Day 11 - Tampa to Miami

Tony Cacciarelli • Jun 25, 2020

Tampa, FL (KTPF) to
Miami, FL (KOPF) - June 25, 2019

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Today had to be some record high temps for Florida. It was already pretty hot when I left Tampa around 10am. I flew to Lake Okeechobee, but just did a fly over and kept on towards my final destination of Opa-Locka airport. In one area there were, I think, orange groves almost as far as you could see. It was agriculture from one horizon to the other!

Ops-Locka was busy when I got there. Lot's of different traffic coming in and out and a few folks doing pattern work and instrument approaches. The controller had me line up for the final to runway 12 but to expect a change to 9L. It certainly wasn't a standard approach. The controller was moving fast but was clear about what he wanted me to do. Flying around L.A. has definitely been good training for dealing with busy airspace and feeling confident in my radio skills.

I'd planned to fly around Miami a bit today, but after getting cooked the whole way down from Tampa I decided to call it a day and find some air conditioning. I parked the A5 next to its sibling for the night. It's surprising the places you can fit into once the wings are folded!

Tomorrow I'll do a flight around Miami with one of the local folks from ICON, so that'll be a good way to learn the lay of the land. Then it's down to Key West on Thursday.

A few stats so far:

- 2500 miles flown

- 36 hours of flying

- 138 gallons of fuel used.

😀👍🏼

Looking back, I think the heat and hazy weather really affected my mood on this day. I got a later start departing out of Tampa, so the temperature was way up and humidity was through the roof. I was ranting to myself about the heat and humidity for most of the flight. I flew right over Lake Okeechobee and was thinking about landing, but after checking my fuel level and seeing some afternoon convection starting to build up, I opted to head straight for Opa-Locka.

I hadn't done as much flying in Tampa as I'd hoped. I'd originally planned to meet up with some of the ICON folks and do some rough water training, but they were over in Miami doing an event. I could've stuck around Tampa for another day, but I felt like there'd be more options for good flying in Miami, so I headed over there.

I can understand why some pilots don't like flying into busy airspace. If you've done all your training at uncontrolled fields or maybe flown into one controlled airport that doesn't get a lot of traffic it can be really intimidating. The controllers are busy handing a LOT of different aircraft, so you have to be quick and precise with your radio calls to avoid hogging too much time on the frequency. It's certainly more stressful, but there's a great feeling of satisfaction when you do it well.

I'd thought the pace of the trip would be speeding up at this point, but in a way it kind of slowed down. I was 11 days in and had already traversed the whole country from one coast to the other. It felt like I'd be done way sooner than the eight weeks I'd planned. But, I'd also put in a few long days of flying and had to bypass my stop in Austin, TX.

In the coming days I was going all the way down to Key West and then following the coast up to Maine, so I'd be flying the entire Eastern seaboard - about 2,200 miles. That's roughly as far as I'd flown to get to Miami and I had many more stops planned along the way.