Day 1
This was a short 'half-day' flight from Spruce Creek, which is seven miles south of Daytona Beach, down to the most southerly airport in the lower 48 - Key West International at Key West, the capital of the "Conch Republic" and the first of the 'four corners' aiports to be visited by Steve on his record setting flight around America.
Steve had flown to Key West before during his first 'four corners' flight back in 2005. Weather played an important role at that time as the visit to Key West became the last airport to be visited rather than the first as planned, thanks to a major hurricane devasting the Keys just days before his visit.
This time, however, the weather was perfect and the flight down and back was a good testing time for Steve's new Aerosport Power Lycoming IO-320 engine and the weather / navigation systems he had on-board ready for the serious work of setting some international world speed records.
You may be wondering why Steve did not include Key West, or indeed the flight from Florida to California amongst his records. The answer was simple. Steve wanted to set international world speed records rather than US national records and the 'international' aspect would have to be to either the Bahamas or Mexico. Both these countries required a visiting aircraft to land whereas airports in Canada could be overflown without landing and still count as finish points. A small but important point when it comes to setting multiple speed records!
The tower staff at Key West signed Steve's arrival certificate to officially record his visit to the first of the 'four corners' airports.
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