Wow, it's been a poor couple of weeks for flying here in the Tampa FL area.  Either fog, low clouds, very windy...  But today Jan 1 dawned with severe blue sky's and 6 knots of wind.  The Q200 was fueled and oiled.  Tire pressure was checked and engine ready to fire up.  The engine temp showed 60F.  I'm running a MA3SPA carb and previously had no primer system.  I could never start the engine below 70F.  This year I plumbed primer fuel from the carb to the ports on the Milinium cylinders.  A couple of pumps and wow the engine started and ran well.  No hint of wanting to die, love my new primer.  Very few hangar doors are open and the usually busy airport is pretty dead.  Called ground and started taxi to rwy 4.  It took a while for the oil to warm to 100F.  A big airliner took off from 36 so others were stuck there holding short for wake turbulence.  I called the tower for takeoff and got cleared to KSPG.  We were planning to do a low pass there.  The air was a bit bumpy but not bad.  KSPG was a little busy but told me to slow down and maybe it will work out.  I stayed at 1000 feet and slowed to about 100 knots.  Then just a 1/2 mile from 36 the tower clears me for a low approach so I point the nose down and add power.  Probably going 170 knots over the runway.  Popped back up and headed for the Skyway bridge, then to Egmont Key, onto Ft Desoto park, up the beaches to Clearwater.  The visability was excellent, probably 40 miles.  Headed back to KPIE and landed back on rwy 4 with a 6 knot crosswind from the left.  It was a nice flight to start 2020!

Mike Dwyer

Q200  N3QP