Day 8 - New Orleans to Orlando

Tony Cacciarelli • Jun 22, 2020

New Orleans, LA (KNEW) to
Orlando, FL (KORL) - June 22, 2019

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100 hours total time on the A5

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Eduardo and Marcus

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In good company for the night

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Another happy landing

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Original Instagram Post

Another time zone change today going from New Orleans to Orlando. Last one for a while, thankfully. I'll be on East Coast time for the next few weeks.

The weather was hot and humid for the whole 500 miles I covered today, the longest flying day so far - and I have no air conditioning and no autopilot!

I did hit exactly 100 hours total time on the A5 when I stopped for fuel at Apalachicola, FL. Great little FBO, by the way.

When I got to Orlando I had good friends there to welcome me and help beat the heat. Plus, the A5 got to share a hangar with a cool Cirrus VisionJet.

I also want to give a shout out to all the air traffic controller for providing amazing service. I know a lot of pilots are intimidated to talk to ATC, but it's really nothing to be afraid of. They're great to work with and getting flight following increases the safety of the whole system. The more you do it, the easier it becomes, so use it every chance you get.

😀👍🏼

When I was planning all the legs of the trip, I purposely chose smaller airports for some of my fuel and overnight stops. This wasn't just to avoid complex airspace. My home airport is in LA, which has some of the most complex airspace in the country, so I'm comfortable going in and out of Class C and D airports. But I wanted to give the smaller airports some attention. As I mentioned previously, these small airports are the backbone of the general aviation network. There were only a few spots where I had limited options for fuel stops, but I still had options.

On this day I started out at Lakefront airport in New Orleans, which is a Class D that's tucked underneath the New Orleans International Class B. It's a good sized airport and pretty busy. Compare that with my fuel stop at Apalachicola, a small, fairly quiet regional airport with not a lot of traffic and no control tower

When I landed at Apalachicola, the guy driving the fuel truck came up and said "Wow, second one of these I've seen today!" That's not typically the response I get when I show up with the A5, but I knew there was another A5 owner in the process of flying his plane back from ICON headquarters in Vacaville to his home in Miami. I'd hoped we might be able to meet up at some point and fly a few hops together, but he wasn't taking the slow, scenic route like I was and had caught up and passed me. I'd be in Miami in a few days so we decided to catch up there. Apparently, he'd made a fuel stop just an hour before I'd landed. So close...and interesting that we ended up choosing the same airport to stop at.

After Apalachicola I got back on with ATC since I knew I'd be flying into the crowded airspace around Orlando. I was greeted at Orlando Executive airport by my good friend Eduardo and his family. I'd be spending the weekend with them and the plan was to give their son Marcus a ride in the A5 the next day. But for today it was a dip in the pool followed by a few drinks and a home-cooked meal. Eating out at restaurants every day is fun, but it starts to take its toll after a while. This was a really nice way to wrap up my first full week on the road. Only eight more to go!