John & Anne Wiley

2011/07/01

Scenes of a Planet

Back on 4/29 when we flew from MD to CT for a visit with Molly, I snapped this Philadelphia scene I’m enjoying anew.

8563 Philly Rerun

8563 Philly Rerun

That was a hazy day, like many we’ve seen when flying that region, but still plenty of interesting sights like these two islands in the river. One looked like it might have once been a fort. I like how the dappled light on the water makes shapes that dance with the island outlines.

8567 Peeking Sun

8567 Peeking Sun

One of the things I like about reviewing aerial pix is googling stuff to figure out what it is. Example: In the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn I was curious about the shape of South Shore High School, that in the mid-70s was the second biggest in the U.S. The wiki article I linked above seems to fit with the disheveled look of the building, since it’s apparently been closed due to low performance.

8578 SS High Brought Low

8578 SS High Brought Low

I asked Anne to snap this view of Floyd Bennett Field, NYC’s first airport (now closed aside from a police helicopter base) from her side. What did it look like when Lindbergh was there?

0299 Floyd Bennett Field

0299 Floyd Bennett Field

Just after that she snapped this jet taking off from one of the other two airports. Like many big cities, NYC airports now cater to airlines and a few small jets. The likes of Tripp are banished to the suburbs now that smaller airports are closed.

0303 Takeoff

0303 Takeoff

A few minutes later she snapped this as we lined up to land in New Haven. Flying in a small plane is so delightful, it’s amazing more people don’t do it. Maybe they think it’s like airline flying, where you don’t really see where you’re going. Just cram into an aluminum tube and suddenly find yourself somewhere else without the joy of really looking at our beautiful planet, overflowing with scenes like this.

0307 Near Earth

0307 Near Earth

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