Flight to Bogota leg 2: Key West to Belize



Leaving Key West and land behind.



Are we ready for this?




Water and clouds




Andres follows the course on his ifr chart




Coast of Cozumel, and we turn south to parallel the coast



Approach to land in Belize

The clearing in paperwork begins.  Rudy did a great job of expediting the process, but he shouldn't be leaning on the wing like that.

Leg stats:  581nm  4.9hrs  119kts average speed  12,000' cruising altitude

Trip to Bogota, Columbia first leg: Melbourne to Key West

After a myriad of details, Andres and I finally left Melbourne in the afternoon, headed to Key West.  It was an easy warm up for the long days ahead.


Typical cruise speed, 103kts indicated, 121kts true at 9000'.


Typical pilot equipment: phone with music and mini iPad with Foreflight.  What has flying come to?


Circling to land at Key West.  After we landed, the lineman said "Hey that is a Phoenix, one of those just landed here a couple of days ago".  That's right, Russ and Lynn were just here!
Andres and I cleaned up at the nearby motel and then went out to a nice fish restaurant which would have been better without the karaoke music.  We sat as far from the microphone as possible.  After a good night's sleep, we were off on the real leg of the journey; Belize via Cozumel.  Stay tuned!

Phoenix Flight to Columbia

Andres Lisocki and I fly out of Melbourne tomorrow, headed to Bogota, Columbia in his new Phoenix.  I will be out of phone range until Feb 12, but will try to stay on top of emails.  Check back here for our trip report soon.
Melbourne to Key West - Feb 5
Key West to Belize - Feb 6
Belize to San Jose, Costa Rica - Feb 7
San Jose to Cartagena - Feb 8
Each flight will be nonstop to minimize the paperwork and payoff troubles at each stop.

Photo Shoot

Sebring LSA Expo

Our tent and display area at the show.

Kathy talks with interested pilots.  The step stools were there to keep people from standing on the wheel pants and breaking them which worked great.  Kathy was a great help at the show, thanks honey!

Jan Friedrich of the Czech LAA takes his first flight in the Phoenix.  He put together a neat slideshow of his flight which you can view at http://www.laacr.cz/pictures/Sebring2013/Phoenix.pdf

L-R:  Josef Straka, owner of Stratos 07, which makes the Phoenix parachute system, Jan Friedrich, and Martin Stepanek, head of Phoenix Air s.r.o.

Just before departing the show, heading home on the short flight to Melbourne.  I loitered over the airport for a little while, waiting for the Mustang to launch so that I could jump him from out of the sun and show him some Phoenix stuff, but he saw me and waited for me to leave before he took off.

Sebring LSA Expo

We will be at the Sebring Expo in Booth #303 and out on the flight line doing demo flights.

Come by and see us!

Melbourne to Topeka with Kris

Howdy sports fans.  Please pardon the long delay in our reports here.  Blogger is updating their website and adding new cool things to help us posters (posers?).  Don't you just love it?  What happens is that the site gets screwed up and no one can post photos.  And without photos, what would this particular blog be?  Booooring!  I mean to say that the visual beauty of the Phoenix, and the sights that this wonderful machine allows us to experience is the main reason for these posts.  Anyway, I have finally discovered a work around to get the job done until the folks get it together again.  So we hope you enjoy these photos of Kris and his new Phoenix, and our great trip to his airpark home in Topeka the second week of November.

We had some nice conditions for training in Melbourne, including this great sunset flight.

This is what the panel looks like when Sebastian Communications begins their work.

And this is the finished product.  Pretty nice, eh?

Crossing the Mississippi.

Over Arkansas.

Preflight on the second short day into Topeka.