Jeanie and I started off the new year by taking a day trip to Cedar Key...
We headed off to the airport around 0930 and were wheels up at 1053.
I had planned our route to go from Fernandina Beach (55J) to Mayport (NRB) to NAS JAX (NIP) to Cecil (VQQ) then direct to the George T. Lewis Airport on Cedar Key (CDK). I did this to avoid the JAX Class C airspace and the TFR over the Jacksonville Stadium and the restricted areas south of Cecil. It turned out that the restricted areas were cold, so I could have gone direct from NIP to CDK, but I elected to stick with my VFR flight plan as filed. The flight over was lovely. The sky was clear and visibility was great at our cruising altitude of 4500 feet. We did have a brisk headwind of approximately 20 knots which reduced our ground speed to about 85-90 knots. The 129 knot trip took about 1:30 including pattern time. I don't know why, but it seems every time we fly to an airport next to the ocean for one of these adventures, I am faced with a direct cross wind for landing. This was no exception. The combination of the slightly gusty 10 knot cross wind and 2,355 foot runway created some challenge for me, but we managed to land and get stopped (comfortably, without extreme braking) before the end of the runway on our first try, although it did take a small bounce or two to keep the wheels firmly planted on the runway.
I had read on Adventure Pilot.com that if I made an inbound approach call on the CTAF (122.9), that more than likely Judy, of Judy's Cedar Key Airport Taxi, (Cell: 352-949-2127, Home: 352-543-5406, P.O. Box 326, Cedar Key, FL 32625) would respond back to ask if we would like a ride. I did, she did, and I said we would.
By the time we landed, Judy was sitting on the ramp waiting for us. The two mile or less ride from the airport to "town" was quick and reasonably priced at $10 total ($5 per person), and Judy was friendly and informative.
Judy drove us to Dock street, where Jeanie and I checked out the menus of the various restaurants. We ended up selecting Frog's Landing Restaurant (420 Dock Street, Cedar Key, FL 32625, 352-543-9243). We thoroughly enjoyed our selection. The ambiance was nice, with a Florida Keys decor and Jimmy Buffet / Island type background music. The food was wonderful. Jeanie started with a cup of "Frog's Thick and Creamy Crab Bisque" which was delightful - true to its name, with loads of tender crab meat. I had a cup of their soup of the day - a hearty gumbo which was also quite good. For our entree, Jeanie and I split an order of Deviled Crab (2) and Fried Shrimp (6) with fries and slaw. Ordering deviled crab can be a bit of a crap shoot since sometimes it is more devil than crab, but in this case, it was definitely more crab than devil. The crab and shrimp were cooked just right, the fries were hot and crispy, and the coleslaw was light and creamy.
After lunch, we took a walking tour of the island. The streets on the main portion of the island are laid out in a grid and logically named. The east-west streets are numbered 1-8 starting at the south, and the north-south streets are lettered A-G starting at the east. We ended up walking the length of Dock, 1st, 2nd (which appears to be the "main drag" and 3rd streets. This gave us an opportunity to see many of the restaurants on the island, as well as to visit a number of shops, a grocery store and the city park with its tiny (we believe man-made) sand beach. The island is small, and appears to be best suited either for a day trip such as ours, or if you're planning to stay a night or two, to those who want either a very laid back quiet vacation, or are avid fishermen or nature lovers.
As an experiment, we took Jeanie's new Garmin Nuvi 650 with us as we walked around Cedar Key. I also played with the four different GPS/Mapping applications I have loaded on my Blackberry. We were surprised and disappointed at the performance of the Garmin as a pedestrian GPS. While it is wonderful in the car, we found it to be inadequate while walking around. The main issues were that we couldn't find a zoom level that gave us enough of an overview while maintaining reasonable detail, and we couldn't scroll the map to display what we wanted to see. On the other hand, the Blackberry worked surprising well. Both the Garmin and the Blackberry had difficulty locating the GPS satellites. I don't really understand why, as we were out in the open when we started trying to use them. Both did eventually lock on (mostly). The worst performer on the Blackberry was the Blackberry native mapping program. It never did manage to get the GPS active. Nav4All worked okay. amAze GPS worked quite well, even noting some points of interest without having to go into POI search mode (which is good since its POI search is weak). It did struggle a bit to maintain the lock on the GPS satellites and when it lost them, in terms of best overall functionality, I'd have to give the prize to Google Maps. I believe that Google Maps supplements it's GPS guidance with guidance based on triangulation from cell phone towers. It seemed to have the best control over map size and location, along with an uncanny ability to determine our location and direction of travel. The one downside to using the Blackberry as a GPS device is that doing so gobbles up the battery.
Ended up back on Dock Street. Jeanie was in the mood for a cup of coffee and something sweet. We decided to try a different restaurant, just because. We selected "Seabreeze On The Doc" (PO Box 520, Cedar Key, FL 32625). Seabreeze is a two story establishment, with a bar on the ground floor and a restaurant on the second floor. We elected to go up to the restaurant. As with Frog's, the restaurant sits on pilings extending out into the bay. Three sides of the dining area were floor to ceiling glass, which afforded just about everyone in the place a beautiful view. We were seated next to the glass in the sunshine, which was fine with us as we were both a bit chilled. We ended up splitting a scrumptious slice of Key Lime Pie. The pie was just right, with that perfect blend of sweetness and tartness, complimented by the creaminess and sweetness of a fresh whipped cream topping. The crust was a traditional graham cracker crumb crust, with just enough butter and sugar to hold it together, but not so much as to make it sticky or tough.
Even though from what I had read, the $10 taxi fare was "round trip," Jeanie and I decided to walk back to the airport so we could sight see a bit more. I find that I notice so much more walking than I do riding. I don't know if it is just an issue of the slower speed, or if I just pay more attention when walking. As an aside, all told, we walked almost six miles during our visit.
Here are some photographs from the day: http://www.blogdom.org/gallery/view_album.php?page=2
For some more nice photos, check out Stuart Jewkes page here: http://www.pbase.com/stuwj/cedarkey
For our departure, we still had the direct cross wind, but the wind speed had increased. Let's just say it was right at the limit of the demonstrated cross wind capability of the aircraft. Even though the Cedar Key Visitor's Site (http://www.cedarkey.org) on its airport information section (http://www.cedarkey.org/island.html#airport) (gee, what a concept!) suggests departing on runway 5, I elected to use 23. My logic was that given the strong cross wind, were I to drift away from the runway after lift-off, I'd rather drift over the open water than near houses, plus, the obstacles were lower and farther away using 23 than using 5. I thought this was a better alternative, even if it meant taking off with the sun in my eyes and departing over open water. I elected to perform a standard short field take-off. As soon as I was airborne, I crabbed into the wind, and was able to maintain my heading on departure. The sun was low on the horizon, and once we rotated and crabbed, it wasn't a factor. We were fortunate in that right after we got into the plane, but before I started it, a Piper Cherokee came in for a landing. I am not sure if the first approach was an intentional go-around, but I think it was. I think the pilot chose to fly a low pass to get a feel for the conditions before committing to a landing. His second approach was picture perfect, and he made an absolutely text book cross wind landing. The fact that he was able to land with no apparent problems gave me more confidence that I would be able to take off without too much problem.
Although as best I could tell, my take-off was quite good (given the conditions if I do say so myself) I got a bit flustered. The aircraft was always under control and I maintained proper airspeed, etc., but Jeanie said I was breathing pretty hard right after lift-off. I definitely feel it was the most difficult take-off I have ever performed. To top things off, shortly after take-off, Jeanie told me that my door wasn't closed. It turned out that it was securely latched, but was not quite as tightly closed as normal - I guess I didn't slam it quite hard enough when I went to shut the door so there was a slight gap between the door and the seal. Since it was secure, and given the conditions at Cedar Key, I elected to continue on. Other than a very slight draft from the gap, there was no issue.
The old adage is "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate" and I guess I kept to the principle. I managed to handle the airplane, and get myself pointed in the right direction. My communication left a bit to be desired. On three different occasions, I either entered the proper frequency into the stand-by frequency but then forgot to press the flip-flop button before transmitting, or I entered the frequency into one radio, but forgot that I had the other radio active. In each case (once on CTAF, twice with ATC) the people on the frequency were very friendly and gently advised me of my error. My communication wasn't all bad. Once I got on the right frequency, I did manage to communicate properly and effectively. I even filed our return VFR flight plan over the radio (a first for me), and switched from ATC to FSS to get a check on winds aloft (also a first).
I flew the same route (except reversed) home. Other than a very brief period of mild turbulence on the way home, the ride was smooth. Now traveling north east, and given the increase in wind velocity, we now were helped by an almost thirty knot tail wind. For a good portion of the return flight, we had a ground speed of 134 knots at 7,500 feet. Wheels up for the return portion was around 1730, so we got to enjoy a beautiful sunset (1745) out of the rear window as well as some lovely night flying. Night landings always make me tense. I just don't fly them as well as I think I should. As a reminder, Jeanie isn't too keen on landings - day or night. It has something to do with the fact that she's had lots of take-offs in small airplanes, but relatively few landings (since she tended to get out along the way). Given that I had my sweetie as a passenger, I attempted to exude confidence in my approach and landing so as to not increase her apprehension. Fortunately, the wind was right down runway 31 (which, strangely enough, given that it is the instrument runway, does not have VASI or PAPI). I don't know if it was my exuding, or just dumb luck, but I made the best night landing I have ever made. It would have even qualified as a real nice day landing. Total time back was about an hour and a quarter.
All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful way to start the new year.
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Posted by David at January 03, 2008 07:22 PM