Arriving in Las Vegas

I know I've been failing on the blog and on you my dead readers but I must tell you I've been pretty busy since I've arrived in Portugal around a month ago. Only now things are getting on tracks and I'm getting back to my regular day by day routine and I shall now continue where I've stopped!

Since I've not yet posted my video regarding the arrival to Las Vegas I've decided to do it now on this shorter post, while I prepare the photos to include on the next posts.

Hope you all enjoy it, this is a video of a visual approach and landing at Las Vegas' runway 19R, for a better description please refer to the previous post.

Trip to The West - Destination Las Vegas

Dear readers, today a new adventure began, I’m currently on a Cessna 172 at 10500’ flying inbound Stephenville, Texas. Last Friday the 20th of November my long time friend Francisco arrived at Orlando to spend a few days with us. We got there and picked him up at the airport on 2 convertible Ford Mustangs which we drove back to the terminal where our Cessnas were parked for our flight back to Daytona. While on the move back to Daytona we got into a conversation about where we should fly to so that Francisco could experience the most of is trip. The route we decided upon after Francisco’s insistance shall take us to the West into the great american Desert and Mountains flying over Georgia, Alabama, Mississipi, Louisiana and stopping at Texas, Arizona and Nevada. The great landmarks to visit include the Grand Canyon, The Death Valley, Hoover Dam and Las Vegas.

Planed stops along the route to Las Vegas (click HERE to follow to google maps).

The planed route will give us approximately 50 hours flying roundtrip time and more than 5000 nautical miles (nm) of ground distance, all that to be done in around 6 days. Regarding the stops depicted above, there might still be a few changes, mainly on the Grand Canyon Area, where we want to do a few touch and goes and landings on peculiar strips which have not yet been chosen.

After doing all the planing and since the weather was not in its best conditions we decided to set sail Monday, the 23rd of November. And now here we are, the first leg of our journey was about 480nm long and took us from Daytona to Laurel Field in the Mississipi in 4h55min. After a pit stop to refuel and stretch our legs we are now on our second leg of today’s trip which is taking us to Stephenville in Texas. Curently Francisco is the Captain, flying left hand seat on the Cessna, taking care of all the flying and navigation. It will take us about 4h and 30min to go along the 450nm that set both places apart and we are estimating Stephenville at 10pm, local time. By the time we arrive we shall have a car with keys on the ignition that we’ll use to go to the hotel to grab something to eat and have a good night´s sleep because tomorrow we will have another long day.

I’ll keep you all posted and photos shall follow in a near future and as the guys have been saying, this might whell be the journey of a lifetime.

Go West - Key West

View from the Pier Bar at Key West by the sunset.

As a few of you guys might already know I've been down to the Keys during the end of September for the first time while the sun was high and the temperatures were hitting 35ºC and the beach was just awesome. After the first time almost two months have passed and along came the Winter which made the Keys look like a distant, old dream. But last week, as our friends were around and since they were out from a cloudy, dull winter back in Europe we decided to satisfy their biggest desire and lead them SouthWest, down to the Florida Keys Islands.

Unfortunately the weather was not as good as expected and low overcast ceilings with rain and gusty winds amid made the trip impossible during the first days and by Thursday we had almost given up on the idea of going down to "paradise". Still, Friday morning came up with a crystal clear blue sky, calm winds and temperatures of around 25ºC. With these great conditions available we hurried to the airport and got 2 aeroplanes and even lost our minds for a moment and decided to rent 2 C172SP G1000 to enjoy the most of the experience as possible and give the first flight chance on a G1000 glass cockpit to our friends.

Walkaround and refuel was complete in a matter of 15 minutes and after getting the guys at controls, flying left-hand seat (they are pilots, it was only fair to let them fly for themselves and experience the flight in the first hand) we took off from Daytona bound to Homestead, a small local airport close to Miami, which was chosen as a fuel stop due to its nice fuel price (much cheaper than the Keys). This leg was flown with the Auto Pilot ON, making full use of the G1000 capabilities - which included Flight Level Change for en route climb to 9500ft, Vnav profile descent into destination and GPS Flight Plan navigation - just like an airliner.

After Homestead we moved further South to Key Largo, the first island that makes the Keys and decided to start a scenic tour from there to Key West at low altitude, flying VFR by hand. And so we did, taking pictures of the scenery and enjoying the amazing coloured waters. But after a while we noticed that something was missing... "Wait a minute! We have 2 aircraft, we should be enjoying this tour all together!" One of us got on the radio and quickly solved the problem saying: "Hey guys, wait up and we will get together and fly in formation down to Key West! Maybe we will even be able to get some nice pics on the way!"

The result is better described by these photos below other than by text!

General View of the scenario en route.

Check out the shadows that the aircraft were casting as we were approaching each other.

Head photo taken from our right wing.

Catching up with the guys, slightly above their altitude.

Spot the US1 down there!

Once we got to Key West we hastily moved to the beach to take some baths and lay on the sun watching the speed boats race go by across the shore (it was speedboat race's weekend at Key West)! This felt beautifully regarding it was winter and just a week before it had been raining!

As the evening came it was time to grab something to eat by the dock to the north of the beach and so we walked through the streets and got there just in time to enjoy the sunset over a few drinks and snacks. Once we were satisfied we strolled down Duval Street, which is the main street in Key West, where the Speedboats' parade was being held. At the end of the street we got to the Southernmost Point of the continental USA which is perhaps the biggest icon in Key West.

The gang together at the Pier Bar.

Southernmost Point of Continental USA.

The Team all together after a great day!

After such a great day we jumped on the Cessnas for a 4 hour flight back do Daytona, this time on a more direct route only stopping to refuel at Airglades Airport, which is close to the well known Okeechobee Lake. On those four hours we were still able to do an RNAV Approach, an ILS and a handful of touch and goes. Our friends got to our place with only one hour to prepare the bags, eat something and take a bath, after that they were back on the road to Orlando for their flight back to the Old Continent.

Extra: For those interested in a video compilation summing up the flight check out this one made by my friend Vieira,

La Nouvelle-Orléans

New Orleans Skyline View.

La Nouvelle-Orléans, also known as New Orleans is the largest city of Louisiana and it is considered one of the oldest and most unique cities in the United States. Built in the shores of the Mississippi river by a french settlement it is known for its multicultural and multilingual heritage which provided the city with a unique cuisine, architecture and musical background which is most uncommon in the United States.As you might have seen this makes the city quite an interesting place to visit, even more if you are European, since you might identify yourself with the city and its history. As we are 4 European guys on vacation this seemed as the right place to go and so we got on our 2 Cessnas and set sail to Louisiana which we reached after crossing 2 states (Florida and Alabama), flying over the Gulf of Mexico and one time zone, all that done in slightly more than 5 hours of flight. We landed on the Lakefront Airport which is quite close to the city and after getting a map and directions we jumped on a brand new Chrysler Seabring with only 200 miles and went downtown. The nicest and oldest zone of the city is Vieux Carré (French Quarter) which is the place where all the Spanish and French influence can be found. All the tourists go there and can tour around by foot checking the Voodoo stores, Jazz Cafeés or the typical architecture of the quarter.

The guys walking around the French Quarter.

New Orleans Streetcar.

Since we were hungry the first thing we did was to get inside Central Grocery, an Italian shop, to grab a Muffuletta.

Inside Central Grocery Store.

Back on track we strolled around the French Quarter, the Jackson Square and the Saint Louis Cemetery which is the oldest and most popular cemetery in New Orleans.

Jackson Square general view. Saint Louis Cathedral can be sean in the background.

General Jackson. War hero of the battle of New Orleans.

Saint Louis Cemetery.

This is a Roman Catholic Cemetery which was greatly influenced by the Spanish and French and has above ground tombs, not common to the Americans. These tombs are also above ground level due to the usual floods of the Mississippi.

Me stranded on the railroad, ready to be run over by a Streetcar.

Mississippi Shore.

Sidewalk on the shore of the Mississippi. Spot the guy playing his guitar.

Once all theses historical places were seen we decided to tour the Mississippi River with style and got aboard the last Steamboat which still sails the Mississippi River nowadays. We did a 2 hour ride in the Natchez Steamer and while on that tour down and up river we saw Domino's Sugar Factory, one of the oldest and biggest Sugar factories in the World, the docks extending over New Orleans harbour, the Navy Reserve Base, one of the biggest oil refineries in the Western Hemisphere, a few houses that were torn down by the Katrina, the destroyed levee system that failed during the hurricane and flooded the city and the last but not least we had a privileged view over the city.

Natchez Steamer.

Detail on the Natchez big paddle.

Domino's Sugar Factory.

Back on the dock it was time to grab an espresso at The Market Cafe and listen to some live Jazz (what else in the birthplace of such a beautiful music style?). We sat there for a while enjoying some well known hits like "The Girl From Ipanema" and "When The Saints Go Marching In" and my friend Nuno even bought a CD from the band. To finish up and get a broader idea of the city we got on the car and while the sun was setting we drove through the business district, through all the tall buildings and past the Louisiana Superdome, the home of "The New Orleans Saints" which is the local American football team.

General View of a business district street.

Louisiana Superdome.

As a footnote, after the hurricane Katrina, all the people were gathered at the Superdome and an operation basis was mounted there to rescue and feed all the ones in need. After such a long touring day it was time to it the "road" and so we got back to the aeroplane and after taking care of all the paperwork, fees and doing the walkaround we were back on the air for a quite dull and uneventful flight back home. We reached Daytona Beach at 3 A.M., just in time to get the same departure controller that released our flight to New Orleans back on his workstation. He was the one who did recognize us and impressed by the late hour said:

- "Were you the guys that were heading out to New Orleans this morning?"

- Yes We were sir!

- "And did you ever make it there? I heard the wind was quite strong today..."

- Yes We did, 5 hours of flight time each way.

- "Geez..."

- Yeah, long day at the office!

After 22 hours and 30 minutes awake we finally got home almost sleepwalking. We were quite exhausted but I can assure you it was one of the best flights and adventures I have ever had and it was the longest for sure.

Regarding New Orleans, it is quite often said to be one of the poorest cities in the USA but I must tell you that is not true, the city is full of life, colour and history, it has European heritage and style and it is surely one of the most ethnic cities I've seen. On a sunny day you will surely enjoy New Orleans as I did, with its greatness and grace!

Windy Days

I've been lacking posts regarding my USA adventure but I must say we've not been lacking adventures on the New Continent. These last few days we've had quite low temperatures and lots of wind across all the state of Florida. So you guys can have an idea of how windy it got, the other day we had 60 knots headwind at 9500 feet and while landing at a few airstrips to the North we experienced more than 25 knots of wind with gusts. To demonstrate what it was like I decided to post the following video which also has the interesting fact of being on a grass airstrip surrounded by tall trees everywhere which made it much more bumpy and much nicer. Still we managed to do a few touch and goes and put our skills to the test. Hope you like it, as usual, comments are welcome.

(By the way, grass airstrips rock!)

Weekend at Miami

As the previous videos have had quite a good acceptance and your feedback has been quite good I've decided to post this party video which sums up the weekend we've spent at Miami, South Beach. It has nothing to do with aviation but it is part of our American Trip. As you might notice by the outcome of the video it was a really nice weekend and a good experience! Hope you like it! As always, comments are welcome!

Flight to Paradise

It was not our first navigation flight in the US, to say the truth, it was our last flight, a day ago. We were planing a flight up to Georgia (GA), the state above Florida (FL), that would take us 5 hours of flight time. We were to depart from Daytona at 14.00 local time (LT) and fly North bound to Baxley Municipal Airport in the middle of Georgia and in the meantime we were to stop at Jekkyl Island a small aerodrome on an island North of Jacksonville. But prior to departure we changed the day plan and decided to go to the Northwest coast of Florida, to an even smaller airfield than Jekkyl Island. That was only decided because we wanted to fly more than 5 hours that day and since we had that field already on our "Airports to go" list, it seemed like a good choice. The place I'm talking about is Cedar Key which is only 104 nautical miles away from Daytona, but this little detour would prove itself to be the right choice, not only because it would increase our trip time by 1hr and 30 min but also because it would turn out to be the most exotic place, quite above our expectations.

Here is the re-planed route for that day, from Daytona Beach to Cedar Key on the West and then Baxley to the North.

Me taxying the plane at Cedar Key.

After 1 hour and a half flying west we arrived at Cedar Key and instead of reading, I think you should see it the way we did!

After this trip to paradise the remaining 5 hours of the flight to Baxley, GA and back to Daytona were seen as rather dull, but once we arrived in Baxley, there was another surprise. We arrived at Dusk, just in time to do a few touch and goes and taxi to the ramp to refuel our work horses. Once we did that we went inside to enjoy the unexpected coziness of the Baxley Municipal Airport facilities.

General view of Baxley.

Me, John -"The Fuel Guy".

Baxley pilots' lounge at Dusk.

Confy hey? Baxley pilots' lounge.

After enjoying Baxley's above standart conditions and resting a little bit it was time to jump on the plane and "drive" back to Daytona doing night VFR (Visual Flight Rules). And then it suddenly it hit us, why are the runway lights off?! It is past dusk and the aerodrome charts says there are lights on the runway, something's wrong. But it was just a matter of seconds, we remembered what we were once told about those runways in the middle of the USA where the pilot could activate the lights just by clicking on the radio transmitter of the aeroplane in a given sequence. We jumped on the flying machine and tried it out. After 5 clicks the runway illuminated and the airport came alive. It was time to leave and what a better way to say goodbye than performing a handfull of touch and goes during the night at such a nice place?

Runway lights at Baxley.

Maiden Flight

As it is said, "The first flight of a new aircraft type is always a historic occasion for the type", that is called the maiden flight of the aircraft. Since we flew for the first time in the USA last Wednesday that was our first historic flight, our maiden flight in the States. I know you guys have been waiting for a while but I can assure you the waiting has not been in vain! I decided to express our first flight through a different kind of post, a video post. That is why it took us a little while to work the post out, since my friend Vieira has been working on this eye candy to you faithful readers.

The video is a compilation of the checkout flights made by the four of us out of Daytona International Airport to an aerodrome to the south of Daytona called Massey Ranch (X50) where we did our landing practice and manouver training with an instructor prior to getting the green light to fly the 172S solo. Hope you can feel the good vibe as we felt during the flight, hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

By the way, we've been flying quite a lot, logging more than 20 hours since we made this flight, so believe me, there are a few nice surprises coming up! Feel free to comment!

Moving North to Daytona

I've been delaying this post for a few days to get enough information together and to also attach some nice pictures to the post instead of making it just plain text. And now, after these four days without posting a thing I now have some new stuff to share with you guys! After a few days in Orlando getting used to the US and taking care of the paperwork the FAA(Federal Aviation Administration) has given us authorization to fly in the United States and so we decided to move north on the same exact day, the 14th of September. And so we did, heading north towards Daytona took us something like an hour driving time and we arrived just in time to rent a room at a local hotel on the South Atlantic Avenue at Ormond Beach.

Daytona Beach entrance sign on Daytona Beach's Speedway Airwalk.

As you might be guessing by the name, this place is right in from of the Atlantic Ocean west end, so to go to the beach one just needs to go down the hotel stairs right into the light clear sand beach. The water is at 28ºC and the sea is quite calm when compared to the other end of the Ocean. Due to those high temperatures I was told that Florida is the zone where most shark attacks take place which doesn't sound quite good to me. Anyway, as I am portuguese, that didn't stop me from taking a longggggggg, relaxed diving for quite a few times. And as we got back to the hotel it was just the right time to have dinner.

Ormond Beach view from the place where we were.

My three friends on the crest of the wave at Ormond Beach.

As we have been moving quite a lot we have been eating quite a few bad meals based on Pizzas and Hamburgers and so all the crew decided to go out and have a better yet more expensive meal, but still be on with the American culture it seemed right to go to TGI Fryday's to go and grab a nice full meal.

TGI Fryday's at Ormond Beach.

Detail of TGI's sign illuminated at night.

All this arrival scene into Daytona Beach made it look like quite a nice place to live for the next 3 months. Daytona is much smaller than Orlando and as far as nightlife is concerned, from what I've seen, it seems that there is not much activity, yet everyone seems nice and it seems like quite an exotic place to be at this time of the year. Nevertheless I must confess that on the last days we still haven't been able to experience the nightlife quite right. Anyway,.. the next day we went looking for a place to live during the next 3 months and we found quite a nice place with 2 bedrooms, kitchen, AirCo, cable TV and wireless! As well as a pool and gym for all the renters. I'll be posting a few photos of our place later on. After getting this nice apartment and buying tons of groceries to fill up the fridge we were still able to make it to Air America, the school where the four of us have decided to build flight time. As we finished our sign up they scheduled us to fly with an instructor the next day so they could check us out on the Cessna C172SP prior to lending us the plane. But that... That I shall leave it to my next post as all of us have been quite busy around Daytona.

Detail of Daytona's wildlife.

First Day in Orlando

Yesterday we had our first day out in Orlando. To start with we decided it would be perfect to start the day with a real american breakfast and so we crossed the street over to the waffle house in front of us. Instead of writing about it, I'll leave the photos talk by themselves.

Table for four, please!

General View of half the breakfast. Yes, half, do not forget the waffle!

After breakfast it was time to hit the road, destination? Kennedy Space Center, Nasa's Launch Site in Cape Canaveral.

Crusin' the Chevy.

After a 50 minute cruise in our Chevy we got there. Tickets bought and tags on the chest we were ready to go for the Nasa Up Close tour!

Nasa's Visitor Center.

The tour took us about 3 hours and we went from the visitors' center to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) where they assemble the shuttle, then to the Launch Pads and to the Apollo/Saturn V center where there is a museum describing the various Nasa missions across the past decades and also to the International Space Station Building, a sterilized facility where they complete the assembly and constructuion of the various parts used in space, like shuttle modules, satellites and stuff. We also saw the shuttle transportation vehicle, the crawler which moves the shuttle from the VAB to the Launch sites.

The massive Crawler that carries the shuttle.

Launch site L39-B.

Besides the nice buildings and sites inside Nasa's facilities we also had quite a nice wildlife tour since we were able to see Aligators, Bald Eagles' nests, Turtles and Vultures all of that courtesy of the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. I must surely confess that the VAB is the nicest, biggest and most impressive building in there, sure the Launch pads are quite nice and the lightning masts on top of the structures are quite impressive, yet the VAB is the top notch if you consider the following four facts.

Vehicle Assembly Building.

See the pic? Consider this, we seem quite big close to the building right? Well, here are the following facts... See the flag? Each star has 6 feet (1.80m) from each point to another and the blue rectangle of the flag is the size of a basketball court. The building itself is higher than a 60 store building. And to finish up, the side doors on the left take a "mere" 45 minutes to open up! After the sightseeing tour on the bus through all the complex we finished up with the Shuttle Launch Experience, a simulator ride that simulates the launch of a shuttle! I must confess I was a little bit disapointed, but only because I had quite high expectations since during all the tour all the workers and guides kept on talking about the amazing experience it would be. I must say, during the all visit all the people were amazing, funny and full of life, cooperative and dedicated which made the visit quite a nice experience.

Apollo landing capsule.

After the visit we went back to the hotel and there was only time and patience to go to the Florida Mall at dinner time to grab something to eat at check out the Apple store to grab a Macbook Pro! It was quite a busy day...

First Impressions

Lisbon Airport, after the check-in with 2 close friends.

Departed from Lisbon on the 11th of September at 8.00LT (40 minutes delay) we headed to Frankfurt on a Lufthansa Airbus A321-200 where we arrived with only 20 minutes of delay after landing on runway07L. The flight from Lisbon to Frankfurt was quite boring and the four of us spent the time sleeping due to the fact that we hadn't slept that night because we attended a big friend's party at Silk Club in Lisbon and went directly to the airport for a 16 hour adventure to Orlando. Well on the ground at Frankfurt we had almost 3 hours to hang around, check the shops, eat something and look at a few planes. We did so and at 14.00LT we were inside an Airbus A330-300 bound to the US. After a 1 hour delay for pushback and start up due to excessive traffic (our flight was number 35 for push and start) we were able to taxi to the runway and takeoff bound to paradise. Once again a pretty uneventful flight, still, all of us had PTV's and we watched quite a few movies, had some nice meals and tried to sleep a little bit more. At 18.35LT at Orlando (23.35 in Lisbon) our aircraft touched the Orlando's Airport runway and after a few minutes the group was off the plane and on to the customs and immigration officers. All was cleared in a matter of half an hour and after catching the train to the main terminal we collected the bagagge and decided to go on and rent a car.

General View of the Impala.

Chevy's Engine. V6 with 3900cc and 240bhp.

After searching around and discussing prices we settled on for a month rental on a red Chevrolet Impala, a real american car with automatic gear box and a V6 with 3.9L and 240bhp, quite appropriate for the adventure ahead. Loading the car was the hardest part, considering we are four guys and each one of us has 3 bags. Doing the math we had to carry 12 bags so as you might understand it was quite an adventure to load the Impala. Nevertheless after a 15 minutes Tetris game the loading was complete. It was time to head to the hotel after spending 3 hours inside the airport taking care of all the things mentioned above. With no map and a GPS with no satellite signal we hit the road to the unknowned address of our hotel! The only thing that was working right and was setting the pace was the latin music that the radio station was playing. Windows wide open to feel the 30ºCelsius with 90% humidity and light warm rain and the radio blasting to set the mood, the chevy was on the move. With a big load on intuition and an even bigger load of luck we made it to the hotel in less than 15 minutes and checked in right away to unload the car and take a bath. You might think the day was over but not at all, after a quick pit stop the group was on the move again to hit a burger king on Orange Avenue since our stomachs were aching for food. I decided on a $7.49 medium american double whopper which almost looked like a king size portuguese burger king meal.

Burger King Menu.

With a full stomach a need for a BUD (Budweiser american beer) arose and we hit the Orlando night for the first time. Prior to hitting the party area we went for a ride along Orlando downtown with no particular destination, just to sightsee the areas and then, once a destination was determined it took us 20 minutes to reach it. The Universal city walk on the Universal Studios was the place, it looked appropriate since the car rental employee recommended that to us. To say the truth we got there a little late and it looked a little bit empty but we did not enter the clubs and discos (which seemed to have clientele) and decided to get a beer and strolle around the city walk. At 2 o'clock in the morning the BUD was up and it was time to get back to the hotel to recharge for the next day.