Crystal River KCGC

Video Link: Crystal River

Crystal River is at the heart of the Nature Coast of Florida. The city is situated around Kings Bay, which is spring-fed and so keeps a constant 72 °F (22 °C) temperature year round. Kings Bay can be home to over 400 manatees during the winter when the water temperature in the Gulf of Mexico cools, and is the only place in the United States where people can legally interact with them in their natural conditions without that interaction being viewed as harassment by law enforcement agencies. In December 2013, the Citrus County Board of County Commissioners passed a resolution modifying the airport's name to Crystal River Airport – Captain Tom Davis Field. CAPT Tom Davis, USN (Ret), is an accomplished Naval Aviator out of the Navy's jet fighter community and a recipient of the Legion of Merit and the Distinguished Flying Cross. ~Wikipedia

 

Departing RWY05 KVDF

CGC is about 50 miles north of VDF. It was a good flight on a cool Florida morning and gave me a chance to check our my new avionics. I'm still getting use to my 796 and this trip would be a chance to couple it to my GDL 39 ADSB receiver.

Preflight went well. It took a lot of pulls to get the burp but no leaks, flats, or electrical problems. However on my taxi out to the run up area I did notice that the GPS input to my Dynon system had failed. No purple arrows. After the engine runup I did a DSAB configuration check and all was well on the Dynon side. The GPS was fine so I decide to depart and drive the autopilot manually. I pushed the Map button and brought up the HSI panel. I hadn't used this old friend in a long time. I set the altitude for about 2800' and put the heading bug just to the right of the arrow to compensate for the northerly wind.  (No wind arrow.) The air was smooth.

Meanwhile I checked weather and traffic on the GPS. It works! The GDL 39 has and independent battery and uses Bluetooth to connect to the 796. It was a very easy setup and I'm pleased with the results. If you watch the video you can see the antenna setting on the glare shield. It was a quiet day so very little traffic and I didn't see any weather until I returned to Tampa Exec. Just a couple of pixels of green but enough to prove the the ADSB system works.

I also figured out why I wasn't connecting to the Dynon system. I had the 796 home over Christmas to learn some "Knobology" and let the battery go dead. I lost some settings and one was the interface to Dynon. I called Certus and replicated what he had on his device. My purple line is back.

Arriving RW09 CGC