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Back to
Everglades City, March 22, 2006 |
| One of the other pilots snapped this
picture of us standing on the taxiway in front of the Everglades
City airport operation. For you pilots, their Unicom is
122.9. It's a terrific part of 'Old Florida' and a great place
to visit. |
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| Everglades City is starting to get
built up! This is one of their new homes. |
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| Last time, we had lunch at the Rod &
Gun Club which is a great historical site. This time we ate at
Susie's Station, a converted gas station with lots of old gas
station memorabilia including this 1932 Ford pickup. |
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Top Gun AT6 Texan Flight,
March 12, 2006 |
| Before we took off from North County
Airport, we snapped a few pictures. |
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| All strapped into the cockpit and
ready to go. You wear a parachute and before the pre-flight
you get briefed on releasing your harness, bailing out and pulling
your ripcord. After all, these planes are 65 years old. |
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| This is the plane that I flew all
torn apart in the shop getting an engine overhaul. |
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| WWII pilots trained in the AT6
before they went on to the P-51 Mustangs and the P-40 Warhawks.
Everything in the cockpit is beefy for strength and durability. |
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| Here we are above the clouds. I
got to fly the plane except during the aerobatics because I was
heaving my guts up. What a beautiful flying plane, real light
on the controls. |
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Everglades City Trip, January 16, 2006 |
| Tucker is ready for takeoff from
Lantana Airport. He actually flew the whole 97 mile leg down
to Everglades City. Click on the small pictures to see a
larger image. |
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| The FBO at Everglades City is
actually on stilts 10 ft. above the ground to protect it during
flooding from hurricanes. During Hurricane Wilma in October,
they had a 7 ft. storm surge, so it's a good thing they are 10 ft.
up. |
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| Tucker took this picture. I
think it's a Luscombe. Neat old airplane. |
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| The runway is right on the water.
In the background, you can see the 10,000 Islands area. Great
fishing! Runway 15 ends right in the water, so taking off is
very scenic. |
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| This is a chart with our northern
half of the route. |
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| This is the southern half of the
route. Flamingo is at the southern tip of the Florida
peninsula. It used to be a farming town from about 1850 until
about 1920 when it was wiped out by a hurricane and saltwater from
the storm surge ruined their soil. Now, it's a small fish camp
and part of the Everglades National Park. |
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on
10/04/2008
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