Destin Day Trip

Beautiful weather will get a pilot's mind racing with possibilities. Why not fly to Destin for some seafood, spend the night and eat some more seafood before coming home? Sounds like a great idea! The only catch being this would be our longest flight ever, to an unfamiliar area, into perhaps the nation's strangest airspace, at night. Hello, preflight planning.


With the plane, car and hotel lined up, new headphones for Jack, plus a dining recommendation, we lifted off from Huntsville International at 4:51 on Friday.


Between the built in GPS and our portable unit resting on the dash there was little chance of getting lost. Still, in the spirit of my instrument rating class, I decided to make use of VORs and follow the victor airways to Destin. With a flight plan on file, we enjoyed the watchful eye of ATC the whole way, being handed off from one controller to the next as we left Huntsville, then Birmingham and Montgomery.

The relative quiet of calm Alabama airspace soon gave way to Eglin approach. With the press of a button we went from hearing another person's voice once every 20 minutes or so to nonstop orders from a controller accustomed to handling some of the most congested military traffic in the US. It was nearly impossible to just check in without stepping on someone else's instructions. Coinciding with all the radio activity, we were now sharing airspace with medical flights, military trainers, commercial airliners, a multitude of other general aviation flights just like us and, oh yes, an AC-130 gunship lighting up the artillery range with orange fireworks of some sort.

Contrasting the chaos in the air, the ocean was now clearly visible shimmering with a translucent glow in the moonlight. Laura spotted the airport beacon and we were soon cleared to descend at our discretion and switch to the advisory frequency for the non-towered field at KDTS. With full flaps, we made the runway with no problems, other than having to wake my legs up after the 2 hour 15 minute flight. Still, that sure beats the 7 hour drive.

Destin Jet rolled out the "blue carpet" for us and even pulled our car up to the plane for loading. Armed with directions to our hotel and another dining recommendation, we went to the hotel to freshen up and then headed out for dinner at Louisiana Lagniappe. It was excellent, and Jack enjoyed the people-watching.

Saturday morning as me and Laura got ready, Jackson surveyed the area from his situation room.


Once he was finished doing whatever it is one does from an important looking chair, he graciously helped me load the car. However, after a few trips up and down the stairs we had to take a little break.


After checking out of the hotel we enjoyed lunch on the beach at the Back Porch.




We followed that up with a trip to the Destin Commons for some shopping and ice cream.


Upon returning to the airport, the Destin Jet folks were friendly enough to again help with the loading as no fewer than 3 linemen chipped in making quick work of the situation.


The departure took us out over the ocean while Eglin approach figured out how to thread us through the narrow north-south corridor.



Fortunately, it didn't take them too long to get us turned around.





Before long, the beach was behind us and the fading daylight revealed just how desolate south Alabama really is. Nothing but forest all the way to Montgomery. In 2 and a half hours we were home safely, thankful for a truly wonderful, relaxing mini-vacation.

How did we fare compared to other modes of transportation you might wonder? Even though I'd fly just for the fun of it, I was pleasantly surprised.
Driving would have been cheaper for sure, but impractical for a quick trip at 7 hours.
Commercial flying from Huntsville to Destin-Valparaiso would have taken 5 1/2 hours from home to hotel on the shortest flight.
Flying ourselves took 4 hours from home to hotel, and the combined cost of the plane and car rental plus the hotel all booked the morning of, was actually less expensive than just 2 equivalent commercial airline tickets booked 1 month in advance.
Hooray general aviation!

Have I mentioned Jackson has figured out how to eat his foot?