Day 23 - Take off - A freshly mowed strip

The next morning was an early start. I was still a little apprehensive about being able to fly out of this small strip at Panama Beach, with all the weight we were carrying on board for the trip.
I was hoping for favourable conditions to allow us the best possibilities of making it out over the trees that surrounded the air strip. A slight head wind would have been nice as well as a clear morning with out any dew on the grass.

Buddy ferried us about to the airship in his golf cart. The conditions were nil wind with dew all over the ground. GREAT, as if I was not nervous enough. The wing of Mr P also had dew on it which can affect the lift of the wing. I wiped down the leading edge, and took him Mr P for a solo flight. The strategy was to test out the takeoff with less weight and clear the dew off the wing. The takeoff and landing were fine.

Next was the big test when Anna-Klara climbed on board. We said goodbye to Buddy and the onlookers from the RV park who had come to watch these silly foreigners top themselves!! We went right the very end of the runway, revs the engine up to full throttle, let off the brakes and then hoped and held on. Of course there was a bailout strategy if the dewy grass strip did not want to let go of us, but it did about half way down the 900ft airstrip. We cleared the tree tops with a fair bit to spare and were free again !!! Onwards we went with a great learning experience behind us.

We stopped off at Tri County where we took the courtesy car into town. The FAA were on the airfield doing an audit on the local rescue helicopter company. Not two weeks ago the company had lost a $3.5 million helicopter at the end of the runway there. (Pilot panics in the fog at 2am in the morning and dumped it in with 4 on board)

That afternoon we did a full 2hr 15 minute 10 knot tailwind flight east towards Florida Central. We flew at 5000 asl right over a B class airport with Commercial Jets flying right underneath us, a little un-nerving. We landed at Perry a huge deserved X military air force base and walked into town for dinner. Anna-Klara had discovered a technique of sleeping on chairs often found in Terminal Buildings back in Louisiana. Here she has perfected the double bed version. She lasso’s the legs together to stop runaways during the night !