November 11th, 2004, Jacksonville

I spent 3 days in this great metropolis in the American south east. The weather was beautiful and I took the chance to do some sightseeing. I really enjoyed visitingthe sites of the 1996 Olympics. Being in Atlanta, I suppose I should have been drinking Coca Cola, but being stubborn I consumed instead copious amounts of Budweiser. Since I had to be in Tampa to meet up with Vincent Lecavalier, the star player of the Tampa Bay Lightnings of the NHL, it was time for me to get the show back on the road. The Lightnings are the holders of the Stanley Cup and Vincent was about to head to Russia to sign a contract for the duration of the NHL strike.

I headed out into the crazy Atlanta traffic and managed to find my way to the Hartsfield Atlanta International airport. Once the formalities at the airport were completed, I headed for my Cessna where my precious cargo of beer was waiting for me in a Landmark truck. The guys in charge were already loading up the plane. It was going to be overweight on takeoff...

At 14:32 I started the engine and requested clearance for takeoff to Jacksonville. I headed for the runway in the midst of a mass of traffic. I was bracketed nicely between 2 delta aircraft.

It's always impressive to see the professionalism of the controllers at such a busy airport. I'm always surprised how quickly so many aircraft land and start! In spite of having 10 aircraft in front of me and a whole bunch on approach, it didn't take too long before I was lined up on the runway ready to go for Jacksonville, Florida.

I would have liked to have made a last flypast over the city but the controllers had other plans and vectored me off to the south-east.

It was an uneventful flight. Beautiful weather en route, excellent visibility and hardly any turbulence. 90 minutes after takeoff from Atlanta, I landed on runway 07. For once, I didn't get done for speeding during my taxi to parking.