Fun Flying in Florida

[2WingsOnMyWagon]

Going to florida on a flying holiday. Anyone recommend some good places to visit from the air? I Fancy going to the Boneyards in the mojave desert, anyone know if you can land and look around?

[Keef]

Mojave is a long way from Florida!

Florida is OK for flat land, the Bahamas, the Keys, sunshine, cypress trees, water games, Disney, and flying training.

If you want scenery, go to California, Arizona, and that area.

Once you've flown along the Grand Canyon, into Sedona (only if no crosswind!) and around the area, you'll know what I mean!

[2WingsOnMyWagon]

err yeah cheers keef, dunno why I thought mojave was near Florida (teach me to look at a map first):confused: . Anyways Its got to be florida (as ive got some business first) so anything more specific? I plan to do loads of flying (100Hrs+) so I want to make the most of it!:)

[Keef]

I assume you've got an FAA PPL or sorted the obvious and made the arrangements (see the message at the top of this group).

If you're doing 100 hours +, I hope you're there for several weeks... In which case, you can get around a LOT.

There's so much to see, if you're going to be flying a lot. You need to look at some of the old threads (dig back in this group).

The boneyards are certainly worth a visit - make sure you pick one where you can fly in.

I've flown in several parts of the US - particularly all over Michigan, Florida, and California/Arizona/Nevada.

My immediate first choice every time is "out West" - there's so much fabulous scenery there. Anywhere from Colorado, over the Rockies, around Utah, and out to the West Coast is fabulous. The distances are large, so plan for some L O N G legs.

The longest I could handle in one go was LA to Grand Canyon, about 3½ hours in an Arrow. If you're doing 100 hours + then that's a drop in the ocean.

You do need to be aware of US weather - it can be very good, and it can be very hostile!

[2WingsOnMyWagon]

Yeah my licence is all sorted thanks, and i plan to be there for about a month. Is there any other boneyards nearer to florida?

[knobbygb]

I would have thought a month and 100 hours would be enough to fly across from Florida to the West Coast - now that'd be a real adventure. Can't be more than 2500 miles along the South coast and through Texas to somewhere like Southern Arizona where many of the boneyards are. Eight 3-hour legs over, say 12 days, same time for the return journey, and a week in hand for weather delays? Just an idea.

As a keen aviation photographer, I've been to some of what pass for 'boneyards' in Florida. No huge areas filled with hundreds of retired aircraft unfortunatley (or fortunatley, depend how you look at it), but many of the samller regional airports are final resting place to many an old DC3, Convair, Electra, 727 and DC8 as well as many operational ones too. Try Opa Locka (KOPF) near Miami to start with. Also quite a few derelict aircraft at Naples (KAPF) last time I was there. I would imagine that a pilot landing at these airfields would stand a much better chance of being able to wonder around and look at/photograph the aircraft than at, say, Marana or Mohave.

The best thing to do is go on airliners.net and search for each airport you plan to visit to see what's there.

[2WingsOnMyWagon]

All good ideas! Any other suggestions of things to see?

[Keef]

Didn't see much derelict stuff at Naples earlier this year, but maybe I was looking in the wrong place. Nice airfield, though, and nice people...

I don't think there are any boneyards close to Florida. If you really want to see that sort of thing, I'd fly commercial to somewhere "out West" and rent from there.

You may be in Florida on business, but do you have to stay there once business is done? I used to escape Detroit at the first opportunity...

[2WingsOnMyWagon]

Im not only looking for boneyards, just anything interesting from a pilots point of view. I want to be based in florida as some lose ends will probably have to be tyed up before I leave the U.S.

[carb]

If you're heading along the Florida panhandle, Mobile Downtown is a nice little airport, complete with a couple of mothballed 747s that you can inspect close-up, and various airliners (BA 757s, the odd DC9) undergoing cargo-convertion, you can wander around.

In Florida itself, Tallahassee and Pensacola also have nice friendly FBOs and are packed with interesting aircraft (National Guard, Firefighting, etc).

Nassau, Bahamas has a bit of a graveyard, always several stripped-down light aircraft up on bricks, not sure if they've been scrapped or just left overnight though ;)

[2WingsOnMyWagon]

Cheers Carb

This is looking like a REAL holiday! Carnt wait to go!:cool: Any thing else you recommend?

[carb]

Well, the usual, Key West, Everglades, Venice, etc are nice. For a laugh, you must fly into the major airports, Tampa Intl [TPA], Orlando [MCO], Sanford, Fort Lauderdale Intl etc, they're free of charge for those who dare! Superb fun to mix with the large airliners, plenty photo-opps, and it's a good challenge, trying to manage perfect RT. If you so much as start to mess up then fear not, they'll notice before you do, and tell you :eek:

I once did a night-time touch-and-go at MCO, slight pause on the approach frequency when i asked, but they couldn't think of a reason why not and were very helpful. There was no wind so we got vectored in head-on with a heavy jet making an approach to the same bit of tarmac (they landed first and vacated the runway, not that there wasn't room for both of us, at 12,000ft long!). On the climb out I started to turn, intent on buzzing the terminal buildings but, sharp as ever, Tower came on and said to maintain runway heading for a bit longer :rolleyes:

PS keep the airport taxiway diagrams handy!

[Crossedcontrols]

Try flying floats (J3 Cub) at Jack Browns seaplane base at Winter Haven, not far from Orlando. No solo though.
You could also try a Stearman or J3 with Tim Preston, north of Orlando. I'm not sure if the NASA site at Cape Canaveral is taking flight down the runway any more, you could ask.

Have fun

CC

[Facts Not Fiction Pls]

The boneyards that you prob saw were the aircraft of Ambassador Airways which closed in Dec.2001. They had gutted 152's, Tomahawks on their ramp. The Airport Authority finally removed them middle of this year.

[Charlie Zulu]

I would most certainly choose to fly commercially to the west coast and rent from there. The scenery is absolutely fantastic. Just picture the snow on the top of the peaks of 12,000' with you flying at 10,500' between the pass... flying over deserts, plains, forests, mountains. The many varied scenery flying opportunities in the western states are plenty.

Like Keef the most I could personally handle in one leg is L.A. to Grand Canyon in an Arrow III but that was with another pilot and his wife (ensuring us two up front stayed awake). In the same day we went to Sedona and then a near three hour night flight back to L.A. Seven hours in one day, that was really hard going, I just flaked out after writing up my logbook. I certainly wouldn't have done 7 hours on my own, would be too much imho.

My next flying holiday will be Florida to New York, across to Chicago and then back to Florida via New Orleans. This will be something I've not done before but is planned with another pilot with me (we'll be sharing the flying). We're planning on going the end of next September. Oh before then is my CPL/IR course in Florida next April but that will not be a holiday! ;-))) Now all I have to do is speak nicely to my manager at work to allow me to have another two - three weeks off... otherwise it'll be summer 2004 that I'll be doing the New York trip. :-(((

Best wishes,

Charlie Zulu

[B2N2]

Just finished a trip from Florida to Nevada and back.
About 50 hrs there and back.Total trip 4000+ miles.8 days.
Absolutely stunning scenery from Texas on west.
Not for the faint of heart or inexperienced though.
We filed everything IFR.Got about 7 hrs actual.But a lot of legs were 4+ hrs above solid overcast at 12000 feet.
If you're low hours take an instrument instructor with you.
Mountain weather can be kind of treacherous.We where nearly caught out a couple of times.On long trips like this things can get out of hand kinda quickly if you're not sure about what you're doing.
When in doubt take an instructor with you...;)


Fly safe

[Sir George Cayley]

Kissemee - 'Crazy Horse' 2 seat P51D Mustang - Niiiiiice
Polk City - Kermit Week's excellent museum
Marathon - Halfway down the Florida Keys
Vero Beach - New Piper factory
Marco Island - Go to Goodlands on a Sunday lunchtime!
Fort Lauderdale - See Bahia Mar for the yachts
Orlando Exec - Closer to Disney etc
Also somewhere in Florida you can rent a pair of SF260's with laser's and go dog-fighting. They give you a video of the flight and full combat brief too.

Lastly dont do what I heard a guy inbound to Naples say when the Tower asked him his position. "errr we're over a Golf Course" Doh!

Enjoy

Sir George Cayley


The air is a nvigable ocean that laps at everyones door

[VFE]

2wings,

Cannot really suggest more for you than what has already been suggested except maybe a run up the east coast. I was lucky enough to fly from MLB to Princeton New Jersey and it was a great trip. Once in a life time stuff right there. Great scenary and some fun IFR flying thrown into the mix too which leads me nicely into stressing B2N2 point of taking an instrument instructor with you if you're low hours.
I was lucky - the guy I took had family up in NJ so he got a free flight and I got a get-outa-jail-free card and lodgings whilst up there.

Ask around at your FBO - there is bound to be someone up for it!

Have fun and see if you can keep count of the times ATC think you're saying 3 when you're actually saying 2. ;)

VFE.

[Jhieminga]

Sir George Cayley mentioned quite a few that I was thinking of, but to add to the list:

- At Kissimee, start at Tom Reilly's museum (or Junkyard, depends if you're in front or behind the hangar)
- Then walk next door for a flight in a T-6 (frontseat) Warbird Adventures (http://www.warbirdadventures.com)
- THEN go to Stallion 51 (if you've got any money left) Stallion 51 site (http://www.stallion51.com)
- Titusville, (KTIX, aka Space coast regional) is close to Cape Canaveral, and also home to a nice museum, and hosts a nice airshow early in the year
- Don't forget to book your tour of the Piper factory before you go there! I was too late and never got to look around there :(

Have fun!

[VFE]

Oh nearly forgot - Palm Beach have some DC3's based there. You might spot one doing touch and goes at the obscure uncontrolled places like Pahokee from time to time. Ask the crew nicely and they may let ya have a ride.

VFE.

[2WingsOnMyWagon]

Why didnt I go sooner:confused:
Thanks for all the Ideas everyone, Now im wondering if a months gonna be long enough:D T-6s, P-51 and DC3s:eek: I may not want to come back!

Looks like im going to have as much fun on the ground as i am in the air too. (okay, nearly as much:D )

Thanks Again

2Wings:cool:

[bcareers]

Hiya

You may want to check out

The Flyer Guide to Flying in Florida
http://www.flyinginflorida.flyer.co.uk/

Published in 2000, some of the info is out of date.
Still a good intro to Flying + things to see in Florida

Cheers