Sunday Flight

As a requirement for getting his instrument rating, Scott had to file an IFR flight plan and navigate to a destination over 250 miles away using just instruments. So, Sunday we flew down to South Padre Island for lunch with Scott's instructor, Drew. (Those are his feet under the plane, Renee never asked him to pose for a formal photograph). South Padre Island is on the very southern tip of Texas, about 20 miles from Mexico.

It was cloudy Sunday morning in San Antonio, which until now Scott wouldn't be able to fly in. It will definitely be nice to be able to fly whenever we want, although obviously there are still limits as far as storms and fog. Taking off from San Antonio. Scott navigating.
The view out the window in the clouds.

Breaking above the clouds.

The clouds broke up as we went toward Corpus Christi...

Corpus Christi from the air. Everybody just says "Corpus" here.

Our first glimpse of the coast (or Renee's first glimpse rather, since Scott couldn't see outside).

Renee taking a picture of herself.

We landed at Port Isabel, which is about 10 minutes from South Padre Island. We then rented a truck and went to eat at Amberjack's, a restaurant on the beach. Generally when you buy fuel at an airport, they will give you a courtesy car (or even a Lincoln Navigator or something like that, depending on the airport) for free. This airport wasn't really equipped for that...but they did have a truck we were able to rent. It was a 2000 Ford F-150 extended cab with 96,000 miles on it. Someone had taken out the back seat and replaced it with a carpeted wooden box (?) that was too high to sit on. So we had to all sit in the front seat, Renee in the middle. It was also a stick shift. And the check engine light was on. And the rental contract was typed on someone's home computer. It didn't seem to be a rental car per se, so much as just some guy's truck. It was a funny experience. The truck was extremely clean though and the guy who worked at the airport was very nice.

Anyway, this is the bridge to South Padre Island. When MTV does "Spring Break" the traffic is bumper to bumper and apparently it takes over an hour to cross. It only took us about 15 minutes to get from the airport to the restaurant.

The view from the restaurant, Amberjack's (all seagulls).

Getting ready to leave the Port Isabel Airport (we were the only ones there). There was one guy there who fueled the plane and ran the front desk.

The control tower and hangar. The control tower's windows were half boarded up, half missing and half of the hangar's roof (which was made of wood) was also gone. But you could see how when it was built in World War II it would have been busy. There was a lot of cement everywhere, for runways and ramps.

We decided to fly over South Padre and check it out from the air. Scott did get to look outside briefly for this part. We spotted Amberjack's from the air, the one with the green roof.

On our way back north we flew low along the beach.

And briefly went out over the ocean (this is looking back at land).

We then flew to Mustang Beach as the sun was setting to file a flight plan for the last leg of the trip.

Mustang Beach from the air.

Scott and Drew planning the route.

The sun was setting just as we were getting ready to leave and head home.

Sunset from the air.

Downtown San Antonio.

Coming in to land at San Antonio.

Scott did a great job navigating, and it was a nice little day trip. He has his check ride already scheduled and we'll let you know when he's officially an instrument-rated pilot.