Flight over Pontchartrain

Baton Rouge was socked in this morning, but the weather was better in Hammond and looking brighter to the East. So we nixed our plans to fly to BTR in favor of a flight to New Orleans lakefront airport (KNEW) instead.

The main point of this trip was to get more practice with radio communications, so New Orleans would probably be better anyway, since getting there requires a trip through New Orleans' busy "Bravo" airspace. Flying around the countryside you don't have to talk to anyone, but flight through Bravo requires contact with air traffic control.

New Orleans Lakefront airport is not the main Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, but an older field from the Huey Long era, now catering mainly to business charter flights and general aviation.

After quickly redoing the flight plan calculations, we were off!

Flying over lake Pontchartrain was amazingly smooth, just like flying at night. Curiously, too, there was a huge 'hole' in the weather above the lake with no clouds at all. Over the north shore of the lake I enjoyed looking down on everyone's fish camps in the bayou, houses accessible only by boat. I think it would be so much fun to spend a weekend out there!

Air Traffic Control called us up to warn of "slow moving traffic" below us and a few miles ahead. There in the distance we saw the small silver capsule of a blimp, floating along like some kind of air whale or manatee of the sky.

Instead of just doing a touch-and-go at Lakefront, we taxied to the Odyssey FBO, which was my first interaction with the ground control at an airport. It felt like quite a welcome to be directed in by the guys with the orange flashlight things to a parking spot right next to an undeniably bad-ass helicopter. On the adjacent taxiway a huge corporate jet taxied by. Inside Odyssey, I felt downright under-dressed. The atmosphere was of an upscale business hotel, complete with refreshments, a room full of comfy couches and a TV, and a flight planning room with computer terminals.



Outside, the classy old art deco terminal building is currently serving as a movie set. The Times-Picayune reports: "Officials with the film office wouldn't confirm the name of the movie forcing the closure, but safe money is on The Green Lantern, the big-budget action-adventure inspired by the DC Comics series about a test pilot with a magic ring that transforms him into the titular superhero."



Total: 30.9 hours

Next flight: solo cross-country to Gulfport!