John & Anne Wiley

2012/09/30

Last Leg

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random — John @ 06:59

I’m feeling it all over again. The way it was knowing that the day we left McBeth would be the last on our wonderful AB Joy adventure. Luckily it was varied and beautiful just like every other day of the trip. We began with a berry good walk under some tall trees to stretch our legs and stain our faces with wild blackberry juice.

3681 Forest Road

3681 Forest Road

Joy’s not in this pic, because she was already foraging. Before long Tripp had lifted us effortlessly above it all again, and I circled back toward the airport to gain altitude.

3699 McBeth

3699 McBeth

The runway is just above the trees at the bottom, and we took off West (to the left). That’s the Klamath River at the left edge, and the rock dike is the gray line just above the runway. Our hotel was near the right end of the town, and Tripp was parked in the small cleared rectangle of cut grass on the far side of the runway about in the middle. It doesn’t look like much from here, but climbing over the 30′ dike and back through brambles and barbed wire carrying some heavy stuff at midnight wasn’t easy. Was fun though. 🙂

3705 White Blanket

3705 White Blanket

I’d initially planned to fly out to the coast and along it like we’d done in Oregon the day before. That white blanket that greeted our takeoff is why I decided to climb near the airport instead. Once we were high enough to see that we didn’t need to leave the coast completely, we turned south and climbed gradually higher within gliding distance of the highway. I’ve already shared a pic of the North Pass Fire, but thought you might like the starkness of this one too.

3712 North Pass Fire

3712 North Pass Fire

It seemed to have skritchy hair on the right, but maybe that’s because of the sleep we had. 🙂

I’ll close this AB Joy recap with a pic from our luxurious stop in Sonoma. We enjoyed a delicious picnic in the park across the street from the Basque Cafe.

3741 Relaxation

3741 Relaxation

Next I’ll start to bring you up to date on some flights we’ve enjoyed since our return. After that maybe I’ll share that we’re contemplating a new Big Adventure to the East Coast. If we decide to spend another big chunk of our savings… 🙂

2012/09/22

Fire & Ice

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Tripp — John @ 07:28

The relatively short “dogleg” of our AB Joy return flight from Banff to Invermere provided some contrasts. First, in the clearer air where it had recently rained the remains of a glacier beckoned in the distance. I was tempted to divert a little closer when this scene came into view.

2837 Glacier Apparition

2837 Glacier Apparition

When we were closer as we passed, I snapped a two-pic closeup with zoom to study the interplay of ice and stone.

2843 Left Flank

2843 Left Flank

2844 Right Flank

2844 Right Flank

Later as smoke was once again building in the air I caught this mixture of mountains, ribbons of rain, and streams of sunlight that creates a matrix still refreshing for me all these miles and moments later.

2877 Matrix

2877 Matrix

As we rounded a sharp bend in the valley, suddenly it was apparent why the smoke had been increasing. This fresh fire was still burning unperturbed, though I’d heard another pilot radio in a report on it.

2890 Smoke Source

2890 Smoke Source

We landed for a rest at Invermere, and invested considerable time trying to decide whether to look for a room there or fly more miles over this now familiar territory toward the border before dark. As you may recall from my first post about this day, we did decide to continue. Just as I went out to fuel Tripp and get ready, one of the several helicopters parked there took off to head back toward the fire.

2955 Dangerous Mission

2955 Dangerous Mission

Now maybe it’s my age, but even though I greatly respect and appreciate the pilots who do it, the idea of flying low over a fire in a helicopter holds no appeal. An aside: Being a 172Q, Tripp is the perfect plane for our mission: happy to fly relatively low and slow but still able to go over 140mph when you want or need to; ability to carry lots of gear, fuel, and four real adults; relatively inexpensive to own and operate (about 2x our car); great view of the planet; extremely safe, simple, and easy to fly; reliable and easy to repair aided by the fact that every aircraft mechanic has worked on them and parts are plentiful; and a great umbrella on the ground for shade and shelter. All that said, the one aircraft I’d love to own is a helicopter. Not because it’s pretty much the opposite in all those categories, but because it can fly even lower and slower plus hover and (with inflatable pontoons) land most anywhere there’s a small clearing or pond. But unlike Tripp, you can’t ever fully relax and enjoy the view.

So in the next post I’ll share more pix from this magical and relaxing voyage. 🙂

2012/09/21

We interrupt…

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,SB Region — John @ 20:56

The TV news used to say, “We interrupt this broadcast…” and then show something like this. Snapped from our driveway at 11:35am Friday morning. Nice way to start a lunch conversation. 🙂

0939 Jumbo & Shuttle

0939 Jumbo & Shuttle

I heard startled neighbors shout with delight when they looked up to see what the noise was. Tried to call a few friends and alert them as we looked and I snapped, but didn’t reach anyone. I’d been checking online to see when it would pass (wonder if it was on Flight Aware), and went out to watch thinking it would be offshore. We’d even thought about flying and trying to coax ATC into letting us get within a mile for a telephoto pic of it over SB. As is often the case, everything worked out perfectly since it passed almost directly overhead at relatively low altitude. Would have been fun to listen on ATC, but our portable transceiver is in Tripp. Within a couple of minutes it was already passing from view, so I snapped this wide shot showing the two fighter jets escorting it.

0942 Endeavor & Friends

0942 Endeavour & Friends

I can hardly wait to see tonite’s news for all the great shots of it passing over SF and LA. There’s also sure to be some great stuff on the NASA website and a rapidly growing collection of stills on their Flickr page for the flight.

OK, back to your regularly scheduled programming: More on the AB Joy trip to come soon…

2012/09/11

Flying High

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random — John @ 07:39

So now we’ve skipped past several fun family days in Edmonton, and here are some more pix from our flight to High Prairie. Joy had gone there by car with relatives, and we flew up to get her for our return trip to SB. The flight North was smoky due to distant fires, but I still snapped some scenes like this study of how water interacts with the plains.

2176 Water Plays

2176 Water Plays

I was going to call this one Water Works, but it looks so playful. The town of High Prairie itself has a romance about it that we enjoyed both on the ground and from the air.

2206 High Prairie, AB

2206 High Prairie, AB

Flying back we returned to smokier air, yet still enjoyed the miles of forest where I’d imagined only plowed grasslands.

2215 Prairie Forest

2215 Prairie Forest

The patchwork of logged, regrown, burned and eroded areas makes for an interesting landscape full of variations.

2217 Patchwork Forest

2217 Patchwork Forest

People work there and leave plenty of signs on the landscape, and do get out to enjoy it too. This could be a combination of business and pleasure.

2221 Wilderness Boating

2221 Wilderness Boating

It seems I’m wired to enjoy the shapes people create in their interactions with the land, because it’s just endlessly fascinating artwork to me. Often it looks like they’ve designed things specially for viewing from above, and some few probably have.

2231 Art For Aviators

2231 Art For Aviators

2012/09/04

SF Flood

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 21:29

OK, I’m clearly overdoing it but can’t seem to limit the number of pix you might enjoy from our remarkable 9/2 San Francisco flight. Starting off with flying across the takeoff pattern for the massive and busy KSFO international airport.

0327 New View

0327 New View

In my late teens I modified an FM radio to receive air traffic frequencies and parked my car up on Skyline Blvd to watch the comings and goings here. Now I’m part of that communication as we make our supervised crossing of the two main active runways. Passing below us is a 747 “heavy” loaded to the max with people, luggage and fuel climbing out across the Pacific.

0243 747 Heavy

0243 747 Heavy

The one baseball game I remember attending in my youth was here at the giant Candlestick Park, now looking empty and small.

0315 Candlestick

0315 Candlestick

After passing the Bay Bridge this giant bow and arrow sculpture surprised me, because somehow I’ve never noticed it before.

0262 Buried Bow

0262 Buried Bow

I’ve never spent more than a few nights in the city, though I did make the commute from San Jose fairly often while living there. So this flight helped rekindle my memories and my desire to reacquaint myself with SF, making the flight partially a look back to my youth.

0265 Back to SF

0265 Back to SF

The holiday crowds at Pier 39 were colorful and even apparent from half a mile up, and trying to recall where Fisherman’s Wharf is launched me into a brief Google session.

0296 Pier 39

0296 Pier 39

We went out across the Bay to get a look back at the city with the Golden Gate, and loved watching the fog pouring in across the mountains above Sausalito like a foamy wave.

0280 Sausalito Fog Flood

0280 Sausalito Fog Flood

Dim memories of season long ago in Washington Square were refreshed as I noticed the many people choosing a spot there to enjoy their last holiday of summer.

0302 Washington Square

0302 Washington Square

Last in this spew of sweet memories is one of my favs. There has long been a special place in my heart for Coit Tower, and I don’t know why.

0298 Coit Tower

0298 Coit Tower

There’s a generational aspect for sure, recalling a hasty hike up to it with our daughter. The deco style of it resonates with the style of my parents’ and their parents’ generations. But maybe now it also reflects on all my times in this enchanted emerald city and stands as beacon to a lifetime of memories.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Blog at WordPress.com.