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.

Reflections

Filed under: by Anne,Has Photos,MeriTimes Adventure,Nature,Random — Anne @ 04:19

We’re happily resting in the capital of New Hampshire, Concord.  Flew only 40 minutes today from Stow Mass.

Edit: John here, adding two pix from the flight. First an interesting waterworks on the outskirts of Manchester, just before we got here flying slow in the strong headwinds to save gas and go easy on the minor Tripp repair item (ADF insulator).

9930 Manchester NH Waterworks

9930 Manchester NH Waterworks

The other is a discovery as we taxied in after landing at Concord. It’s late, or I’d google Pan Am and see if the three planes like this were really an active remnant of Pan Am (each plane has a “Clipper” name) or just painted in that scheme by Boston-Maine Airways whose name is painted above the doors.

9941 Pan Am Clippers

9941 Pan Am Clippers

We took care of a minor but time consuming task on Tripp, then checked in early for us, getting a ‘crew car’ from the friendly folks at Concord Aviation.  This allowed us to see the city and pick up some breakfast goodies, which turned in to dinner as well, giving us time for a swim.  We watched a movie in the room, the first TV we’ve seen in a month, and John concurrently had a long reflective conversation with a friend. Very restful. While here in Concord, I’m looking through photos of Quincy Mass.

I read David McCullough’s biography of John Adams in 2001 and, like really good books do, the feeling and flavor of the era and the story, and my affection for these characters, is still strong.  A couple of days ago, John shared the rustic birth house of our 2nd president John Adams.  Next door to that was a newer rustic house where his son and 6th president, John Quincy Adams was born. The house of his and Abigail’s in later years is on the other side of Quincy, and they aptly named it Peace Field. The house is very large and stately, yet homey, and the gardens and landscape are green and lush. We imagined how all visitors in that day would have needed to spend the night, as transportation was lengthy and more arduous than the bus ride we took from the old houses to their new one.  The house reflected in the water lead me to dreamy reflections of the era and thoughts of all the luminaries who would have visited this esteemed couple.

0104 Adams Peace house

0104 Adams Peace house, Reflections of the past...

Below is also a Quincy treat, a Canadian goose with complete ease of people.  I wondered if the object of its search tasted anything like dandelion wine?

0098 Dandilion Goose

0098 Dandilion Goose

~by Anne

2011/05/10

Boston Up & Down

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,MeriTimes Adventure,People,Random — John @ 04:11

We started out exploring the downtown core of Boston, and realized that by riding the convenient subways so much we’ve missed a lot of street views. Like this one that dazzled us soon after popping up from the “T” (for trains I guess) underworld.

9629 Downtown Boston

9629 Downtown Boston

There are several areas with tall buildings, and like most this one has many other attractions. The tall stacks of glass cubes on the left just past the red brick building is a moving freedom walk remembrance of the holocaust. Just beyond is an art area, and the massive Quincy Market(s).

9645 Quincy Market Area

9645 Quincy Market Area

There’s also a selection of charming Irish pubs. But we couldn’t explore those because of what came next.

9678 Boston Aerial

9678 Boston Aerial

We took Zubair and his delightful son on a flight from the suburbs toward Boston. It was less hazy than our last flight here, but we were able to get much closer. Alas, we couldn’t fly right over due to restricted airspace over a sporting event and although it was sunny nearby there were dark clouds and even light rain over nearly all of the metro area.

9701 Charles Bridge Highlight

9701 Charles Bridge Highlight

By slowly circling just beyond the invisible fence around downtown I was able to catch this break in the clouds that highlights the new Charles bridge. We talked about lingering to see if the sun reached downtown, but decided instead to find Zubair’s house where his wife and daughter heard us and ran out to wave even though we could barely see them. In all, another glorious day on our MerriTimes adventure. Tomorrow we hope to dodge clouds and reach Bar Harbor, ME. Hopefully we’ll at least get an hour’s flight North and closer to Newfoundland where we can wait for weather good enough to fly there in a few hours.

2011/05/09

Boston Quartet

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,MeriTimes Adventure,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 05:18

Common, Adams, John, and Art today. First we strolled the Common, where we saw the common scene of a boy chasing a squirrel.

9454 Common

9454 Common

The rodent won. There’s plenty of revolutionary history, and earlier, in this the first park (converted from an overgrazed cow pasture that coined the term “tragedy of the common”) in the world. Democracy won.

9466 Statehouse

9466 Statehouse

Then we strolled Winter Street until we came to Summer.

9479 Winter & Summer

9479 Between Seasons

After quickly figuring out the Boston subway system (about 30 minutes with help from several people) we rode out to Quincy, which of course is home to lots of Adams Family stuff. Not the TV show, two U.S. Presidents and a truly remarkable woman named Abigail. The sequel to George Washington (hint: John Adams) was born here, and we found it moving to imagine him running around the large farm and tracking mud in the back door.

9484 John Adams' Birthplace

9484 John Adams' Birthplace

It’s now on the corner of a busy street surrounded by nail salons and other miscellanea, but without the boy born here things might well have turned out differently for us. After some time here and at other apples of Adams’ eye we hopped the train back through Boston out to Harvard, named for another John.

9522 John Harvard (sorta)

9522 John Harvard (sorta)

This lovely bronze of John Harvard apparently isn’t him. They didn’t know what he looked like, so some other guy was chosen to pose for the sculpture to honor the man who inspired this inspiring American institution. The campus and surrounding town are much as you’ve seen and imagined, and lots of fun to wander.

9529 Cambridge

9529 Cambridge

Back on the subway for the quick ride to M.I.T. where we met Art. In this case the FAST kind. It was a show named FAST Light (Festival of Art, Science & Technology), distributed around the campus and attracting large and diverse crowds of people wandering around with free maps and wide eyes.

9558 Stairlight

9558 Stairlight

9593 Art Eyes

9593 Art Eyes

It didn’t take long for us to get “art eyes” that make everything art. Looking across the Charles from campus, our eyes were wide just like those first people we saw looking at the installation.

9602 Floating Art

9602 Floating Art

The blue line you see is colored lights that were pulsing and changing all along the span of the Harvard Bridge, on the massive sculpture that’s red/orange here, and the blue balls (some of which faded to green). I wondered how distracted drivers on the bridge were. Strolling back through campus toward the subway, another artwork next to a ripping good drum circle had people dazzled.

9603 White TunneLight

9603 White TunneLight

A somewhat similar work transformed a hallway between buildings.

9614 Hall of Light

9614 Hall of Light

The moon even put on a show above the fanciful new jumble of buildings on campus.

9627 Moon Over Jumble

9627 Moon Over Jumble

To complete our mesmerization, the subway had an artwork of its own.

9628 Subway Self-Serve Sound

9628 Subway Self-Serve Sound

Each side of the platform has a large metal lever. In the narrow corridor between tracks and platforms is a row of tubular bells. The levers activate pendulums (they look like upside-down sledge hammers in this pic), that strike the bells. In the silence between trains, a new crowd assembles waiting for their trains. Someone with the right combination of curiosity and playfulness often notices the lever, reads the directions, and starts rocking the lever back and forth to swing the pendulums. A soft tone sounds, followed by other tones in an arpeggio that forms an angelic chord hanging in the stunned silence on the platforms. Looking around, people notice the bells and then the person pulling the lever. Across the track, someone often finds and activates that lever. Soon there is a slow symphony of bells, smiles and serenity. Then a noisy train screeches in and a new performance begins. Or not. Either way, life is Art.

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