Bahamas, Bimini, Key Largo...

Sounds like a Beach Boys tune, doesn't it? I got a couple of good flights in today. First took off from North Palm and headed east to the Bahamas. I believe this technically counts as getting my feet wet. At 4,000 feet though, I never really was out of view of land, but I was definitely far enough away from land to be in trouble if I lost the engine.

I started the flight before dawn, hoping to catch a sunrise before I landed, but this new plane is just too fast. I cruised over at 135 knots and got there before daybreak. Landing at Grand Bahamas International in Freeport was pretty easy. I requested clearance to land a good ways out so I'd know what runway to line up for. Based on the runway selection, I angled south of the island and then turned northeast for the final approach:

The sun hasn't come up yet, but the sky is starting to turn purple at least. After this landing I had to take a break for a while, but I got back in the cockpit later in the evening for another flight.

I had considered staying in the Bahamas for a few days, but I decided to save that for a later Caribbean tour. Instead, I took back off from Freeport intent on landing in Key Largo, another old Scuba Diving favorite.

My route was going to take me past the Bimini islands, so I adjusted course to fly to them and check them out. Oddly, just north of North Bimini, FSX shows a little island with a lighthouse but nothing else on it. After this flight was over I checked Google Earth to get more info but could not find the island at all. Hmmmm....

(update, the lighthouse is called Great Isaac Light, you can find a photo of it linked in Google Earth at 26 01.6 N, 79 05.4 W, but the image resolution at that location is not high enough to see the island itself, which is really just a rock sticking out of the ocean. The FSX version of the island is a lot bigger than it really should be, which is why it seemed to odd that I could not find it earlier)

Anyway, I decided to do a touch-and-go landing at South Bimini Airport for a little practice, so I angled southeast and then turned back west to line up:

I've noticed that the Skylane is a LOT easier to land than the old Skyhawk. It's just more stable somehow, and responds better to minor corrections. All of my landings in the 182 have been right down the middle of the runway and nice and easy on the tires.

As soon as I touched down I raised the flaps and throttled up to take back off. As I climbed out from the airport, I flew over Port Royal. Isn't that the starting point of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie?

Regardless, I powered back up to 4,500 feet for the final leg of the cruise back to Florida. As soon as I got to altitude I could see the coastline ahead.

I was using the Miami VOR for navigation, but rather than flying straight to it and into that crowded airspace, I aimed to the south of it so I could pick up the 198 radian which points directly to Key Largo.

As I made the turn to pick up r198, I glanced out to my right and spotted the City of Miami and Miami International beyond:

Probably with a better video card there would be more buildings and such, but there were a few ships in the water to look at.

From Miami I found my radian and continued south towards the Ocean Reef Club airport in North Key Largo. It's a private airport actually requiring prior permission to land, but no matter.

At about 10 miles out I announced my intention to land on runway 22 and started lining up. I came in too high and overshot the beginning of the runway, but managed to get down on the ground well enough and stopped before the grass. I did have to use my brakes though.

As you can see, I'm right on the runway like I'm supposed to be. No more of that one wheel in the grass stuff for this pilot:

Now that I'm back in the State's I probably will slow down a bit and do some island hoping until I get to Key West. After that, it's back north to Dalton, hopefully in time for Christmas.