Off to Lakeland, Florida and National Flight Services to pick up a newly acquired Beech King Air C90B, N903TT. It will be the third in our fleet. We will be dropping off another of our C90Bs, N905TT, for maintenance. Our enroute forecast is somewhat iffy as we leave as there is scattered unsettled weather up and down the east coast.

 

Here is a good shot of N903TT, waiting for us in Lakeland.

 

 

N905TT climbing out from Asheville as we begin our trip south. Note the improved REX Essentials cumulus clouds.

 

 

Uh Oh! Descending over central Florida into impending weather! Should have known! But the excitement of the new acquisition spurs us on to Lakeland! The weather continued to harass us, and for the first time in my flying career ATC changed the active approach to Lakeland twice in less than 6 minutes. We were originally cleared for RNAV 23. Then the winds shifted and we were diverted for a VOR 09 approach. Then the weather closed in and our approach was changed again, this time to the ILS approach to 05!

 

 

Wx is deteriorating fast! We start to see lightning as we descend below the cloud base between our IAF at PLUMY and the ILS OM at WIREY!

 

 

Classic cumulonimbus with mammatus base! Not a good sign but fortunately not moving fast! (Great job there REX Essentials!)

 

 

Lightening gets more frequent and floods across the pattern!

 

 

Almost to the OM! Too close for comfort! Time to turn left to final! Like right now! Only we have a procedure turn at the marker that will add at least three minutes to our anxiety! This is especially tough for my co-pilot today, Lefty. You must know already from that nickname that he does not take well to the right seat, especially when confronted with these challenging conditions!

 

 

Welcome relief, runway in sight as storm chases us in on final to ILS 9!

 

 

Taxiing to National Flight Services, but they've closed off the hanger to weather the storm!

Note the nice wet tarmac textures as the rain hits KLAL.

 

We were not able to take delivery of 903TT as due to the weather in the area our evaluation ride to Punta Gorda and back was scrubbed until tomorrow.

After some continuing weather issues yesterday, we finally took our familiarization ride and then delivery of 803TT, our latest King Air C90B:

 

Level at 8,000 over Tampa/St Pete

 

Close in chase view of 903TT taken from N5590T

 

Other shots from the familiarization flight will be posted in the Screen Shots forum here on AVSIM. Includes a swing by Key West and then the Gold Coast.

Over the Potomac headed south last night.

 

Here are some pictures of my last flight.

This started at Luxembourg ELLX IFR until abeam Chambery and continued on VFR via Grenoble in to Alpe D'Huez altiport and from there on to Courchevel altiport bod have a sloped runway and its a very nice challenge to get in to these strips.

Departing at LFHU Alpe D'Huez for VFR flight to Courchevel. Check the rate of descent on the take off roll :dirol:

 

Final at Courchevel.

 

And on Full reverse!

 

For people interested, here I found a video on youtube about the procedure for upsloap landings in to Courchevel.

And here video of a King Air landing in Courchevel.

 

Kind Regards

Jorik

The TBM gave me goose bumps.. what a bird! Second vid: reversing to back into the parking spot was very cool! Thank you for those, and great pics!

Good grief! The better answer to accessing that strip is "helicopter". I have a video somewhere on the most dangerous airports in the world to fly in to, and that one has to be on the list! Man the tires and struts have got to be in world class order for that one! Thanks for the video.

I have a video somewhere on the most dangerous airports in the world to fly in to

 

I've see that too. I don't recall Courchevel looking that tough! First thing that popped into my mind on those landings was weight distribution. You have to be right, or at least know your plane well... or you could do some interesting "wheel-ies"... both on the way up.. and down! Might want to invest in skid plates for the rear! Such an extreme down force on the transition from touchdown to roll out will test any shock/landing gear for sure! OUCH, MY NECK!