Holiday Texas and Southern Florida 2011 [Pics] MIL Upd.

[PH-BRAD]

Hi,

I've been on a holiday (No spotting trip) to the US, we flew via Texas and did a roadtrip in southern Florida, and a cruise at the end. The cruise was suposed to do the route Ft. Lauderdale-Nassau-St. Thomas-St. Maarten-Ft. Lauderdale but due to a tropical strom in that area (which didn't came near SXM and far from St. Thomas) we did the route Ft. Lauderdale-Nassau-Costa Maya, Mexico-Cozumel, Mexico-Ft. Lauderdale.

1.The first day we flew with the KLM B744M to Houston, Texas.

2.Taken from the B744

3.A bit of spotting at the gate

Then we flew with American airlines B738 to Miami to start the roadtrip. Because of storms in Miami we had to wait one hour in the middle of a taxiway before we were able to go to the gate.

The we picked up the car and went to Kennedy Space Center were I zaw this T-38:

The next day we drove to Daytona beach, we just stapped out the car and I saw two HH-60's I was able to catch one

Then we went to Orlando were I didn't take good photographs of planes. We did hear the Space shuttle going trough sound for the last time. The next day we went to Sarasota and on our way we visited Polk city's Fantasy of Flight, a nice museum with a flying demostration every day:

One of the collection inside:

You also could do a Biplane ride or in a Stearman, $229 but you could fly it (for a few minutes) yourself or a New (80 years old) Standard D25 for $70, I flew the last one and her a short impression:
The (new) Standard D25

wingview:

And the Boeing Stearman:

Then we went to Key West, we stopped for a few minutes at Marathon airport:

And one at Key West

Then we went back to Miami, and stopped for a while at "the holes"
Two out of five holes were blocked like this, "Spottertjepesten"

The Planes:





One of the few Continetal planes I saw:





Then we did the cruise and went back to Houston:
The AA B738 plane:

Some plane spotting at a parking lot:



And then we flew back in PrivatAir's BBJ in total it carried 6 Passengers and 6 crew members (Incl. Pilots)

The Cockpit

And a wingview:


I Hope you enjoyed it, I have much more pics I can show you (A few NAS Key West Planes or more Miami stuff)

Kind regards,

Bradley

[Gietje]

Wow, you are one lucky guy A full Business class aircraft with only 6 pax must've been a really quiet experience
Nice job on those different aircraft, especially that IFL Convair is one heck of an oldtimer!

[Thermal]

Nice set, what is the Air France A320 doing there???

[PH-BRAD]

@gietje, Thank you! Do you know it's age? Can't be older then the D25
@Thermal, It's doing flights to the French caribbean and French guyana

[shepherd]

Nice pictures man!
Looks like you had a great experience, even without SXM... wich really is a letdown ofcourse, but now you MUST go back next year!!!

Kind regards, Jeffrey Schäfer.

[Gietje]

The Convair is from 1956, so it's not older than the D25, but it's still with an airline and the D25 is not

@ Thermal, if I'm correct Air France has some A320s based a Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe) to fly regional routes. I think they also fly to SXM with the A320.

[PH-BRAD]

Hi,

I Forgot to put the MIL aircraft from NAS Key West, quality isn't good due to dusk or the planes where out of my lense range:




This one is taken from The Oasis of the Seas (cruise ship)

And a question does anyone have a idea what this Hawker Hunter is doing here? The reg is N32***

[Stratofreighter]

Nice piccies Bradley!

The Hunter is very likely one hired for "target practice" and probably owned by
http://www.atacusa.com/aircraft.htm .

[CONDOR]

These Hunters are owned by Hunter Aviation International from Delaware. Are former Swiss AF and registrated in the range of N321AX > N336AX.(Exc N333AX)
A nice catch I say.

[PH-BRAD]

Thank you the Reg is probably N327AX

[CONDOR]

N327AX is former J-4103. More info and some pictures at www.swisshunters.info

[Gietje]

Nice catches on that Hunter and those Agressor Hornets

[doubleugly]

Dea people,
thiss Hunter togehter with some other (also a dual) and some Kfirs are operating from Cecil Fld, florida.as i witnessed them Ocotber last year during a visit to this base. Great stuff!

[PH-BRAD]

So Stratofreighter was right?