Trip to Sun 'n Fun 2001
Longest trip for 86CG so far. Shown on the FliteSoft flight planning software,
purchased at Sun 'n Fun. This software includes a cheap fuel finding feature
that led us to 100LL at $1.85 in Indiana on the way home!
Assuming 15 minutes taxi time & 1 gallon of fuel per stop, we made an average speed of
143 Kts with a fuel burn of 9.25 gallons per hour. The EIS-4000 fuel totalizer was
just 2 gallons out for the whole trip - an error of less than 1%. Cruise speed was mostly
150 Kts TAS with ground speeds varying from 110 to 208 Kts.
Six double rows of RV's - about 100 - with quite a few more parked outside the
Home-built area.
Our baggage weighed in at close to 100lbs, including camping equipment & comfortable chairs.
It completely filled the baggage space, levelling off at the tops of the seat backs.
After five nights camping at Sun 'n Fun, this was the view from our hotel room in the
Naples area.
Only time for lunch at the airport in Key West. Conch chowder, conch fritters, & key lime pie. Shame
we had to skip the margaritas.
We met a guy called Buz at Sun 'n Fun who gave us great advice & suggestions for our trip.
One of the things he mentioned was asking Daytona Approach for a "Shuttle Run". Sure enough, they handed
us off to NASA Tower, who cleared us for a 500 ft pass down the 15,000 foot Space Shuttle
landing runway. In the distance, we could see the Shuttle launch tower. Buz invited us to
visit him in Virginia, but we didn't make it that far north this trip.
Of course, we had to visit the birthplace of aviation. The first flight of 120 ft looks incredibly
short when you see the marker stones!
Final night was spent at the Pelican B&B on Ocracoke Island, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
A beautiful place, but we took no photos :-(
