Quick round trip to Savannah

A month a go I had a scheduled trip to Savannah with a seven day stay. I hadn't made up my mind whether to stay for the seven days in Hilton Head or catch a commercial flight home. Had I not just experienced a lousy commercial flight experience it would have been a definite trip home. As luck would have it, the decision was made for me. One of the principals of the company needs the airplane on Tuesday for a 3 day trip. So, like it or not today's trip turned into a "stop and drop" or "quick turn". These terms are used to notify the FBO at our destination that we want to minimize the ground time. Mother Nature provided some cooling rain for my departure as she has done for the past 12 days in NJ.

As you can see from the picture of the Pilot's flight display below:

All the color at the top right corner of the screen is rain and thunderstorms from Trenton -north and east for about 100 miles.

The states are defined by the dotted lines. The miniature airplane (that's where I am taking the picture) is in the vicinity of Norfolk.

You can see the circle and the letters TTN showing the Trenton airport. If you're interested in the other information on the screen:the bottom line of information is the GS (ground speed) in knots(428) about 490 mph, the TAS (true airspeed) 446 knots, the SAT (static air temperature) in Celsius (-50) -58F. and the ISA(International Standard Atmosphere) +7 - that the outside temperature deviation from standard. Basically, as the numbers increase on the positive side, the aircraft performance decreases.

To make a long story short, we left rainy Trenton and landed 90 minutes later in 96 degree sunny Savannah, uploaded 450 gallons of jet fuel, ate 2 chocolate chip cookies and bottle of water, compliments of Signature Flight Support and took off for home.

Taxiing for takeoff you pass the manufacturing home for Gulfstream Aircraft. There were quite a few of parked new airplanes, waiting for an improved economy (aren't we all?)

And, as my luck has it, the rain that was passing north and east of Trenton on my departure was being replaced by rain coming in from the west. It would be over Trenton just in time for my landing.

If you've gotten this far, I don't have to explain the photos. This was the returning scene.

A thunderstorm in my path, topping out at about 45,000 feet and I'm on a descent for the arrival into Trenton.

95 minutes after departing Savannah, I was on the ground in Trenton, in plenty of time to go to dinner and celebrate a special birthday.

Where have I been?

"Yes, boys this is a deep fried Oreo. Isn't the Seafood Festival great?"


I've had a few people ask me where I've been. Why no blog? To make a long story short; I have my house FOR SALE. Check out the Virtual Tour: http://tours.virtualaccesstours.com/public/vtour/display/5281?_a=0&_b=0&_l=1
If you're are trying to sell a house in this disasterous economy, you have to pull out all the stops, and go with the Pros. So even though I had a flight to the Bahamas with a scheduled 6 day stay, I elected to leave the airplane in Nassau and fly home on a commercial flight, spend 2 days at home; de-cluttering, de-personalizing, and turning my house into a place I'm no longer comfortable in, and then turn around and fly commercial back to Nassau to get my passengers and return them to their homes-Miami, Chicago, and Trenton.
This week long experience renewed my faith in Corporate flying. No one, who can avoid it, should be subjected to the abuse and incompetence of Commercial Airline travel.
There are many little things that bother me about current airport security, and the poor service of today's Air Carriers , but I wasn't prepared for my experience at Continental.
I attempted to check in online the day before departure and was unsuccesssful. I thought it was because I was leaving the US and they needed to check passports. That might have been a part of it, but when I got to the airport and attempted to check in with an agent, I was again unsuccessful.
I was going one-way out of the US and had no commercial flight in the computer for a return flight. NO CAN DO.
(Me) "But I'm flying a corporate airplane back to the US."
(Continental agent)"The computer doesn't accept that."
(Me) You're not a computer, please, give me a boarding pass."
(them) "You'll have to talk to a supervisor".
10 min later.
(supervisor) " Go to that computer and check in"
( me) "I already tried that"
( supervisor) " Do you want me to help or not".
I did the same exercise of computer check in and it didn't work.
(supervisor)" Are you on the watch list or are you tagged for some reason?
(me) "I'm a retired military officer with 38 years of service and I'm not on any 'watch list' unless they started one for patriots."
(supervisor) " No reason to get belligerent, I'm just trying to help. Let me get my supervisor out here."
10 min. later.
(super supervisor) "Let's go to the computer and see what happens" ...
10 min later it was determined that I was leaving the country without a scheduled return. A couple of key strokes and overrides later, I got my boarding pass, and a renewed disgust with Homeland Security.
Returned from Nassau on the 8th of June to return to 'house for sale' prep.
Realtor 'Open Houses' on the 10th and 11th and a public 'open house' on the 14th.
More importantly, I was home for the annual Belmar Seafood Festival.



I took this picture at 6am on Saturday morning. It turned out to be a beautiful day.





The Seafood Festival takes place at Silver LakePark
across from the 5th Ave Pavillion, Belmar

















In addition to deep fried Oreos, there are many seafood choices from about a dozen vendors.












Can you see a difference a couple of hours make?





How to make a good day great?






















Closed out the weekend and the Seafood Festival with a litttle quiet time at the Columns Happy Hour in Avon-BY-The-Sea

Departed Trenton on Monday the 15th for a three day trip to Vegas and another stay at The M. An unusual couple of days for Vegas-some overcast and a couple of showers during the day.Went with my co-pilot to see "The Hangover". Ok, it was funny.

Had a wild ride home. At 41,000 feet, we had several encounters with MotherNature obstacle which coused me to deviate off my planned course.

The one pictured here, about 50 miles wide went up to about 55,000 feet. It was over St Joe, MO. I can only imagine how bad it was on the ground.

This shows my planned route(in green) and the deviation I was making.

Pictures were taken of the PFD(pilots flight display and MFD(multi function dispaly) The first is the actual radar return the second is the 5 min old Xm Radio sattellite image.

Celebrated the arrival home with a Jameson on the rocks.

I'm off to Savannah on Saturday. Talk to you then.