New Years Eve Trip to Everglades City

[Murdoughnut]

I've been meaning to put these up for for awhile - this was by far the best trip I've ever taken as a pilot ...

In-laws were in town from OH to visit us in St. Pete so we decided to fly them down to Everglades City to do a fan boat tour of the glades - so we left KPIE around 11am in the 172 I co-own with several other guys. We we're right at max weight, but density altitude was reasonable ...

[Murdoughnut]

... we were VFR with flight following out of Tampa class B and just followed the coast all the way down, passing Sarasota, Venice, Port Charlotte Bay, Fort Meyers, and Naples on the way down to the small, 2300' strip in Everglades city ...

[Murdoughnut]

... We knew we were getting closer as the landscape quickly changed from million dollar+ beach homes to vast swamp land - quite beautiful to see really. Everglades city is about 25 miles south of Naples, and is pretty much the last sign of civilization before Miami to the East or the Keys to the south ...

[Murdoughnut]

... had a slight crosswind into the Everglades city, but nothing too strong. I still managed to bounce once before eventually putter her down. We parked the plane in the grass and walked up the FBO "hut". Very friendly staff. We called the place where we were doing the swamp tour and they sent over someone to pick us up. Our tour was great - we went out into the salt water for a bit, and then through a mangrove forest ...

[Murdoughnut]

... the pelican you see here made a perfect trap on our "carrier", landing right on the front edge. We had a dolphin swimming under our boat as we idled - apparently he had escaped from an acquarium a few months before. The mangroves were beautiful, and we got to see a gator sunning himself on the bank. I live in Florida and thought it was awesome, but my inlaws were especially amazed given that they had just left freezing central ohio...

[Murdoughnut]

... when we got back, the woman who picked us up in her car, drove us to a local crab shack for lunch. After lunch, the owner drove us back to the airport in his truck - the people down there were great - couldn't have asked for them to be any friendlier. After that, we saddled back up for the 1.7 hour trip back to KPIE. Hope you enjoyed the pics - if you're in Florida, you have to plan a trip down there! The pics are courtesy of my sister in law.

[staplegun]

Originally Posted by Murdoughnut

The pics are courtesy of my sister in law.

I wondered when you said just "in-laws" in the first post! I thought "wow, that's a young looking mother-in-law!"

Kevin

[Murdoughnut]

Haha, no, it's my wife's brother and his wife (they're the two on the right in the pic of all four of us together).

[amorris311]

cool photos! looks like great weather too!

[Murdoughnut]

Thanks - weather couldn't have been any better - mid to low 70s when we left, about 80-degrees when we got there.