When Mary and I got up at 545am this morning, it was to beautiful blue skies and calm winds. We packed up the airplane, preflighted, and left Perkiomen Valley for the race start in Florida. The good news is, we got here in just under 7 hours! But we're not quite at the start yet - thunderstorms have grounded us in New Smyrna Beach, about 200 miles short of Fort Myers...
Mary and Arnie say a fond good bye at Perkiomen Valley...
Alison flew the 3 hour first leg, to Columbia Co. North Carolina (CPC) where the fuel is cheap and the people are lovely and friendly. Thanks for your help, and for the free chart!
Mary flew the next leg, which also went very well although by this time the heat of the day was building, and we had to climb above the cloud tops, then descend below them after a while when they started to sock in.
Thunderstorms built up across the route, and we decided to put down in New Smyrna Beach (EVB), have lunch, and consider our options. Right now that's where we are, both working at our computers while we wait for the weather to improve. There are multiple big cells all over Florida right now, including quite a spectacular one that recently passed close to where we are (below). Our cross-country direct route to get over to the West Coast and Fort Myers is completely blocked. Our main option now is continue down the East Coast as far as West Palm, then cut across to Fort Myers - but right now the squall lines are moving SouthEast in a solid line, and run the risk of pushing us out to sea. This isn't a good idea here in Florida where there are many military operations areas and restricted zones just off coast, including the shuttle launch site just South of here.
We only have about 90 minutes of flying to do to get to our destination, and the arrival deadline isn't until noon tomorrow, so we're not worried. We'll either go late this afternoon, or start early tomorrow before the heat has time to build.
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