St. Simons Island for 4th of July Lunch

[MrMorden]

On the 4th I went to St. Simons Island (KSSI) on the Georgia Coast for lunch with my buddy. I flew the CT of course, he flew his Waiex (Y-tailed Sonex), N111KX. We had a great time, weather was fantastic but hot (90°F+) and a little bumpy on the way home. Below is the landing video at KSSI, with a couple points:

1) We flew a really big pattern and a long final, so we could get a look at the big object you'll see in the water. It's a giant ship that got it's CG too high and rolled over on its side, dumping 4000 new cars into the water! The thing is massive, probably a billion dollar headache for some insurance adjuster...

2) My approach is a little different from my norm. I left the flaps at 15° and came in at fairly low speed and with power. You'll hear the reason why on the radio; a Citation jet departed right before my landing, and I wanted to precisely control my sink & touchdown and exactly hit the numbers to avoid his wake turbulence. It worked out as planned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBmYZojJp_w&

[AGLyme]

Good work Andy...

[Wm.Ince]

Thanks Andy . . . good work!

[FastEddieB]

Very nicely done, Andy!

We have friends on St. Simon’s and were there in February.

A ground (sea?)-level view of the shipwreck:



And a commemorative t-shirt!



Impressive video about the salvage operation on YouTube. https://youtu.be/0uJIwQDrXPA

As an aside, next time you need to burn up some mogas, why don’t you head up and visit us at our Tennessee digs?

[MrMorden]

Thanks guys.

Yeah Eddie, it's impressive - hundreds of millions in insurance losses, I'm sure. They locals told me they are barging up a mobile shipyard from Amelia island and going to cut the hull into slices and dismantle each slice. A huge amount of work involved.

I'd like to come visit, email me a GPS location or airport ID and I'll see what I can make happen!