Florida Panhandle

In order to complete the requirements for the Commercial Pilot examination, I had to fly a cross-country flight to a point at least 250 nautical miles away from my departure airport. Given that it is winter-time and all grey and gloomy in Atlanta, I elected to head South and selected an airport on the Florida Panhandle : Apalachicola. Apalachicola is actually 252nm from Atlanta and seems to be a quiet and sleepy town of the Gulf coast.

Atlanta - Albany - Apalachicola - Destin - Montgomery - Atlanta

The flight was done with Peanut, the little Cessna 152 Aerobat registered N69023. Not the fastest airplane out there but well enough to carry two standard persons with some luggage. The first stop enroute was a refueling stop in Albany to top off and get some lunch.

Peanut is gently awaiting our return on the ramp at Apalachicola

The next part of the flight was the most interesting one: from Apalachicola to Destin Fort Walton Beach airport along the Gulf coastline. Looking from above, the crystal clear and turquoise waters from the Gulf of Mexico seem to be pretty inviting. On our way to Destin, we overflew some pretty remote places, some swamps, some forests as well as Tyndall Air Force Base and Panama City Beach.

Glorious sunset colors on the Gulf of Mexico!

After about an hour and a half of flight, we could finally see the white sand beach of Destin far on the horizon. The white sands beach of Destin seem like heaven on Earth especially when there is no-one around... We overnighted in Destin to gt some rest and visit the place. However due to some unforecasted bad weather along the route of the return flight, we had to delay our departure and make another overnight stop in Montgomery, Alabama.

Some bad storms looming ahead...

Overall, it was a pretty challenging flight and a pretty interesting one. Challenging due to the complexity of the airspace around Destin : from Tyndall AFB to Eglin AFB there is a tremendous military activity going on and we must pay attention to these high-speed traffic. Interesting because we were going a bit farther away than we usually do. A video of the journey may be seen here. Enjoy!