Well, today was a very good day where Manoj and I got to double up our lessons and somewhat catch up to the others. We went to Tamiami once again followed by a trip to Marathon. To get there, we took an east bound departure from Tamiami and headed towards Key Biscayne. We were VFR the entire time at 2000 feet so that gave us the opportunity to just use the Florida Keys and the US 1 Freeway to guide ourselves straight down. We didn’t get to Key West today which is the southern most point in the US, but oh well…we have quite a few more lessons to try to make that shot down there.

On the way there, we encountered quite a few rain clouds and some other various cloud build up. Through all that precipitation, I was able to take a picture of double rainbows around the Orlando Area. Take a gander. Doesn’t look like you can make out the one to the left of the vivid one.

It was an overall very productive day but we weren’t able to get any food anywhere. We then just went for the vending machines at the Falcon Trust Air FBO and I had two bags of chips and a strawberry shortcake popsicle. How nutritious huh? Of course, on the way down, I had a nutrigrain bar and granola bars. I didn’t get a chance to eat a good meal till around 19:30 EST after an entire day of flying. Oh well, I guess its all about busting our butts. Hopefully, I’ll be more prepared tomorrow.

Oh yeah, also on the way to Tamiami, we got a chance to be about 3 miles from a Delta Boeing 757 jet. Looked a lot closely than it really was. We were passing right beneath him as he approached Palm Beach International.

Flying to Marathon was a great experience. Just overlooking the water and everything (sight-seeing) just made it really worth while. There was also a retired military jet landing there who was giving tours around the area. I have to tell you though that the entire time I was trying to land, there were some pretty good gusts of wind. It was reported at winds 100 at 14 gusting to 21. That always adds a little excitement to my crosswind landings. Runway was 7 at KMTH, so it wasn’t that bad, but single engine maneuvering for final and touchdown is a task. I had fun.

Here’s one more picture of what winds in a hurricane can do to your aircraft while its on the ground. I wish the owner the best. This was taken while on the taxi way in Tamiami headed in to Falcon Air FBO.

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