John & Anne Wiley

2009/10/08

Heaven and Heartland

Filed under: Aviation,Big Adventure,Flying,Has Photos,Nature — John @ 05:21

Today feels like a week since yesterday, partly because we landed in four states. We started in Liberal, KS where I got an aerial photo of Dorothy Gale’s place complete with a new yellow brick road.

Almost on cue for the Oz story, a sudden and ferocious storm sprang up and we passed smoothly but cautiously under what looked very much like the eye of a brewing tornado that probably would have picked up the Gale place again but for high level winds that interrupted the process.

We breezed along flying slow yet going half again our maximum speed, due to a smooth and powerful tailwind. Had we climbed higher where it was faster, we might have doubled our max speed, but we wanted to stay low enough to enjoy the incredible scenery.
We stopped for a quick break and some fuel in Kingman, KS only to realize the storm was racing along right behind us.
We passed near Wichita and Topeka to enjoy the sights there and all along the way, but didn’t land.
We pressed on to Falls City, NB where we stopped for a brief taste of an intriguing place. Again the storm was looming, but now it looked more diffuse and less threatening. Still, we decided to keep going while we could hitchhike on the wind.
We stopped for fuel in Maryville, MO where there’s a beautiful university campus with a glorious white bell tower.
Just as the sun set we arrived in Iowa City, IA amid a ferocious crosswind that had us flying at a 45 degree angle to our track just to stay on course. Fortunately the wind dropped to a manageable level over the runway so I was able to land (rather than going to a nearby airport with a runway directly into the wind) after making a low pass be sure. We found a great hotel downtown where we wandered the city center and settled in a jazz cafe for dinner. What an amazing journey this is, and we still have so many Big Adventures yet to come!

2009/10/07

State Hopping Begins

Filed under: Big Adventure,Has Photos — John @ 02:39

Today we left Santa Fe and stopped for half fuel (still high elevation, so we wanted to fly “light” for best performance) in Las Vegas. The one in New Mexico. To our surprise the small airport was swarming with at least two dozen uniformed guards. National Guards it turned out, training with their helicopters for deployment to Iraq. We joined the friendly if slightly nervous chatter, and warmly wished them well again on the radio as we took off on our very different journeys.

Next came Dalhart, TX for a great homey stop and full fuel. There was a tiny Cafe near the fuel pumps with friendly people and good food. Next door, Ingram Flying Service helped us decide where to spend the night. Cecil tempted us with some help staying at a Dalhart hotel he knew of, but we wanted to fly a bit further east so he suggested the town where I’m writing this blog update (next door to a place from my childhood). But our next stop before getting here was in another state and it was OK! The name is unusual (Hooker, OK), and the town has a sweet prairie charm.

After a brief look around the deserted airport we made the short hop to Kansas, again curious about the name: Liberal. It turns out this is not a den of socialists, but in fact named for an early settler who was “right liberal” with the water from his well. The people here are equally friendly and good natured to those at every stop along our way, especially since Santa Fe. By now sunset was approaching so we decided to stay. We’ve been surprised at how interesting the landscape is from below 2,000 feet, having each made the seemingly endless drive through seemingly featureless terrain. From just above, it’s a very different place filled with interesting things to look at. So here we are at the Liberal Inn, which turns out to be across the street from Dorothy Gale’s farm house. In case you didn’t share my childhood fascination with her story, you might have heard of a late 1930s film named “The Wizard of Oz” about adventures with her dog Toto. So tonight we strolled across Hwy.54 and turned right at the big lighted sign to the little house. Now I’m curious to look it up on IMDB to find out more about what scenes were filmed there.
Thus ends another day that feels more like a week, what with all the different states between morning and night. I’ll put more pix on the Photo link and already sent a photoessay to EdHat on the Words link. Good night from Kansas!

2009/10/06

Another Santa

Filed under: Big Adventure — John @ 06:11

We had a glorious flight from San Diego to Santa Fe, which as you probably know has much in common with Santa Barbara. Like much of our flight today, we’ve been here before and intend to come again. Since everything we fly over from tomorrow onward will be new to us, we decided to only stay overnight with some dear friends. So we didn’t even divert a couple of miles to look down into Meteor Crater, or take five minutes to cruise the unbelievable sights of Sedona. Before takeoff tomorrow I hope to send a brief photoessay to EdHat (see the Words link on this page) and post some shots on my Photo page (see link). Hopefully internet access will be easier tomorrow than tonight! Meanwhile, all’s well and we’re reasonably on schedule. Our re-exploration of the glories between our two Santas have already bestowed ample scenic gifts.

2009/10/05

Angel Over Us

Filed under: Aviation,Big Adventure,Flying — John @ 04:23

Another Good Omen: an angel passed over our heads today, delighting everyone. We were in a car driving from Ramona to Black Mountain, and the Blue Angels aerobatic team was doing a show over Miramar. We tried to spot them in the distance, managed to see a close formation and a magnificent vertical blooming maneuver. As we talked about that I saw one coming at low level and high speed. It passed directly over our car in a 90 degree bank with vapor trails coming off the wing tips. Breathtaking! I know you’ll want to see the excellent image I captured of this. Alas, I know of no way to download it from my vivid memory and there was nowhere near enough time to grab the camera. So I hope these few words can evoke something in your heart akin to what we felt watching this fortuitous brush with aeronautical greatness. We’d intended to actually attend the show, but got distracted with everything else. Tomorrow we hope to get out early headed for Santa Fe, and pick at least one stop to stretch and refuel.

2009/10/04

Sleepy Saturday

Filed under: Aviation,Big Adventure,Flying — John @ 02:21

We were pretty tired today, so we slept until 9am. Dad’s 90th is tomorrow, so we joined the family taking him to the Wild Animal Park today. There’s more planned tomorrow, but also of interest to me today: driving the freeway we saw a 4-jet formation that I think was the Canadian Snowbirds team. They did a low pass with one leaving a dotted smoke trail, then returned to do a formation loop above the show just as we passed. Since I wasn’t driving, they then treated me to a formation spiral. Just before we were out of view, I was able to look back and see two of them passing low above the show with one inverted. Now that is fun!

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