One of my long standing flying goals has been to fly my plane to Pensacola, Florida, to see the US Navy’s aviation museum. To that end, Doug Eaglesham and I have cobbled together a plan for that flight in May of this year. He’ll be flying his CTLS and I’ll be in my trusty Cavalier. Is anyone else interested in coming along?

Here is the rough plan that we have so far. See what you think.

Departure date: Monday, May 13th. Due to commitments that Doug and I have, this date is pretty solid.

Proposed Routing

Day 1

CFX8 KCTB KRPX KSPF 591 nm

Kirkby Field (or Calgary area) to Cut Bank, MT, to clear customs; Round Up, MT for cheap fuel (MOGAS, too), and Spearfish, SD, for overnight.

Day 2

KSPF KOFK KGLY KJBR 803 nm

Spearfish to Norfolk, NB, Clinton, MO, Jonesboro, AR for overnight.

Day 3

KJBR KMEI KPNS 367 nm

Jonesboro to Meridian, MS, to Pensacola, FL

I want to visit the US Museum of Naval Aviation, which has been on my to do list for several years now.

From Pensacola, we have a number of other options, too. We could sit on the beach for a day. We could then fly east for half a day (about 380 nm) to the Orlando area with the primary goal of visiting the Kennedy Space Center near there, and any other tourist attractions we want to see. For example, Kermit Weeks’ Fantasy of Flight Museum is nearby in Kissimmee, FL, and would likely be well worth a stop.

For the trip home, we can make it up as we go, with potential stops in Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville, Dayton, Indianapolis, Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, etc. Many, many options are available to us.

Alternatively, from Pensacola we could fly west to see the Houston Space Center in Texas, and/or the Commemorative Air Force in Arlington, Texas (near Dallas – Ft. Worth). We could go on to see the Boneyard and Pima Museum in Tucson, and even go as far as San Diego to see the aircraft carrier museum there before heading home. Again, there are legions of options for us heading west from Pensacola.

Surprisingly, the total straight-line distance out and back to home is within a couple of hundred miles going either way from Pensacola, so it gives us a lot of latitude in picking where we want to go.

We have planned for a total of 12 days, to be back on May 24th. This trip is easily doable in such a time frame, even with some minor delays, provided we’re prudent and flexible with our route planning on the trip.

Are you interested? Please let us know asap. You don’t need to commit to it right now, of course, but if you want to be kept up to date on the planning, please ask to be kept informed. We’re going to hold a preliminary planning meeting soon to work out some more initial details. Even if you’re just thinking of doing the trip, that’d be a very good meeting to attend.

I’ve flown the Cav through a lot of the areas that we’ll be visiting, and I can tell you that this will be an unforgettable adventure regardless of where we end up travelling. How cool will it be to fly a small airplane from here to the Gulf of Mexico, and then the Atlantic or Pacific coast?!!

My experience tells me that you’ll need a plane with a minimum cruise speed of 110 – 115 knots or better to best cover some of the distances involved.

Alternatively, perhaps buddying up with someone who has a suitable airplane and wants to share expenses could work, too.

This promises to be an unbelievable experience for those who do it, so please get in touch with me at bushmaster@shaw.ca if you want to be included in the next steps.