John & Anne Wiley

2011/05/12

Safe Harbor

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,MeriTimes Adventure,Nature,Random,Tripp — John @ 02:31

Exciting flight today! A bit bumpy until we climbed above the broken clouds, and then a smooth and strong headwind that made for a more leisurely passage over the countless islands and inlets of the Maine coast.

9951 Maine Coast

9951 Maine Coast

The colors got shifted in the above pic, I guess due to all the cloud shadows confusing the camera’s auto white balance, but you still get the idea. Love how the one islet bottom-center is in the sun.

We passed near Bar Harbor, where we enjoyed Fall of ’09 with colorful leaves and exceptional lobster bisque at Maggie’s. Today we just flew by and saw new views from different angles and higher altitude.

0027 Bar Harbor

0027 Bar Harbor

On to Eastport at the Canadian border to get a nice meal for Tripp. This was probably the most exciting landing I’ve ever done, with gusting crosswinds right at the edge of Tripp’s rating and flocks of birds enjoying the fact that nobody else was flying. In fact, we saw people walking dogs along the runway while we were fueling.

0056 Eastport, ME

0056 Eastport, ME

We did a low pass first to gauge the winds down among the trees and it was fine, but we needed to scare off the gulls before landing so I went around again. Notice the burned out buildings on the small point of land about in the middle of the pic. Below is a closeup.

0058 Eastport Ruins

0058 Eastport Ruins

I wonder what this was, and how it came to be a burned out shell. Anyway, after Tripp had all the cheap fuel she wanted we took off much more easily than we landed and made the short hop to St. Stephens, NB. Oh, Canada! We have now begun the Maritimes part of our MeriTimes adventure! Tomorrow if weather permits we might get to PEI or Nova Scotia. Fun to not know yet what the wild Spring has in store for us. Tonight we’re glad to be snug with Tripp securely tied in the wind with the new heavy nylon ropes we bought her in Quincy, MA (and carried them all that day). She looked especially happy in her safe harbor between two hangars, all tied and chocked with her cover on. We’re excited, and happy tired. 🙂

2011/05/11

Fear

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Inner World,MeriTimes Adventure,Random,Relationships,Tripp — John @ 16:24

I have a little time this morning as we wait for improving weather, we’ve had a minor reassessment this morning, and I got a slightly concerned inquiry. So I’m going to share a little about Fear in case anyone’s interested. If you’re prone to worry or want stuff about adventure and fun, please feel free to skip this post in case it might just distract you from enjoying the normal stream of this blog.

If you’re still reading, I appreciate any concern you may have about our safety because one of the greatest sources of delight for Anne and me is to be cared about. If after reading this you have questions, please email us and share (though it might be a while before we have time to respond).

The reassessment had to do with what we want from this most difficult part of our planned flying adventure: the Canadian Maritime Provinces. It’s difficult because we have to hassle with more expensive and less functional cellphone and internet connections, airports, fuel, and possibly food and accommodations (being colder than here, camping is a less attractive option too). It’s also potentially more dangerous, due to being less populated, some relatively long flights over very cold water, and less favorable weather.

So the fears we talked about this morning are about spending more money per day, possibly waiting for days on the ground hoping weather will clear when it might not, and what are the risks. I tend to look first at the worst case, and work my way back from there. Having read a lot about what we’re about to do, my opinion is that the worst would be a forced landing into trees so I’ve investigated how likely that is and considered means of mitigating the risk.

The chances of a sudden mechanical problem that would leave no option other than landing in trees is quite small. The number of aircraft like ours that have this happen is significantly less than the number of serious car accidents per mile of travel, so the risk is quite small. Among other things, we’ve had Tripp carefully checked before starting this adventure and she’s actually in considerably better shape than when we bought her (partly because we’ve fixed everything and partly because we’re flying so much, and that’s good for her engine). I’ve worked alongside several highly-skilled and experienced aircraft mechanics, and assured myself of her good health while also learning what to watch for so as to avoid problems in flight.

Another safety measure we use when flying in less populated areas with lots of trees or other unfavorable terrain for forced landing, is following major roads. Since we can glide 1.5 miles for every 1,000 feet above ground, following roads doesn’t add much to the time and distance of our flights but it does add options. Obviously we can land on the road itself since traffic is light, but there also tend to be more people around which means help fixing whatever the problem might be and more open fields, etc. to land in.

Flying over water, we climb high enough to glide over land in event of problems. Our longest water crossing on this flight is less than 1/2 hour, our engine is rated for at least 2,000 hours of highly reliable operation, and this adventure will probably tally up to 100 hours or less.

I recall a line in the book Dune something like, “Fear is the mind killer.” How I like to greet fear is by allowing the feeling, which tends to pass in a few seconds. Then, rather than dwell on it and feed it, as mentioned above I go to the worst case and engage my mind in exploring the actual risks.

I hope some of this might have been interesting, informative, or helpful in some way.

2011/05/02

And Again!

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,MeriTimes Adventure,People,Random — John @ 04:15

Well, after more great times with great friends we flew NYC together again. Hazier today, with thin high clouds, so the light was diffused with different color and less shadow than yesterday evening. We had intended to fly the Hudson to Lady Lib, then turn left up the East River to go up and back the shorter corridor there. Yankees had a different plan, that first required us to divert to the right beyond the Hudson into Jersey around the restricted airspace near the stadium. That gave us unusual and unexpected views like this one across the Hudson with the whole city in context. Remember you can click on nearly any of our pix on this blog to see at least slightly larger and sharper versions.

8767 Across Hudson

8767 Across Hudson

We got a good look at the Brooklyn Bridge in today’s light, and it reinforced our desire to walk or bike it.

8800 Bridge For Sale

8800 Bridge For Sale

The game’s restricted area completely prevented us flying the East River at all though, so we just circled the Lady and changed plan.

8824 Welcome to America

8824 Welcome to America

That circling also gave us a great look at Ellis Island, and we all imagined immigrants having endured a long sea voyage that was the first time at sea for most. This beacon of hope greeted them just before they stepped ashore on the bustling and probably terrifying, intimidating, humiliating or overwhelming Ellis Island.

8828 Ellis Island

8828 Ellis Island

We decided to head for Montauk on the tip of Long Island, and I got clearance to fly low just offshore below the busy JFK airspace. Looking back as we passed the Verrazano Bridge, Manhattan was already fading into the distance.

8852 Verrazano

8852 Verrazano

That brought us a great view of Coney Island, and we imagined how different it would look on a hot weekend in just a few weeks.

8864 Coney

8864 Coney

Climbing higher along the island we saw some remarkable mansions in the Hamptons.

8967 Hamptons Manses

8967 Hamptons Manses

We also enjoyed some spectacular vistas nearing the end of the island.

8988 L.I. Sound Scene

8988 L.I. Sound Scene

We landed in gusty direct crosswinds that changed dramatically just before touchdown due to the dunes and tall scrub (fun for the pilot, yet smooth for my passengers). You can see the runway on the left edge of the pic below. After a tasty light dinner (left of the harbor entrance below) with a ride provided by the sweet lady managing the airport, we made a leisurely 40 minute flight back to White Plains.

8990 Montauk

8990 Montauk

Another day that feels like a week of precious memories.

2011/04/30

New Haven

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,MeriTimes Adventure,People,Random,Tripp — John @ 04:29

We’ve found a new haven in CT with fun people. Our train ride from DC back to rise above it all in Tripp, provided some time for me to futz with my broken camera. Turned out it was near-sighted. Anything up to about 25 feet away would focus, but not further. Somehow I figured out that removing a thin brass washer behind the main lens fixed it!

8560 Philly Your Eyes

8560 Philly Your Eyes

So above is my first pic after the “repair” and it looks pretty good at full res, except for the fact it was dark overcast and very smoggy. So one of your eyes over our route is restored, just in time for more aerial adventures. Anne’s camera still works, though it has shortcomings of its own. Anyway, today’s flight took us past NYC on a different route than we’ve flown before. Even in the overcast and thick smog it looked pretty cool.

8576 NYC Afar A-fuzz

8576 NYC Afar A-fuzz

Another cool thing about today’s flight was going directly over JFK, easily the busiest airport we’ve ever done that at.

8583 Tripping Over JFK

8583 Tripping Over JFK

Tripp’s spiffy new “pants” (wheel fairings) looked crisp and easy above the smoggy and crowded airport. The controllers were quite helpful in sparing us a long detour around this major hub on our way up the coast. We’re excited to have the day here tomorrow with dear friends, and then to head back and explore NYC with dear friends. It’s great to be flying again!

2011/04/06

SBA & Tripp’s home

Filed under: Aviation,by Anne,Flying,Has Photos,SB Region,Tripp — Anne @ 05:12

Our Airport (SBA) is Tripp’s home base and the one we fly out of.  I left the strut of our plane in the upper left corner for context. This particular view is an unusual path, above runway 33 on the left, with the larger runway 25 at the top.  When ‘parked’ Tripp sits below with the other planes and usually there are many more giving her company.

1926 SBA runway 33

1926 SBA runway 33

Santa Barbara’s new terminal is in process, scheduled to open this summer.  The original terminal is the small top curved part of the red tile roof.  People are concerned the new terminal is too big and wrecks the flavor of SB, but it’s looking good to me and adds much needed space.  Here’s a closer view so you can decide for yourself.

1927 SBA terminal in process

1927 SBA terminal in process

Having flown in most of the country and Canada, I can say this airspace, with ocean behind and mountains ahead, is spectacularly beautiful to fly in, out, and around…but maybe especially to fly home to.

by ~Anne

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