John & Anne Wiley

2011/02/11

Comfort and Suffering

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Random,Tripp,White North Adventure — John @ 04:02

We’re totally cozy in our Edmonton hotel, but Tripp’s shivering outside in the cold again like Boise missing the heated hangar she got in Lethbridge. Hopefully she’s just hibernating, huddled under her spiffy new Kennon cover. If we get a chance to fly her while here in the next few weeks, we’ll pay the Edmonton Flying Club to put her in a heated hangar overnite to give her a gentle waking from hibernation.

The journey was magnificent, with vistas and adventures aplenty. Flying was mostly uneventful, though slow due to strong headwinds. We had one short bumpy passage between Butte and Helena, MT but the rest was smooth. Unlike my notion that it could be boring to fly over nothing but snow, it was simply breathtaking. Though we snapped relatively few pix, I hope some of those we did take will give you an impression of the vast views we traversed.

So we’re holed up amid two tons of cargo spread out in the room, with more words & pix to follow as we catch up on rest between helping with chores and babysitting. Meanwhile, here’s part of our view on final approach to Edmonton City Centre airport.

5433 Edmonton Winter

5433 Edmonton Winter

2011/02/10

Courage Under Flyer

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,People,Random,White North Adventure — John @ 16:48

Well, last nite after posting I took a look at one of the last photos from yesterday’s flight and just about choked. Just across the border into Canada approaching Lethbridge I noticed something moving a few thousand feet below and perhaps half a mile away. Looking closer it turned out to be a helicopter flying along a power line, and when it stopped to hover over one of the towers I snapped a few pix. Well not only was it hovering within a few feet of the tower in strong gusting winds well below zero – in the photo you can see there’s someone standing with one foot on the tower and the other on the helicopter skid. I’ve posted a larger version of this on the Photo Page (link in the right column here), but here’s a crop at full res of the helo and high-wire performer.

5369 Daredevil

5369 Daredevil

We’re preparing for a bumpy flight to Edmonton, but this pic is so amazing I just had to take a moment to share it. More when time permits…

2011/01/27

O Say

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 04:29

So we’re walking out to go for a short late afternoon flight, and Anne notices the “O” on the tail of this jet parked outside the hangar where Tripp gets pampered by Glenn and his guys. Is it Oprah? We looked up the plane’s number, and it’s just been to Ireland and back with stops in Goose Bay and Fargo. Fun trip regardless of who was on board, eh?

4955 O Tail Tale

4955 O Tail Tale

We mostly went to the airport to fiddle with some interior trim on Tripp, but couldn’t bear the thought of making her sit there while other planes were flying. Especially if this jet she’s been looking at had just been to the Emerald Isl and back. 🙂

4957 Stowe's Lake

4957 Stowe's Lake

Whether or not the jet is Oprah’s, the Stow House and Lake Los Carneros are leftovers from the pre-jet era when private lakes and railroads were the thing. Lovely place for a walk, and easy on the eye just after takeoff too.

2011/01/24

Lucky

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 03:41

I’m brimming with warm memories right now, and contemplating how lucky we are. Healthy, retired, able to volunteer here & there, happily married, living in bucolic Santa Barbara, and this evening flying with a wonderful friend in our own small plane. Sure a lot of it’s about choices, like living cheaply compared with many people (free entertainments other than flying, old car & clothes, etc.). A lot of it’s about hard work, earning our retirement and learning how to get along with ourselves, each other and everyone else. But even factoring in some hard knocks along the way, I’m overwhelmed with cherishing our good luck right now. Probably because we took a dear friend for a short flight in the glow of a glorious late afternoon. We marveled yet again at the intricate organic garden she’s made of her yard that shines as an example of sustainability among her neighbors’ manicured lawns.

4936 Organic Yard

4936 Organic Yard

Flying toward Carp past the harbor I noticed a small gaggle of surfers enjoying the break at the entrance to Santa Barbara Harbor.

4941 Jetty Surfers

4941 Jetty Surfers

If you click to see the largest version (or look at the larger one on my Photo Page), you can make out people watching from the rocks and someone climbing over the wall. I like looking at pix like this both to remember the glance that stimulated me to snap, and to discover details not visible with the naked eye. Looking at the full-size version on my computer it’s fun to see what each person was doing at that moment, and enjoy their choreographed chorus in still life mingling with the musical movement of surf and harbor – and the unnoticed small plane passing a quarter mile away.

Meandering over Carp we circled to look at the Lou Grant Parent-Child Workshop. Back here on the ground I noticed the detail of an “airplane” parked in the playground, and imagined some future pilot who climbs on it dreaming of flying with the birds as we were when I snapped this.

4952 Pilot Playground

4952 Pilot Playground

2011/01/13

Brief Shine

Filed under: Aviation,Happiness,Has Photos,Random,SB Region — John @ 06:28

The new KSBA airport terminal building is getting a shiny copper dome, and I paused to snap it during taxi for takeoff today. I wonder how it will look once the copper gets a green patina in a year or two, and whether anyone will be allowed to go up there for the glorious view.

4464 Copper Cupola

4464 Copper Cupola

Luckily the view we get in the first second after liftoff is vastly superior. 🙂

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