Isn't GA great Jay??!!
I've got a weekend trip to rival yours... Thursday night - Sunday afternoon
1425 nm

Stevens Point Wi - Louisville, KY - Nashville, TN - Lawrenceville, GA -
Adams, WI - Stevens Point, WI

Depart Stevens Point WI Thursday night at 10pm to get out of Dodge before
getting 10 inches of snow
Flew through/over the storm as it was dumping on Madison, departures
from MSN halted due to heavy snowfall
Arrive Louisville, KY at 12:30am
Spend Friday morning visiting customer in Louisville
Depart Louisville Friday noon
Arrive Smyrna, TN 1pm
Spend Friday night and Saturday night at Opreyland Nashville
Depart Nashville Sunday morning
Arrive Lawrenceville, GA (Atlanta area) one hour later
Pick up 2 seats for the Aztec
Depart Lawrenceville, 11:00 central time
135 knot ground speed, 47knots right on the nose at 8000 ft.... MEA of
7000... winds worse up above... once we got into lower country we had a
scattered layer at 6000....
We pulled the power back, leaned it out, and settled in for a long ride
home.
Arrive Adams, WI 1600 central time, 5 hours in the air, 120 gallons of fuel
20 minutes back to KSTE and we were home.

Tip for the plug fouling, maybe you already do, but it really helps... lean
it for all ground operations... although ours are injected 540's, when we
start we go from idle cut off to full rich as the engine starts, then set
throttles to 1000 rpms... then we bring the mixtures back until we get max
rpms for the throttle setting... usually a rise of 3-500rpms.... then we
reduce throttles back to 1000 rpms.

Jim


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
newsAm%d.90177$Ze3.11501@attbi_s51...
Whee-hoo, we made it to Deland, Flori-duh in just 6.3 flight hours last
Sunday, with a fuel stop in Tennessee! Nothing like CAVU and a nice
tailwind to make for an enjoyable flight.

When we left Iowa the temperature was a chilly 14 degrees... When we
landed
in Florida, it was 80. Sure felt good...

A week of shopping for the upcoming "Apollo Suite" (at the Kennedy Space
Center, of course) and the requisite visit to Mickey World and Epcot,
ensued. Other than a day of solid rain (spent largely indoors at Epcot),
the weather was awesome.

Of course, due to inclement weather and a minor mechanical problem that
caused my first-ever emergency landing (which turned out to be fouled
plugs,
thanks to running that awful 100 LL through Atlas' veins -- GOD I hate
that
crap), it took us two full days (but just 9 hours of flight time) to get
home, but what the heck.... That's just part of the fun of flying your
own
plane -- you're never quite sure where you'll be spending the night.

(Last night we were in Macon, Missouri. Never heard of it? Me, neither!
But the motel was the nicest -- and cheapest -- of the entire trip.)

It was a great trip, but it's good to be back -- and with "only" 142
emails
to answer!

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"