Flying Through the Smoke and Back

On a Sunday morning in May I got off the ground at Tampa Peter O. Knight at about 8:10AM. I talked to Tampa Approach when I got just past Vandenberg airport and they treated me fine. Climbed to 4500 feet and headed North. The visibility from the fires on the FL / GA line was bad at the start... and it got worse.

Because it was early, turbulence wasn't a big problem, but there certainly were times when I was flying in a grey tube. I never lost contact with the ground and the horizontal viz was okay, but there was no horizon and the sky above felt very "close."

I asked Jax Center if the Moody AFB MOAs were hot and they let me cut through the Eastern Moody MOAs. That helped a bit. Once into GA I got North of the fires and things cleared out nicely. Found Eastman, GA and landed just fine at about 10:45 AM.

The AMD factory folks jumped on my "punch list" of items. They had 3 guys working overtime. We got the Dynon EFIS software upgraded, changed the oil, checked and cleaned the plugs, put in a fuel flow sensor, and spent a lot of time on brake lines to find the reason for loss of fluid. Many other things happened such as changing out engine mount nuts with a newer design, adding a longer oil vent tube, re-routing the carb heat tube, improving the canopy lock, etc. They thought they had it knocked out at 7PM on Monday night.

The flight test on Tues morning still showed some weeping brake fluid, so they did a complete change out of the cylinders. After another test flight I got the airplane ready for a 11AM departure.

The "interesting " news was that the President was coming to Tampa and I was flying into a TFR. You CAN fly into a TFR area IF you are on a VFR or IFR flight plan and have an assigned squawk. So, I filed a VFR flight plan and took to the air. Activated the flight plan with the FSS and took a heading to the South West in an attempt to stay West of the smoke. Got flight following and a squawk from Jax Center and headed to Lakeland Regional airport as a mid-point stop.

Looking good.... except that I couldn't see much of anything ahead or above. The smoke was as bad in the West as it had been in the East. Horizontal viz was minimal. They air was hot and rough. I was swinging plus and minus 10 degrees of course and up and down 100 feet like a roller coaster. Got into Florida and discovered that my chosen Western route of flight seemingly cut across every approach control in the North end of the state. I was changing frequencies every five minutes.

Just East of Tallahassee the Tallahassee Approach controller sent me over to Jax Approach. Jax approach didn't seem much interested in looking at me so far out. Then, heading SE, I ran into clouds hidden in the smoke. Things got so bumpy that my hands were flying all over the place. Plus and minus 20 degrees heading and 300 feet altitude. Tried to climb over the clouds, but that wasn't going to happen. The front had been hidden in the smoke and the clouds were too close.

So, I told Jax Approach that I was going to do a spiraling descent in place to get under the clouds. They said, "Radar service terminated, squawk 1200, proceed VFR". Thanks for the help! So, now I had lost my squawk, the TFR was ahead of me, there was nothing but a tunnel of grey, and I was getting slammed all around the cockpit.

I managed to hit the "nearest" button on the GPS and squinted enough to see KLEE. Leesburg was about 20 miles due West. I knew Leesburg airport was North of the TFR, so after about 10 stabs at the down rocker botton and Enter on the Garmin I was able to hit GO TO and headed that way. Then I found out that the LOWER I went the less the smoke. Of course, the rougher the ride.

I landed at Leesburg after 2.7 hours flight time. Went into the FBO. (A very nice place.. highly recommended!) Drank a gallon of water and collapsed in the "Pilot Nap" room. "

About 3:45 I roused myself, put some fuel in the airplane, and began to bounce my way to Peter O. Knight. The TFR expired at 4:10. The folks in Tampa Approach (bless them) gave me 2500 feet right through the Class B all the way to Peter O. That reduced the bouncing I would have taken at 1000 feet under the Class B.
The next morning I completed my pre-flight at official sunrise and got off the ground at 7AM. Still smoky, but not bumpy. The folks at Tampa Approach (bless them yet again!) gave me 5500 feet right through the Class B out of Peter O. I followed the coast of Florida .. over Sanibell and Captiva.. .and all the way down. Ahead of me and to the right it was clear, smooth, and bright. Off to my left the offshore seabreeze was piling up the smoke and clouds on the East side of Interstate 75. A very nice 2.1 hours later I landed at Marathon.