Miami (Opa Locka) to Leeward Air Ranch, Ocala, Florida, to Dogwood Air Park, Fredericksburg, Virginia

30 April to 4 May 2006

Visiting fellow flyers in their air parks

Flemming preferred to fly IFR to deal with the complex and busy airspace around Miami. We were invited to stay with earthrounder and friend CarolAnn Garratt, who flew her Mooney around the world in 2003. On arrival at Leeward Air Ranch, CarolAnn radioed to us from her car to tell us how to find her. We soon saw her and she led us down the taxiway to her house. Honey Mooney was in excellent company, parked next to CarolAnn's Mooney in the hangar beside her house.
CarolAnn is currently busy building a RANS S-7 Courier with a Rotax 912 engine. It was great to spend a relaxed day with her in hangar chats, drinking beer, watching aerobatics, looking at various homebuilt airplanes. Interesting to experience life at an air park.

2 May 2006. Leeward Air Ranch, Florida, to Dogwood Air Park, Fredericksburg, Virginia (IFR 4:52 hrs).
What a pleasure to simply put the bags in the airplane outside the house and take off! Nice flying weather except for the 20 knot headwind. Following CarolAnn's suggestion, we filed direct Dogwood (VA42) 600 NM away, and that was the clearance we got a few minutes later!
Sue and Bill Harrelson greeted us on arrival in their charming airpark. Honey Mooney was put into their hangar. Sue and Bill (whom we met at the earthrounders meeting in Mexico) are busy building a bigger Lancair IV and planning a round-the-world trip. They kindly lent us a car to drive to Georgetown, Washington DC, where we had a sumptuous dinner with our old friends Armand and Maria Lucia Pereira. It was thanks to Armand that we met in 1985. Armand joined us on various weekend trips in the Mooney when he was living in the Geneva area and flew with Flemming across the Atlantic to Brazil in 1996.

3 May 2006. Washington DC. After breakfast we drove round the Mall before returning to Dogwood airpark. Sue and Bill took us to lunch in nearby Fredericksburg, one of the major battlegrounds of the American Civil War. Then we toured their airpark, and enjoyed a delicious dinner in their garden with neighbours Rich and Jody Williams.

Thanks to

CarolAnn GARRATT

Bill and Sue HARRELSON

Maria Lucia and Armand PEREIRA