Sunday has been a day off from flying so I have had plenty of time to decide where to go to today.
Venice-Municipal!
Venice sits on the west coast of Florida to the south of Tampa and Sarasota.
Aircraft for today is C172SP N440FA.
Weather is much more Florida-like. Blue skies and light winds for the rest of the week.
As I call for taxi I request 'flight-following' to Venice VFR at 4500'. Flight following, basically, makes life much easier on cross-country flights. If possible, the respective ATC units will hand you off to the next unit and make the radio work much simpler. More importantly, particularly in busy airspace around Orlando and Tampa, it is much safer as they will try their best to keep you clear of the Gulfstream V going into Kissimmee, the guy doing aeros over Lake Apopka etc.
Checks complete and I call ready on Executive Ground (Orlando Exec is unusual in that ATC operates the same as in the UK - you call ready on Ground then get transferred to Tower. Normally in the US you transfer automatically to Tower when you are ready for departure). An individual squawk is issued for the transponder and I am cleared to depart via downtown Orlando (keeps you clear of the runway 7 approach) and I am on my way.
The next 15 minutes or so are fairly busy as I initially climb to 1400' (standard Executive departure altitude) and pick up Interstate 4 westbound. This takes me southwest toward Tampa and is a good feature to keep clear of Kissimmee Airport and, even more importantly, Disney. Disney Resort has a 3-mile radius prohibited area around it and must not be overflown. I am not sure what happens if you infringe it - ripping up of licence I guess with possibly a short time in the local jailhouse.
After passing abeam Kissimmee I am cleared by Orlando Approach direct to Venice and climb to 4500'. Within a few minutes I am passing overhead Winter Haven Airport. You may just be able to pick out Jack Brown's Seaplane base bottom right.
Passing abeam Lakeland I am transferred to Tampa Approach and I stay with them until I get Venice in sight.
Venice is an uncontrolled airport which means that you follow standard VFR joining procedures and radio calls. You normally call when you are 10 miles to run and transmit your intentions. It is then up to you to integrate yourself safely into the circuit pattern. Life is made slightly more difficult by the fact that Tampa won't release me from their frequency as they have their own traffic to affect me. This means making my 10 mile call to 'Venice Traffic' on the other radio - Box 2. I am eventually released by Tampa with about 5 miles to run to Venice. The circuit is busy! Several trainers in the circuit, a 125 exec jet joining downwind ahead of me and several others calling up as they join the circuit. Just as well I have decent eyesight!
A minute or two later I find myself left downwind for runway 4. I have everything worked out and can see the traffic I am following.
Then the joker arrives. A Beech Baron has joined tight downwind behind me but is overtaking me fairly quickly. I make a radio call to him to go in ahead of me but he doesn't pick it up. He, finally, sees me and throws in a big right turn to pass behind and outside me. I keep a tight circuit myself but am aware of him following me in. He is Number 2 to me so that is his problem. I land but miss the turn off that goes direct to the Apron - doesn't show on the chart and I didn't see it till I was passing it. I keep the momentum up to clear the runway at the end but as I do I can hear the Baron going-around above my head. He then proceeds to complain about my airmanship as he flys over the runway! I have flown a Baron before and know what sort of distances you need and speeds to fly. Not my fault he can't judge his speed in the circuit and gets too close to the one in front. I decide not to tell him this to his face though and make sure I have locked the aircraft up and departed the scene before he parks up 5 minutes later!
Lunch is already planned - 'Sharky's' restaurant on the beach. Turn left out of the airport, walk about a half mile to the junction, turn left and walk about 400m and it is on the right hand side. 15 minute walk at the most. Try and get there before midday though as it fills up fast. I got there about 1215 and was lucky to get the last outside table. After lunch a walk out on the pier to take in the golden sands and various other pleasant views!
Back to the airport, check that angry man in Beech Baron hasn't let my tires down (or worse) then a fairly uneventful flight back to Orlando. Pick up I-4 at Polk City and follow it past Sea World towards downtown. I get a good view of the tourist helicopters below me doing their low level flights around the attractions. A descent is made to 1200' for the standard join at Exec, call at 10 miles and I am cleared straight-in for runway 7.
2h30mins for the return flight and all done at £70/hr in a pristine aircraft less than 4 years old. Bargain!
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