of my schools 172's. It was just supposed to be a short stay as I wanted to spend some time with the folks and see the Steve Miller Band play down at sunfest. We left the ground about 9:15am local time and flew from Tallahassee to Lantana via Cross City then victor 7 through Lakeland and La Belle. From there we flew east to Pahokee and finally into Lantana. It was a great flight! We cruised at 9500 ft. the whole way. This kept us above the broken cloud layer and it was smooth as glass with only a slight headwind.
Unfortunately we were only able to stay one night as there was a weather system that was moving east dumping rain and strong winds throughout the country. It was the same system that brought down the Dallas Cowboy's practice facility and I did not want to mess with that. So we left West Palm Beach (KLNA) around noon on Monday. This was alot earlier than I wanted to leave and didn't even get to spend 24 hours at home. Oh well, I'll go back down next month and spend some more time with the rents.
All the reports showed that we would beat the weather if we could get to TLH by 4-4:30 so off we went. I had been watching the weather like a hawk for days up to the flight and kind of knew this might happen. First, we made a quick stop in KOBE (Okeechobee) for cheap fuel and after fighting the plane to start (172RK does not like the hot start) we were off direct to LAL then up to CTY on V7 turning west abeam the navaid to get us home to good ole' Tallahassee.This was the plan anyway...
After climbing up to 10,500 departing KOBE the clouds started to grow. We cruised around them for a little while but I knew that the weather conditions ahead would not permit us to get underneath. The major storm that's now pounding the east coast was having its way with us... and at this altitude our little Cessna doesn't like to climb much more, so down we went. I spotted a whole just past Lakeland and I hit the deck. We got underneath while staying VFR eventually leveling out at 4500 ft. Here comes the fun stuff. We were getting bounced around so much that I tried a little lower at 3500 ft to no avail. With no working auto pilot, I was getting a work out keeping the plane on my desired orientation. The whole time in the back of my mind I was thinking about the weather back at base. Would I be able to make it in VFR??? I wonder what the weather is doing up in the panhandle? Where could we land that has a few hotel options if we do get stuck? DIVERT!
At this time we were about 65 miles directly south of Gainsville heading to Cross City. There is nothing in Cross City, and I had been to Gainsville's airport a few times before and knew they had adequate resources available to determine the weather situation along with many Hotel options. (not to mention the free cookies at the FBO) Now I am a Seminole and hate to say anything good about gator town, but their FBO is nice and everyone is friendly. Even to those pilots who are sporting Seminole flight club t-shirts! So after checking the weather for 15 minutes I decided we could make it VFR if we hurried. We jumped back in the plane (more hot start issues) and blasted out of G-ville as fast as our little Cessna would take us.
The could deck was solid at 3000 in g-ville keeping us at 2000ft. It was much smoother for this last leg thank god, but the ceiling was dropping and the visibility was around 6 miles and dropping as well. This is no problem for the IFR student, but I was starting to worry about the legality of the flight continuing VFR. Luckily we got to stay at 1500 and I could see the field about 5 miles out. Approach got us in around other IFR traffic and we made a butter smooth landing on runway 18 with rain hitting the windshield during the approach. We made it by about 15 minutes. I drove home in the rain.
This was my longest trip by myself yet and I loved it. Even with the crappy weather on the way back. The legs were about 343 miles a piece and I logged 7.5 hours of x-country flight time. I can wait to do the trip again.
For now though, I gotta get ready for work... Happy Cinco de Mayo baby.
