John & Anne Wiley

2012/08/09

Prop Advance

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random — John @ 05:59

I’ve mentioned it before: the sensation that what you did this morning was several days ago. This morning we were in SLO. Tonite we’re in Coos Bay, OR and SLO seems like yesterday. The fact we were actually at home last night before leaving for SLO is really weird.

The flight? Well, no words. How about some pix?

1644 Wet Mouth

1644 Wet Mouth

This broad river mouth you might recognize from the drive along Big Sur. Since the gals had almost all of the view (maybe Anne will share a few of her pix sometime), little spots like this where we cut across bits of coast that stick out gave me visual relief from the vast beautiful Pacific. It’s near the lighthouse (forget the name at the moment) and Bixby bridge.

1649 Bixby Bridge

1649 Bixby Bridge

The slight haze and ocassional fluffy wisps made the whole scene a soft caress. Monterey looked a lot better than this pic, but even this brings a quiet sigh from somewhere deep in my psyche.

1657 Monterey

1657 Monterey

Across the bay, Santa Cruz felt like yet another world and another day. Here’s the lighthouse, one of the few parts I got a good look at. When they’d offer having me fly inland a little so I could see the coast, I’d remind them of my plan to fly home the same route. I assume Joy will move to my side, so poor Anne will have an eyeful of the Pacific. 🙂

1676 Santa Cruz Light

1676 Santa Cruz Light

San Fransisco was simply breathtaking, even from my side. Even so, this is one of the few pix I took because I did a slow climbing turn back toward the bridge to clear Mt. Tam and have my own look. Again Anne probably has some killer shots because she was much closer when we first passed the bridge.

1700 Golden Gate

1700 Golden Gate

I made this pic of the bridge a little bigger than the others in case you’d like to click and see the larger size. I didn’t snap many more pix until we were approaching Coos Bay and the etched colors in this wetland caught my fancy.

1716 Wetland Wonder

1716 Wetland Wonder

We missed most of the smoke, and nearly all of the clouds. Coos Bay was perfectly clear when we landed, and before we’d even bedded Tripp down for the night and walked inside there were puffy orange clouds gathering over the control tower. I like how the wide angle lens makes the tower seem to lean into our small plane terminal building as if cuddling up against the cool breeze.

1722 Coos Cuddle

1722 Coos Cuddle

By the time we settled into the hotel, the airport was reporting solid low (900′) overcast. Anne thinks I’m magic for having planned our arrival so perfectly. I didn’t tell her my head was full of alternatives all along our route as I watched weather and smoke oh so carefully. Nor did I mention that if the clearing forecast two hours before our departure tomorrow morning doesn’t materialize, we might be grounded here for weeks. But I’m thinking positively, and will dream deeply about clear skies and fair winds like those that filled our eyes and hearts with Joy today. 🙂

2012/08/08

Fast SLO Trip

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Flying,Happiness,SB Region — John @ 07:00

Well, we didn’t leave SB until just before dark. So our flight was all of an hour, including a long slow climb over SBA to gain altitude for extra safety in the dark passage North. Once up at eight thousand we stopped circling and zoomed at about 140mph to SLO (San Luis Obispo). Since it was dark, I hadn’t set up my camera (though I’d probably have been able to get some good snaps). I was pretty busy flying, talking to ATC, and navigating anyway and probably wouldn’t have snapped much.

So here’s a verbal image for you. Taking off the sunset colors came into view in the west, because when it’s dark on the ground there’s still light aloft. Turning toward the coast for the circling climb over SBA we enjoyed the lights of UCSB and IV, with Hope Ranch and Santa Barbara twinkling into the distance. The dark outlines of the mountain ridges were still visible against the deepening purple sky. Lights inching along Hwy.101 made veins of life in the darkness toward Gaviota.

The gals commented on how different our familiar town looks from the air at night. There are sharp outlines at the edges of the developed areas, and landmarks disappear. I pointed out some roads as we flew over them on our second round, starting with Fairview. That helped them figure out some of the other roads and neighborhoods, and before long they recognized shopping areas and other major features. When we turned North the lights of Santa Ynez, Solvang, Buellton, Lompoc and even Santa Maria were in clear view by the time the mountains were slipping silently beneath our wings.

Our AB (Alberta) Joy adventure thus began with a fast trip to SLO. Tomorrow we cruise up the coast perhaps to Florence, OR. The photo ops begin. 🙂

 

2012/08/07

Alberta Joy

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,People,Random — John @ 19:29

I’ve written much about the joy of flying, including the joy of flying to Alberta to visit my daughter and her young family. Today we hope to add Joy to our joy of such a flight. Our friend Joy is joining us on an adventure flying from SB to Edmonton, AB (Canada, y’no). As with all our big flying adventures, this one is improvisational. Due to vagaries of weather and our own whims, we often don’t know where we’ll be landing or even our exact route. This trip adds the variable of smoke.

Smoke & Fires

Smoke & Fires

As you’ve probably deduced, this is a map of smoke and fires right now. Since the smoke depicted is usually quite thick, we avoid flying in those areas for extra safety and also for the joy of flying in clear air. Planning an approximate route for a flight, I mentally overlay the smoke with the other main factor.

Noon Clouds

Noon Clouds

So while we’d like to fly along the coast to avoid the smoke and hotter weather inland, clouds will complicate that. The circles and colored dots represent airports, and as you might guess we avoid the ones with color (though sometimes blue’s ok). Since our primary goal is the joy of flying, we want to look at things. Clouds or smoke detract from that. So if we do start off today, you can bet I’ll be checking on both factors often at every stop along the way. Another big factor is wind, but usually it’s not a deal breaker the way smoke and clouds are. The end result is we might be flying relatively fast to stay ahead of clouds and smoke as they change, or slow with many and long stops to wait for clouds and smoke to dissipate.

As the trip unfolds, we’ll also be adding scenic detours. High on that list is another tour of Banff and Jasper, to refresh memories like this from the NxNW adventure:

0544 Mt Robson

0544 Mt Robson

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