Ahead of Schedule

The first thing I did when I woke up Saturday morning was to check weather forecasts for the first few days of my planned route of flight. I saw that a stationary front hanging over the Carolinas was about to re-energize and kick up high winds and possible storms beginning early Sunday morning. That's not good weather for flying, period. I made a few phone calls to find out if my airplane would be available a day early - fortunately it was - and I rearranged my schedule to depart Mt. Pleasant early Saturday night.

The airplane I'm flying is a rental aircraft operated by Coastal Aviation at the Mt. Pleasant airport (LRO). They are, by far, the most accomodating and professional group of people I have encountered in my 15 years of flying. They knew I was leaving on a very long and challenging trip and they made sure the airplane was serviced and ready to fly. Having flown dozens of other airplanes operated by various flight companies I've learned to expect less than prompt attention to minor maintenance issues uncovered in general aviation aircraft. But Coastal really takes good care of their fleet. And some fleet it is - they have five 172SP's, two of which are equipped with the new state-of-the-art Garmin G1000 glass cockpit. The airplane I'm flying has more conventional instrumentation - vacuum powered and pitot static guages along with the KLN94 GPS.

It was just after 6pm when I taxied out to runway 17 at LRO, performed my final engine and instrument checks, and began my great adventure one day earlier than planned. The IFR flight plan I filed requested direct GPS point-to-point routing from LRO to Panama City (PFN), a distance of 341 nautical miles. Factoring winds, my estimated time enroute was to be 3:09.

I lifted off from Mt. Pleasant in ideal conditions - a few scattered clouds with light southeasterly winds. Climbing through 700 feet I contacted Charleston Approach to request my IFR clearance. And I was quite pleased to hear that I was cleared direct to Panama City as filed.

It was a very uneventful three hours and nine minutes heading west-southwest at 6000 feet. The airplane has an automatic pilot that will hold altitude and heading. Once that was set I could relax a bit and let the joy and exhilaration of this life experience begin to wash over me. So long in coming but now it was finally here. And what a great beginning - sailing through a few scattered clouds with gentle winds and the sun setting on the horizon ahead of me. That portrait is now hanging in my library of memories from life's greatest moments.

Nightfall had preceded my arrival in Panama City. It's the best time of the day to be making an approach into a city airport. Visibility was good, so it was easy to line up for a visual approach to Runway 32 at PFN. I landed within two minutes of the projected time enroute at 9:15pm. I taxied to one of the general aviation fixed-base operators (SheltAir) where N5296Z would spend the next couple of nights. I unloaded my bags and took a taxicab to the nearby Marriott Courtyard where I took a quick shower, put on some clean clothes, and walked around the corner to Chili's for a few cold Dos Equis and some chicken fajitas.