During my visit last month to check out the Historic Flight Foundation DC-7B at Opa-locka I also visited the surrounding airfields as I had a little time on my hands.

Fort Lauderdale Executive (FLX) is a large airport and as you can guess by its name most of the residents are business jets. But as ever, it's my job to weed out the wheat from the chaff and highlight the hidden gems.

The BN-2A Islander was a real surprise as you don't tend to see many of these workhorses in the USA. Tropic Air Charter operate four Islanders from FLX to various destinations in the Bahamas and each aircraft is painted a different colour.

The IAI-201 Arava is an aircraft type that I'd never seen before, and again, to see one in the USA is really not normal. I have no idea what this aircraft does or who it belongs to but it looked like it doesn't fly too often. I had to sneak around the back of an industrial estate and force myself though some prickly thick bushes to get a clear shot of the airframe.

The only other two aircraft of interest were a Saab 340 and a Jetstream 41 both looking like they are used for charter or executive type travel.

This was a case of just stopping on by this airfield without knowing what's actually there. It's often far more satisfying to explore than to know exactly what you are going to find.