The oven has finally been turned off. On Saturday morning, I woke up to a cool 70 degrees with a projected high of 80. Even better, the oppressive humidity had finally moved out of the area. I drove to the airport with my windows open and enjoyed the "cool" wind. When I got to the airport, my instructor informed me that we were headed to Kissimmee Gateway airport just outside of Disney. So, I filed my flight plan online and then called up Flight Service to get all of the NOTAMs and TFRs along our route of flight.
A NOTAM or Notice to Airmen were the things that I talked about in the last post. They include runway closures, obstructions like cranes, navigational equipment degrades or increased activity in areas like jump-zones or around glider airports. The TFR, or Temporary Flight Restriction, is a lot more serious. A TFR is set-up around areas where flight operations are essentially prohibited below a certain altitude and are created for things such as firefighter operations, search and rescue operations, and sensitive security situations (i.e. president speaking or high visibility sports games). Apparently, Walt Disney also thinks he is pretty important. After 9/11, Disney World set up a "temporary" flight restriction over the theme parks to prevent any aircraft from flying below 3000 feet. Apparently, there is a perpetual security threat against Disney that doesn't warrant placing a "prohibited area" (an area where flight operations are permanently restricted) on an aviation map.
Anyways, I was informed about the Disney World TFR as they call it ran out to the airplane to start the engines. Again, for the first time since I came down here, I wasn't drenched in sweat before we took off. It was glorious! The rest of the flight was actually pretty uneventful. We took off to the east and were vectored over the Tampa Airport again. We flew to Orlando and controller in Orlando took us on the scenic route all the way around the TFR. It was pretty cool seeing Epcot and The Magic Kingdom from the air. I think that's a flight I'd like to take again and maybe take a camera.
As for performance, I thought the flights went well. We came back and did a sim which went pretty good as well. Today (Sunday) I spent 4 hours in the sim "shooting approaches." Talk about a long day. It started off pretty bad but by the end the approaches were almost perfect. I guess practice does make perfect. Who ever said that is a pretty smart guy.
Tomorrow, we hop in the airplane again and head to Ocala, Florida. It should be another fun day!!
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