In June my wife and I were returning from visiting friends in Fort Lauderdale. A more direct route over the Gulf and south of all the military airspace would shave a solid 45 minutes off our travel time and more than 10 gallons of fuel. With two ocean-rated life jackets & a PLB in a twin over warm waters, we decided the tradeoff was worth it.
For comfort considerations we decided to break up the trip into 3 legs with stops in Southwest Florida and Southeast Louisiana. I also liked having a full 5 hours of fuel before setting off on 3 hours over the Gulf. Just in case.
Route back home with stops
Galliano (GAO) was the logical choice for the SE Louisiana stop, both location- & fuel price-wise. For SW Florida we were initially considering Ft. Myers-Page (FMY), but doing the Gulf crossing IFR presented some unknown complications. We planned to cross on airway Y280, but there were two complications with this routing:
1. Some documentation I read at the time suggested Y280 started at FL180, while we were planning on flying at 10,000 feet. When we tried filing though, 10,000 feet was accepted, so we figured we were good to go.
2. While Y280 reaches the coast of Florida at the Sarasota VOR, our expected routing kept sending us via MOOKY, 80nm to the south. It didn’t matter what airport we tried filing from or what routing we tried, we always got MOOKY.REMIS.Y280. If we had to fly via MOOKY from FMY, it would take us a good 40nm south before we turned back north again to REMIS. I considered moving our stop to APF, but figured we probably would probably be sent to REMIS direct pretty quickly and decided to keep FMY as our planned stop.
Expected clearance FMY-GAO
We left FLL around 10a.m. and bumped our way through some late morning cumulus for an uneventful flight to FMY. There was some confusion upon landing, as I didn’t realize that the self-serve & FBO/restrooms were on opposite sides of the field. The airport itself and the FBO facilities & staff were wonderful, but having to taxi all around the airport to do everything we needed made it a less than ideal stop, and we will look for other options.
Approximate FMY airport diagram with self-serve & FBO marked
We would be no more than 120nm from shore at our furthest point, which is 45 minutes on two engines and 1:15 or so at blue line on one engine. I also planned and marked out diversion changeover points where, based on the winds aloft, the closest suitable alternate would be. This gave me some peace of mind and would help me minimize thinking if there were any actual emergencies that needed to be dealt with.
Potential diversion options
Refueled we get the clearance as filed to Galliano. After takeoff from runway 5 we are initially vectored to the north around Fort Myers, out to the west, then given a clearance direct REMIS, as we were hoping. No need to go way down south via MOOKY!
Our track on vectors north of Ft. Myers before being cleared direct to REMIS near the shoreline
About 20nm offshore, Miami Center has us copy down the expected frequencies for Jacksonville Center and Houston Center over the Gulf, with the expectation that we’d be losing communications soon. They also asked for estimates for reaching REMIS (mid-Gulf) and Leeville VOR (in Louisiana). After providing the estimates, we were instructed to relay a position report via another airplane at REMIS and provide an updated ETA for the Leeville VOR. Miami also instructed us when to switch over to Jacksonville Center.
ADS-B In coverage was lost ±20nm offshore too.
We lost Miami Center sooner than I was expecting, about 70nm offshore. We were able to hear other planes flying across the Gulf, all in the flight levels. We were all alone that day down in the Class E.
Eastern Gulf out of sight of land
Nearing REMIS, we were able to start hearing Jacksonville Center transmissions, though Jacksonville Center couldn’t hear us. We relayed our position report at REMIS with the updated ETA for Leeville. They relayed back when to switch over the Houston Center. Huge thanks to the friendly Challenger crew that passed along our message.
Approaching our position report at REMIS
We were able to re-establish two-way communications just before reaching Houston Center airspace. We landed at Galliano, and the folks there were even nice enough to refuel the plane for the self-serve price. This was just after the QTprod self-serve outage ended . It was good to be on land again and get a Dr. Pepper and some candy to celebrate.
Land ahoy!
We had a short flight back to SGR, deviating around some thunderstorms. Only eventful moment was on descent, the aux tanks dry on one engine, which spooked the wife. I really should’ve given her a heads up about that.
Overall the flight was a lot easier and less stressful than I thought. ATC & the turbine traffic over the Gulf were extremely accommodating. Given how warm Gulf waters are year-round, I would definitely do the trip again, assuming I was in a twin with the proper equipment (PLB & ocean life jackets for all occupants). It was great to get home earlier and save some money.
