My Student Pilot's Log
Orlando

Flights 36-37

Flight 36: Wed, Mar 20. (1 / 49.6 / 15)

Today I flew with my CFI for the first time in three weeks to work on ground reference maneuvers. The wind was strong and gusty, which made it interesting. I felt more uncomfortable than I had in a long time. A few times we hit updrafts that blew the plane up a hundred feet or so at a time. Sometimes a slight change of heading resulted in a 90-degree turn as the wind caught us.

Near the end of the flight we tried to fly backward. We headed straight into the wind and dropped our airspeed as low as we could get it without stalling (about 35 knots). For a minute or two the headwind was strong enough to equal the airspeed, so we hovered over one spot. We didn't quite go backward, but it was the first time I've seen a zero groundspeed.

Flight 37: Fri, Mar 22, 1996. (2.1 / 51.7 / 15)

Today we ventured into class B airspace for the first time. We did a short cross country flight to Orlando Executive (ORL), a downtown class D airport a few miles from Orlando International (MCO), one of the ten busiest airports in the country. (See my Cross Country Map.)

The flight involved a lot of radio work- calls to St. Petersburg Flight Service to open our flight plan, Tampa Approach to request flight following, Orlando ATIS to listen to weather and arrival info, Orlando Approach for permission to enter class B, and ORL Tower and Ground- for a forty-minute flight.

Our route took us directly over the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World (above and left) and Universal Studios Florida (below left) and within a couple miles of the skyscrapers of downtown Orlando. (The videotape ended about the time we landed, or we would have gotten better shots of downtown.)

In the top photo, Disney's Contemporary Resort Hotel (the one with the monorail running through it) is the building on the left edge, between the two bodies of water. Those are Bay Lake on the top and the Seven Seas Lagoon.

The photo on the left shows the Magic Kingdom and was shot from about the same spot as the top one. Notice Space Mountain in the center.

2003 note: The airspace over Disney World is now a restricted area, so this is another experience today's pilots are denied.