Midwest/East coast trip, day 15

Day 15: Leesburg, VA to Leesburg, FL via Columbia, SC

With 3 hours of driving and 6 hours of flying, it was a very long day. The alarm goes off at 4:45 and within 30 minutes or so, we're on the road for the 3 hour drive from Norfolk to Leesburg. This is the earliest we've been up and out the door on this trip.

Getting our IFR clearance out of Leesburg was a snap this time since we knew the secret to file and/or expect STILL intersection as the first point along our route. STILL is a fix on the approach plates for Leesburg and isn't on the low altitude IFR charts.

I wish this was my ride for the day...but no, in our lowly Arrow, Leesburg VA to Columbia, SC was a 3.5 hour flight. For me, it happened to be the first time using supplemental oxygen. Once you get used to the cannula tubes sticking up your nose, it's not all that bad. I can hardly imagine the rats nest of tubing though if using a 4-place system vs. 2-place.

After a quick gas and lunch stop in Columbia, SC, it was time to head to the other Leesburg, the one in Florida. This leg was 3.1 hours and we had to maneuver around some of the afternoon weather. Nothing too bad but it was interesting to use the 496 to watch some of the larger thunderstorm cells that were 50 miles from our path.

Welcome to Leesburg, FL. This storm cell was a baby one, topping out at a mere 17,000 ft. There was another one much farther away to the Southwest that had tops reported at 40,000 ft.

Other than the aluminum tube ride back to the West coast, I'm done flying anywhere for this trip. It will be a 12 hour day of airports/airlines but I'm looking forward to being home.