Flight Plan

Here is the route we flew from Merritt Island, FL to Los Angeles, CA.

All you need is love

9/27 In the evening we headed over to the Vegas Strip. Dinner at the Flamingo buffet, then off to see the Beatles Love (Cirque de Soleil) show at the Mirage. Our seats were among the best in the house and the show was spectacular! It was like a second honeymoon 

Cacti Galore

9/27 This morning we toured the Botanical Cactus garden at the Ethel M Chocolate Factory. An impressive collection of cacti, plus we spotted a real road runner! After several attempts I managed to snap his picture.

Red Velvet Café

9/26 Las Vegas, NV. Dinner tonight at the Red Velvet Café, a restaurant that serves “Vegetarian, Vegan and Non-vegetarian lifestyle” cuisine. The vegan “chicken” mushroom and spinach melt Marcie ordered was just heavenly, as was Mike’s sandwich and the signature vegan Red Velvet Cake we shared for desert. This restaurant definitely lived up to its reputation and was well worth the drive.

Over the Grand Canyon

9/26 Today we flew from Junction, TX to Henderson, Nevada with a fuel stop in Deming, NM. The skies were clear today and we were surprised by the vastness of West Texas and the sometimes spotty radio coverage. As we continued west, hills then mountains appeared. We also spotted several wind farms, crop circles and salt flats.

The biggest surprise was an in flight change of route by ATC that put us right over the Grand Canyon! The approach to Henderson was also quite interesting – essentially you fly over a mountain ridge then dive steeply into the runway approach.

And we’re off!

9/25 A full day of flying today, from Merritt Island to Junction, TX with fuel stops in Tallahassee, FL and Baton Rouge, LA. The skies were cloudy due to remnants of the front that kept us grounded yesterday, but the weather was otherwise good.

After nearly 7 hours of flying, we got to our hotel in Junction and plopped into bed!

California Cross Country

After a one day departure delay due to weather along the route, we are finally really to begin our cross country trip to California!

We are headed to Los Angeles for the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (NSGCD) Conference with a planned stop in Las Vegas to see Cirque de Soleil's "Love" at the Mirage.

Our flight path will take us along the southern coast of the U.S., roughly following Interstate 10. You can follow our flight at www.flightaware.com , just type in the tail number N21YF in the flight tracker box on the left hand side of the page.

Labor Day Weekend/Hurricane Gustov

Labor Day weekend we flew N21YF to Fort Lauderdale to visit family. Coming home Sunday 8-31-08 we flew through some of the outer bands of Hurricane Gustov. Near the ground there was light turbulence, but at 5,000 feet the flight was very smooth and we had a great tail wind.

Summer Highlights

This summer we originally planned to fly several trips. Unfortunately, the high cost of aviation fuel made us rethink our plans and we decided to postpone the vacations.

At the beginning of July Tony called Mike and told him that he was awarded the EAA Young Eagle Coordinator of the Year, and it was to be presented to him at the EAA Airventure in Oshkosh Wisconsin at the end of July. Tony asked Mike if he would fly up there with him as his copilot in Miss Mooney. The route of flight was from Merritt Island to Bowling Green Kentucky. Then from Bowling Green Kentucky to Madison Wisconsin where Mike arranged with Wes to put Miss Mooney in a hangar. The route home was from Madison to Chicago Executive to show Tony the airport where Mike learned to fly and see Mike's high school friend Gary and Mike's cousin Marianne for lunch. Then they flew to Chattanooga, where they spent the night. Then from Chattanooga back to Merritt Island. The award given to Tony was a high honor and presented to him at a banquet with over 1,000 people attending. In addition there was a Young Eagles work shop lunch, in which Tony held forums with a couple of hundred EAA Young Eagles coordinators. The Young Eagles chairman actor Harrison Ford presented Tony with the award at the banquet and attended the lunch.

Below are some pictures from the trip.

Wes greets us in Madison

Tony leads a forum

Worlds oldest flying Boeing

Mike and Harrison

EAA Museum Space Ship One Replica

Tony's award photo shoot with Harrison Ford

Tony, Gary and Marianne

Departing Chicago Executive

Sunset over the Kentucky Tennessee Border

Merritt Island Night Landing

On Feb 2, 2008 I flew to Ft Lauderdale with my flight student David to visit Marcie's mother and to see Marcie who was helping her mother after her surgery. Returning home David took this video of night landing at Merritt Island.

Here is the video which he took when we landed at Ft. Lauderdale.

Flying to Key West for Lunch

May 7, 2008

We flew our sister-in-law Elisabeth to Key West for lunch. While there we ate at a vegiterian cafe and went to see the Hemingway house.

Our niece Anna helps preflight the airplane before our flight.

Elisabeth enjoying the flight.

The southwest tip of Florida

Video approaching Key West

Video Landing at Key West

Video at the Hemigway House

Marcie and Elisabeth at the Hemingway House.

Betsy & Allie

Saturday we flew to Fort Lauderdale for a lively family lunch.

After lunch, Betsy and Allie took a tour of the airplane and watched us takeoff for our return trip to Merritt Island.

Checking Out N21YF

Hi to the world of One Yankee Fox Viewers.
My name is Ringo and today I checked out the cockpit of my airplane for the first time.
I'm a big boy now at 4 months old. My Dad and Mom plan to take me flying soon.
So be sure to look at this web site in the future as I tell you all about my adventures flying, from a K9 perspective.

At Pad B

Today I made a field inspection of some of the equipment which I designed that is located at LC-39 Pad B, and I thought you might like to see some pictures of the view from the 80 ft level. While on Pad B I took a picture of the Atlantis on Pad A which is scheduled to launch next Thursday February 7, 2008. To our friends up north, the temperature was in the mid 70's with a light breeze. We wish you were here.

Exciting Sunday

Sunday January 6, 2008, Mike kicked two birds out of the nest, ie. Mike soled two of his flight students back to back in the same plane within an hour. Congratulations to Debby and David.

Happy Holidays

Warm greetings to our family, friends and miscellaneous blog watchers! We wish you a wonderful December and a peaceful New Year.

Click around and you will see what we’ve been up to in 2007. Highlights include a video clip of a Space Shuttle launch and lots of pictures from our summer trip to OshKosh, Wisconsin.

Marcie & Mike

(Click on any photo to enlarge it, and if you see a triangle-shaped arrow button, click on it to view a video clip with sound.)

Young Eagles News

Chapter leader Yacono passes 500 mark; Katz moves to number 2 position

Merritt Island, Florida. Mike flew 8 more Young Eagles Saturday, bringing his total number of missions flown to 234. That gives him the second highest total in our EAA Chapter behind the amazing Tony Yacono, who has just exceeded 500 Young Eagles flights! According to Bobbi, we flew 109 Young Eagles this time, 67 of whom had never flown before. The weather was perfect for flying - cool, clear and smooth. Here are some terrific photos taken in flight by our delightful passengers Savannah, Taylor, Geo, Alex, Marial, Dana, Jake and Lincoln. By the way, you can click on any photo to enlarge it.

STS-120

We haven't been able to fly any serious cross countries since we came home from Oshkosh, just weekend local flights, which is the reason that this web log hasn't had any new additions lately.

I took this video last Tuesday, 10-23-07, from my office window of the STS-120 Space Shuttle Discovery launch. Turn the volume up on your computer and hear the rumble!

Oshkosh Vacation Final Post

We took many pictures and videos on this trip. Here are a few of them so that you can see some of the fun places which we went to.

The three pictures below were taken as we climbed to altitude departing from Merritt Island Florida. The top one is flying by the Kennedy Space Center. It was a hazy morning, but if you enlarge the picture (click mouse on it) you can see the Space Shuttle Runway and the Vehicle Assembly Building. The Space Shuttle Launch Pads are there too, along the ocean, but because of the haze they are barely visible.

This picture was taken over Indiana.

Wes And Shirl's country cat Dixie

Geese at Rock Lake Wisconsin

At the Milwaukee Wisconsin Domes

Leaving Madison Wisconsin

Unloading baggage in Chicago (Video)

Chicago city cat Joey, held by Stephanie, who is Mike's cousin Marianne's youngest daughter.

Eating delicous Vegan food at the Chicago Diner

Chicago Lakefront (Video)

Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

Marcie and Mike's cousin Marianne at the Chicago Diner. It was so good we had to go a second time.

The Chicago air traffic controllers gave us a spectacular view of the city keeping 150 departures from Ohare airport below our altitude. Here is a short video as we fly by downtown Chicago.

Instrument flying over Kentucky.

Marcie in downtown Chattanooga.

Flying above the clouds over Georgia.

Flying over Jacksonville Florida.

Flying over St. Augustine Florida. If you look close you can see America's oldest fort, Castillo de San Marcos. (Click mouse on picture to enlarge it.)