Today I flew an Arrow up to Orlando Executive for a guy I met at the airport. Anything for cheap flighttime! It's a PA-28 similar to the pipers used for basic training everywhere, but with a retractable undercarriage and a constant speed prop. It wasn't the nicest or newest of planes, and the performance wasn't that good, but we made it. We had to take some big diversions around some thunderstorms, but the biggest problem was a failed mode C transponder. The transponder is radio device which responds with a code everytime it's 'hit' by ATC radar, which lets identify which radar return is which aircraft. The Mode C is for altitude reporting, which gives ATC the altitude you're flying at, and is required for flight within 30 nautical miles of Orlando International, including Orlando Executive. Our mode C was randomly reporting our altitude, at one point showing us at 800ft with 2000 feet per minute descent. Afrter ATC had recovered and accepted that we were cruising at 5000ft the whole time, he asked us to turn it off.
We landed and went to a very nice terminal who asked us for a $16 ramp fee, waived with any fuel purchase. I bought a gallon at $5.29!
The problem came with the return trip, as special authorisation is required to fly in the 'Mode C Veil' around Orlando without mode C, and I had to phone a couple of people for permission. That done, I carefully noted our authorisation number of our flight plan and off we went.