Fifth Leg: Picking up the Southern pace

Here we are again!

Another short and relaxing leg due to stormy weather ahead. From Key Field in Meridian, Mississippi to LaGrange-Callaway in Georgia, a very pretty small airport.  (KMEI to KLGC)


Most of the time today was at the Key Field facilities awaiting for the weather to improve. It was not boring, since it is an Air National Guard Base and there was plenty of activity of marines using their training aeroplanes in transition to F-16's or current equivalents.

Some pictures of this short blog version for today:

I am including a picture of downtown Meridian, just for the sake of completeness, not because it has any particular attractiveness. The most relevant I was able to find was a Railway museum. If you visit the beautiful state of Mississippi use your time wisely.

(No this time I was not standing in the middle of the street to take the picture. I took it while driving on the van they gave me yesterday. I know, I know... this does not help to give good example either....)  

Here you can now see the young Marines in action. Fully prepared going for their jet trainers. They were taking turns flying in groups of 4-5 aeroplanes together. It is spectacular and noisy to see them take off one after the other. They totally ignored the wind direction, using the same runway with a 16 kt tail wind. I guess that with the power these jets have a few knots of wind is irrelevant.

After some training they will be able to jump into an F16 or an F18 like the one in the picture below.

I took some time to watch other airplanes in the hangars. Several Cessnas, Aviancas, Pipers...., Here an elegant acrobatic low wing aeroplane in mint condition.

 Finally in the air! Flying over the clouds today was a good more tranquil option.  Most of the time I flew over the state of Alabama, although I ended up landing in Georgia. I had to avoid an active Military Operation Area, most probably were the Marines from Key Field were having their practices today.

This is one of the 4 rivers I crossed today; Most probably the Coosa river. The other 3 were the Tombigbee, Cahaba and Tallapoosa.

 In some locations the rivers were dammed and produced nice lakes like the one above in the Tallapoosa.

N669TW safely parked in LaGrange-Callaway airport.
It really looked like those airports you find in the Swiss Alps surrounded by pinewoods and grass.
As it can be seen in the picture the skies/clouds reflect the prevalent unsettled weather, typical after a front has passed. Tomorrow should bring better conditions .....  says the forecast....   we'll see...

The flag of Georgia proudly showing its colors to the strong wind.

Again an excellent reception at the airport. This time they offer me a Ford. (With 150,000 miles on it, but working properly). The town is about 5-6 miles with all the facilities to spend the night.










My track today:

First the take off at Meridian and immediately heading East:

And below the full leg.

The totals for the day:

• 198 nm
• 2 hours 6 min.

Slowly but surely getting closer to the target: Kitty Hawk.

All best,

Eduard  ;-)

Time to go to bed.

Oh, yes! I forgot to mention that this blog reads better with background Country music.
(So, go pick a good Country CD or play it from iTunes...)