Florida summer weather, I woke just before the sun came up to check the computer for my daily forecast. Blue sky in the morning, clouds developing by noon, thunderstorms later in the day, the same forecast I've seen all summer long. One variable was mist or fog in the early hours, which we had today. It would burn off by our ETD of 9:00am. Marcel called as I was on my in to the airport. I had started the commute early to get ahead of the school buses and wanted to get a jump on the preflight. I confirmed that it was a "Go".
He arrived before the preflight was completed. Already knowledgeable about the Rotax 912 ULS, I took some time to point out some of it's idiosyncrasies including letting him experience the infamous "burp". We pulled her out, parked our cars and climbed in.
All ground operations were normal. Marcel made a nice takeoff from RWY23 and we picked up the highway to the fly the 30 minutes south to Airport Manatee. The trip required good airmanship because we were sandwiched under the 1200' shelf of the Tampa Class B and near to cell phone towers reaching well above 1000'. Marcel has a light touch and did a very nice job of controlling Sally while picking out landmarks along the way.
Runway Information
Runway 7/25
| Dimensions: | 3120 x 100 ft. / 951 x 30 m | ||
| Surface: | turf, in good condition | ||
| Runway edge lights: | low intensity | ||
| Runway edge markings: | RY 07 AND 25 THLDS MARKED BY THREE GREEN LGTS AND ONE BUCKET ON EACH SIDE OF RY. | ||
| RUNWAY 7 | RUNWAY 25 | ||
| Latitude: | 27-38.496667N | 27-38.615000N | |
| Longitude: | 082-31.476667W | 082-30.913333W | |
| Traffic pattern: | right | left | |
| Obstructions: | 32 ft. trees, 729 ft. from runway, 110 ft. left of centerline, 23:1 slope to clear 8 FT TREES 90-100 FT S OF RY CNTRLN FULL LENGTH. ACFT HANGARS 135 FT L OF CNTRLN FIRST HALF OF RY 07. ACFT PARKED 100 FT R OF CNTRLN FIRST 1/3 OF RY 25. | 15 ft. brush, 364 ft. from runway, 80 ft. right of centerline, 25:1 slope to clear | |
Marcel made a good landing and I took the plane back to taxi over to the FBO. This a nice little airport! About 50 airplanes of all types on the field in hangars and covered tie downs. Great fuel prices, this place is a gem. As we walked the line I met Shayne, a Facebook friend who was working on a beautiful Jabiru. The four place airplane has the rear seats removed to allow it to be LSA compliant. This one was already has ADSB in/out installed.
After our visit we took off and followed I75 north again staying below the Class B. I did a little demo but mostly we just chatted about aviation and enjoyed being in the air. I talked Marcel though the landing checklist and watched him make a beautiful landing back at KVDF.
What a wonderful way to spend a summer morning.
Video Notes: 48X
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| "Landing on grass is like walking in comfortable slippers" ~ Marcel Rivard |
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