Cedar Key (CDK)

My wife and I took a day trip to Cedar Key, an old fishing village on the "nature" coast of west Florida. It's sort of a peaceful, tranquil, quiet, less crowded version of Key West. Most likely being located in the middle of no-where helps with that atmosphere. The place is known for good seafood, wildlife, fishing, arts, and relaxation. It's not a beach community. The coastline is saw-grass marsh in that area of Florida, hence all the wildlife. There was only one thing wrong with the trip, and that was the traffic jam we got into on the Skyway bridge getting to the airport. Otherwise, a perfect day.

Cedar Key has a paved 2355 foot runway that is orientated 5/23. I'm guessing that's usually a good orientation with the morning land breeze/afternoon sea breeze we have on this side of Florida. However, I picked a day with the wind directly out of the south. So I landed with about a 10 knot crosswind. I didn't do poorly for a guy used to airports with multiple runways. Sorry that the runway pic is not better. The sun was in front of us as we landed. There is a small apron at the west end of the runway with tie downs.

The only other airports my wife has landed at have been controlled fields. We get out of the plane and she says "Where's the airport?" I don't really understand and reply that this is it, after all didn't we just land on yonder strip of pavement? "No, I mean the terminal building." Now I get it, and while trying to suppress a huge grin I explain that not all airports have the facilities she has become accustomed to.

I called ahead and reserved a golf cart for the day. Cedar Key is made up of several small islands. The place is not too big, but you need some type of transportation to see all of it. There is a cabby on the island who monitors the CTAF and will be happy to drive you into town for a small fee. The cabby will also give you her idea of the wind conditions prior to landing. Somehow, letting the cabby select my runway seems risky. I can't find that section in the FAR, but I think pilots are supposed to make their own decisions. The golf cart worked out well. The owner drove the cart to the airport to meet us, and when we were done for the day, we left it at the airport as instructed.

After the obligatory tourist photos, Alice and I headed out on the cart to explore. Our first stop was the island's school, where I had my picture taken with the school's mascot. Yep, they're the sharks. Alice is a teacher and just loves schools. I guess if they had a car wash on the island, I would have had to take a look at that. Next it was on to the museum. Cedar Key has a history that pre-dates the Civil War, kinda rare in Florida, and the museum has historic and natural history exhibits. We skipped the trail because we were getting hungry.

We checked out some of the restaurants along the waterfront and decided on the Dockside Depot. It was not the fanciest place, but the prices were reasonable and we could sit by the water. Both Alice and I had the blackened grouper sandwich, a Florida staple. My sandwich was good with a generous portion of grouper. There's a good half dozen restaurants to choose from and I would try something different next time, just to be adventurous. We did a bit of shopping after lunch. I bought a cap, and Alice got a shirt and we found a nice water color print that now graces the foyer in our house. My wallet was a bit lighter when we flew home.

We rode around the islands looking at old houses and wildlife for a bit. This osprey has taken up residence by the airport and pelicans are all over the place.

This would be my Cedar Key dream home. Guys, you're gonna love this:

Backyard: Gulf of Mexico

Front yard: Private taxiway to the airstrip

Top Floor: Residence

Bottom Floor: Hanger

I don't need to know any more.

So much for the dream home, this is what I probably could afford:

As we departed, Alice was able to get a shot of the light house, which is accessible only by water.

I was able to log 2.5 hours of PIC cross country time. I'll try to make most of my flights cross-country so that they build toward that instrument rating. The ride home was bumpier than the trip north. I followed the coast, and I guess there was some convection working. Next time I would take life jackets and fly direct, climb more and probably have a smooth ride. My landing back at Whitted was horrible. The wind was splitting the runways, so I had another cross wind to deal with, but I was barely crabbed on approach so I thought it was no big deal. About the time I crossed the threshold I started drifting left, a lot. Left rudder, right aileron to correct. I landed straight, but I had drifted to the left half of the runway before I had it under control.