50th anniversary of NASCAR race "DAYTONA 500".

Daytona is the most crowded place I've ever seen. This last week and next week, a huge amount of people converged in Daytona for the NASCAR races in the international speedway, which stands by just across the runway, maybe half a mile from the campus.
A parking lot spot to park a car is sold $50, the race ticket is more than $200. Everything goes crazy ! Police cars all around the airport, the campus dorms are locked up all day for safety, all because of that crowd everywhere...
Even the airport is closed to general aviation this WE as VIP( more than a hundred of biz jets) come in. They actually had to close runway 16-34 to be able to park all the jets flying in. I've heard also that Air Force One is to come ( 50th anniversary of Daytona 500, this is almost like the superbowl here ...very important event).
The thunderbirds are also flying over the speedway every day.
...
And me in the middle of all that frantic crowd... The campus is on the airport, sitting by the international speedway... That's quite funny to see all these typical american rednecks for most of them wearing the same Nascar sweater, waving either the american flag or the "Daytona 500" flag, and drinking the same Bud light.
I don't have to many pictures of all that, I post some pictures from the web to give an idea of that crazy week...

First US_Airways Flight to KDAB...

Today was the first flight of US Airways to KDAB. They've opened a new line between Charlotte,NC and Daytona, FL.
Daytona already have some airlines coming in such as Delta, Air Tan or Continental. It's growing bigger with this new line.
The first fly-in of an aircraft inaugurating a new line is always a special day on the airport. The firefighter got Two firetrucks out, spraying water over the ERJ175 as it was taxiing to the terminal. Awesome!
This is even more special to me as I can imagine how important this day must be to Jon (the father of the family where I spend the Christmas vacations) as he his responsible for US_Air in Daytona...
Here are pictures of the landing, and the firetrucks thing...

C'est la gloire internationale !!! ("International glory !").

I posted that picture of the Cedar Key's cat more like a joke than to really compete, without any real ambition... But surprise ... It seems it will be published... I'm now a real photographer ...!!!! Amazing.
For the sceptical people, I post the proof... (I now Merlin will say it's a photoshop hoax... well it's not! )
Well, this being told, I'm pretty satisfied of my picture, I really like it, but I suspect this contest to be a mere bogus, as it seems too easy ... I'm sniffing some scam around the whole thing... Let's see if I'm really published one day.

Note : To see the picture in good quality, browse down on my blog, you'll find it in the message "KNAV->KCDK (Daytona Intl -> Cedar Key)" from Dec 21, 2007.

N64848, we're gonna divert to St Augustine...

On monday (Jan 21st), I was planning to go to St Simons Island, KSSI, North of Jacksonville. It was a pretty windy day, but the latest weather gave something just below the limitations of our Rocket... :) So... Let's go.
It went smoothly all the way up to Jackonville, but then the ceiling began to drop pretty quickly, the vis also, and down at 1500ft (from 3500ft a few mins ago) we called The Flight Service station to get the latest in St Simons... : "St simons Island, wind 030 at 19gusting28, peak wind measured 1/2 hour ago at 32. vis 10, 1800 broken, overcast 2300. Temp 8, dew point 3, altimeter 3062" (I still've got the writing from the flight on my kneeboard). Beeing in a C152, earing that is almost freightening... wind gusting up to 32 knots !!!
We quickly decide to divert to a more suitable place for our cessna, so ... let's head back to the south. St Augustine is a nice historical city, we need to grab a bite... so be it, St Augustine it is !
After landing there we go downtown (the oldest city in all the US, this is actually a touristic historical place), take some picts of that place, eat something and go back to Daytona...
I add some shots from Lynch ramp in Daytona were is parked our aircraft, I think I never posted any picts of that place tough I go there each time I fly. Note that beauty Dassault Falcon 900 firing up its engines as I shot on Lynch ramp...

KDAB -> KVNC (Daytona Intl -> Venice)

A lit' bit late as we flew that one on Jan 11th, but here are some of the picts... A nice flight, 5.2 hours (good for the log book as well). (even in a C152, isn't it the nicest office in the world ?!!!) Also I flew past the NASA shuttle launch facilities many times now, but never took picts before : so here is a (bad coz misty) pict of the NASA thing.
I almost didn't fly this last week due to bad, low ceiling, rainy, windy, misty fucking weather, but I plan to fly tomorrow to St Simons Island, and I'm also beginning to think seriously about a Coast to Coast trans US flight... Huge planning, but should be fun to fly in the grand canyon, over Las Vegas and to San Francisco... for exemple. Let's see if I can plan that.

back to ERAU ...

After this very nice and relaxing break in the American family, I'm back in Riddle. The routine is back too, tough a little bit different... Online classes ... which means I've got all the time I want to fly, and only some homeworks on computer ! I flew 1,5 h this morning, I'm planning a cross country flight for tomorrow (something like 6 h). The log book will like that !!!
Well it is 12h00 here, I'll go grab a bite at the student center ... bye

sugar mountain and back to ormond beach...

I got really lucky for these christmas holidays ! I was invited to spend the holidays by a really nice family and they invited me to ski with them in north carolina, sugar mountain, as well. That is awesome for me who is a real ski enthousiast, I really didn't expect to ski this year, being stuck in Florida. Awesome !!! I have no words to describe how nice that time i spend with them was great.
There are some pictures from the sugar mountain resort and a picture of me on the beach when I came back to Ormond beach...