John & Anne Wiley

2011/01/26

Traffic Cam

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 21:16

I have a smug streak. For years, sitting in heavy traffic I’d look longingly at the opposite direction and see them blissfully zooming along at the speed limit. Sometimes a helicopter or small plane would pass effortlessly at will, and for a moment I’d be transported up and away from the smoggy snarl to breathe freely.

Well now, when we’re flying and I see the “free”way stopped it’s tempting to feel smug about being at the opposite end of that experience. Never mind that few if any of the drivers down there ever look up as I once did. There’s still some pathetic satisfaction for me in a scene like this as we approached to land after watching the 1/20 rocket launch. Am I bad?

4934 UnFairview

4934 UnFairview

Santa Barbarians know that this Fairview offramp is often thick with traffic, but this time it was 101 northbound that backed up due to a lane closure right at the point where it narrows from three lanes to two. Flying has so many sweet moments. 🙂

2011/01/24

Lucky

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 03:41

I’m brimming with warm memories right now, and contemplating how lucky we are. Healthy, retired, able to volunteer here & there, happily married, living in bucolic Santa Barbara, and this evening flying with a wonderful friend in our own small plane. Sure a lot of it’s about choices, like living cheaply compared with many people (free entertainments other than flying, old car & clothes, etc.). A lot of it’s about hard work, earning our retirement and learning how to get along with ourselves, each other and everyone else. But even factoring in some hard knocks along the way, I’m overwhelmed with cherishing our good luck right now. Probably because we took a dear friend for a short flight in the glow of a glorious late afternoon. We marveled yet again at the intricate organic garden she’s made of her yard that shines as an example of sustainability among her neighbors’ manicured lawns.

4936 Organic Yard

4936 Organic Yard

Flying toward Carp past the harbor I noticed a small gaggle of surfers enjoying the break at the entrance to Santa Barbara Harbor.

4941 Jetty Surfers

4941 Jetty Surfers

If you click to see the largest version (or look at the larger one on my Photo Page), you can make out people watching from the rocks and someone climbing over the wall. I like looking at pix like this both to remember the glance that stimulated me to snap, and to discover details not visible with the naked eye. Looking at the full-size version on my computer it’s fun to see what each person was doing at that moment, and enjoy their choreographed chorus in still life mingling with the musical movement of surf and harbor – and the unnoticed small plane passing a quarter mile away.

Meandering over Carp we circled to look at the Lou Grant Parent-Child Workshop. Back here on the ground I noticed the detail of an “airplane” parked in the playground, and imagined some future pilot who climbs on it dreaming of flying with the birds as we were when I snapped this.

4952 Pilot Playground

4952 Pilot Playground

2011/01/21

Launch Window

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Random,SB Region — John @ 02:43

Tripp’s routine oil change yesterday took longer than planned due to some minor extra fixes, so she was still in the shop this afternoon when we’d planned to fly her out to Lompoc so we could watch the Vandenberg AFB launch of a massive Delta IV rocket. We’ve been excited about seeing it from the air, and wondered if we’d be able to hear it from outside the 5 mile aircraft exclusion zone around the launch site. Turned out we were several times that far due to our late takeoff, but watching it from over Gaviota Pass was still fun (we didn’t hear it). Because it’s a liquid-fueled rocket, there’s no smoke – just water. Still I was surprised that it left no visible trail until reaching perhaps ten thousand feet, and then only for part of the time we could see it burning. When I spotted the launch plume, I opened the window and started snapping. It took a minute to notice the trail-less rocket already high above the hills.

4884 Delta IV Launch

4884 Delta IV Launch

I wondered how close my Dad might have been to the launches he saw there while working as a construction contractor on the base some decades ago. It was fun to hear a little chatter about it on the “departure” frequency we were tuned to. I wonder how many planes were circling above Lompoc as we’d planned to do. We’d also thought about flying closer to Point Conception, but I’m glad we didn’t because the rocket went straight up rather than tilting toward the South nearer to the Point. Even with the camera set to 1/800 second shutter, there was some motion blur on the maximum zoom. Not a big deal though, since the shot was also made fuzzy by the light haze at such a distance.

4887 Rocket Flame

4887 Rocket Flame

Even so, we could make out the flame perhaps twice the length of the rocket as it passed through the vapor trail altitude. If there’s another big launch, we might try again for Lompoc. Glad we flew today though, because even from so far it was a lot of fun to watch.

4895 Tilting South

4895 Tilting South

By the time we stopped for fuel at Santa Ynez, all that remained of the launch was a squiggly cloud.

4903 Rocket Trail Cloud

4903 Rocket Trail Cloud

2011/01/20

Green Mountains

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:27

Our flight on the 17th took us over Gaviota Pass, and the mountains there were even more beautiful than usual. The intricate rock formations on the East side of the pass stood out brilliantly against the lush green of all the new growth from the recent rains.

4826 Gav Pass East Side Peaks

4826 Gav Pass East Side Peaks

You can make out highway 101 snaking from left to upper right beyond the foreground mountains, and the smaller road that branches off to Lompoc at the left. We were flying along the coast looking northward, and wondering which of these peaks has trails people climb from near the 101 tunnel. It’s fun to imagine how this area will look when the wildflowers start to bloom!

2011/01/18

Sunset Views

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 23:03

As we headed toward SBA at sunset on the 15th, we noticed that Oprah’s front yard is getting a major makeover. It will be interesting to watch the new landscaping emerge over the coming months.

4770 Oprah Estate Changes

4770 Oprah Estate Changes

After we tied Tripp down and thanked her for another wonderful aerial adventure, we headed for Goleta Beach for a stroll. Afternoon beach goers were folding their blankets as the night crowd arrived.

4797 Beach Blanket

4797 Beach Blanket

The islands serenely complemented Campus Point, and the splash of a small wave seemed about to engulf a calm couple safely up the sloping sand. On the nearby grassy area beneath sheltering trees a roaring fire warmed a dinner picnic as the last flaming colors drained from the sky.

4800 Beach Party

4800 Beach Party

 

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