John & Anne Wiley

2015/02/01

Mission

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 21:47

Pilots sometimes talk about a mission, meaning the purpose of a flight. Another meaning of the word is a larger, even Life mission. Californians are also familiar with the word used in reference to our string of old church buildings such as the Santa Barbara Mission. This pic covers all three of these meanings.

0464 Mission

0464 Mission

Our mission in life includes enjoying beauty and sharing it with others (like posting this pic); the mission of this flight was very much about sharing beauty (and bliss); and toward the lower-right is the SB Mission. While we also appreciate aviation for getting us quickly and affordably from place to place, sharing the breathtaking beauty of it is what we most enjoy.

2015/01/14

New Views

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People — John @ 09:46

We got some new views of San Diego last weekend, thanks to help from a local pilot there. We’ve ridden the Giant Dipper roller coaster and wandered the other attractions at Belmont Park on Mission Beach, but this is the first time we’ve seen it all from this perspective!

9969 Giant Dipper, Belmont Park

9969 Giant Dipper, Belmont Park

We also got this new view of the U.S.S. Midway aviation museum on the San Diego waterfront.

0004 USS Midway, San Diego

0004 USS Midway, San Diego

We also passed close enough to Seaport Village to smell the gourmet cooking, and look beyond at Balboa Park and back along the waterfront. We have pix of many more familiar places we’ve explored during visits to this sparkling city, but these are my favs from this flight.

0015 Seaport Village & Waterfront

0015 Seaport Village & Waterfront

We can barely wait to fly this new route again on a clear day! 🙂

I’m looking into adding this route into the options on the cool free open source Android Avare aviation app, for the benefit of other pilots.

2014/11/11

Steps To Happiness

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,PNW Adventure,Random,Relationships,SB Region,Tripp — John @ 09:43

“How far can you fly?” That’s a question we’re often asked. Around the world would be one correct answer. Tripp can fly from Portland to SB without stopping is another answer, but we don’t. Usually. It’s much more fun to fly low and slow, stopping every few hundred miles for a stretch, some exploration on the ground, and maybe a meal. When friends and family along our route can accommodate the semi-scheduled nature of nearly all our flying trips, we stop for a visit. So almost always we make long trips in “steps” of a few hundred miles each.

6868 River Life

6868 River Life

Our first step toward home from Marysville gave us this peek at the river, where people eke out a life in ramshackle camps among the trees. Soon we saw Sacramento slip by far in the hazy distance, where the upscale and wealthy set policy.

6888 Sacramento

6888 Sacramento

Tripp transforms the Seattle to SB trip from a grueling drive or cramped airliner into scenic pleasures punctuating a series of discoveries and precious memories formed in such steps.

It was a short step to San Jose, where we cherished some sweet times with a sister and family. When we took off on our final step home the next day, there she was waving warmly.

2696 Sweet Step

2696 Sweet Step

The last step triggered memories of visiting cousins in Morgan Hill. A peak that seemed impossibly high then, is now an easy glance.

6908 Morgan Memories

6908 Morgan Memories

Many refreshing and memorable views unfolded gracefully below in the hour after takeoff. Then we crossed the coastal mountains and descended toward the beach as we passed high over Hearst Castle.

7015 Hearst Descent

7015 Hearst Descent

Having taken some of the tours there, it’s always interesting to see from above at different angles on each passage. Over the beach at our comfortable quarter mile or so up, we turned more directly toward home. Tomorrow I’ll chose a few visions to share from that final hour of wonders on our PNW Adventure.

2014/11/08

Last Mountain

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,PNW Adventure,Random — John @ 07:37

The last major mountain we passed on our flight home was Shasta. So many times I’ve passed it in a car – as a kid in the back seat, my first time driving it in my own car, and more trips since including several with Anne before Tripp. So for me Shasta is an iconic mountain “friend” of sorts. A milestone perhaps. Unlike driving past, every time in Tripp is very different because it’s so easy to whimsically change our route and we can see it the whole time without trees or hills in the way. So each passage unfolds new faces.

6785 Shadow Shasta

6785 Shadow Shasta

This time one of many views we saw of it was beyond the Black Butte cinder cone that towers next to I-5. Shasta stands like some strange shadow of the cinder cone, or maybe a photobomb. This perspective reveals the “shadow” side of Shasta, reminding us that it’s an active volcano. Shasta Lake nearby is a shadow of its normal self, with many arms completely dry revealing the old road with normally submerged bridge below that railroad bridge.

6795 Surfaced Bridge

6795 Surfaced Bridge

Invisible from distant I-5, for the thousands of passing motorists the old bridge is effectively still submerged, below their view. What they can see is part of this view that still looks like a lake, yet conceals the small marina around a bend toward the bottom of the pic.

6800 Shasta Lake

6800 Shasta Lake

There the boaters are making a last stand at their inlet, carving a new road down to the water. Out the other window a few minutes earlier passed these rocky peaks of Castle Crags that I never noticed (or couldn’t see) from the road.

2570 Castle Crags

2570 Castle Crags

It still surprises me sometimes when people are afraid to fly, yet will risk their lives daily down on those dangerous roads and highways down there. Maybe some people are born to fly. The pull so powerful that even those with some fear will find their way past it up into the sky. Cruising the open air between cloud and mountain, delighting in the world beneath our wings, and wishing we could share this rare joy with everyone.

2014/11/07

Migration

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,PNW Adventure,Random — John @ 07:37

Our hopscotch flight from Seattle home to Santa Barbara was a great way to visit friends and family along the way. When we used to drive on such trips, we soon tired of taking turns at the wheel and sometimes felt as if we’d never arrive. Flying now, we enjoy the journey and the destinations along our way. For example, by car we’d have missed these opulent manses on the lakeshore just over the hill from downtown Seattle.

6641 Mercerview Manses

6641 Mercerview Manses

We wouldn’t have fought traffic to visit “you dub” (University of Washington), but mere minutes after our Renton takeoff it lay before us in this beautiful watery context.

6644 UW

6644 UW

Water defines the PNW, like in quiet small lakes with Disneyesque Twain islands to explore in that little white boat in this pic.

6711 Explorer's Island

6711 Explorer’s Island

Water works also abound in the sand bars of river bends like this north of Silverlake.

6721 Rambling River

6721 Rambling River

We saw a sign of the freedom expressed by people here, in the thin crescent of mowed green atop this pointy hill far from view of the roads.

6729 Hilltop Freedom

6729 Hilltop Freedom

Looking closer we could make out an ultralight aircraft poised to bring an effectively free rush of delight to a rural aviator.

6724 Free Ride

6724 Free Ride

After our enchanting visit in Grant’s Pass, our magic carpet Tripp lofted us over lush forests along the romantic Rogue River past its namesake town.

6740 Rogue River

6740 Rogue River

A few minutes later we were in California, and it was as though someone had turned off the water. Slopes near the almost dry Shastina Lake were barren and brown, yet snow melt from Mt. Shasta cut a ribbon of green in lower ground.

6764 Drying Trend

6764 Drying Trend

We are happy to live in the last country on earth where ordinary people can (barely) afford the freedom of flight. Where dreamers like me can partake of this breathtaking experience known to our species for just over a century. Migrating toward home, the journey itself can bring delights equal to the destinations.

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