Category: Kolb

January 12, 2008

It has been a long winter in many ways. The weather has not been cooperating, and I was out of commission for 6+ weeks due to a serious cold that turned into bronchitis. I managed to make it through the holidays and all my time off without flying, unfortunately, and was ready to start flying again at the New Year. But the weather didn’t cooperate right away. Finally, I got a call from Jimmy Young on a Friday, suggesting we do a little flying together.

As long as the weather held, we were on!

Jimmy had yet to fly very far from his home airport, Alvin, so this was going to be his longest flight yet in his recently acquired Kolb Firestar II. He gave me a call before he left so I’d have a good idea of when he’d be there, and he made good time. You can see from this map…

…that he has to take a less-than-direct route in order to avoid the congested Houston area as well as the Sugarland airspace. He landed and taxied to my hangar and spent a little time checking things over. Soon enough, we were on our way!

It may be hard to fathom, but, I’ve had my Kolb for about 2 years and still haven’t been able to fly with anyone that had a camera! So, I haven’t had any photos taken of me in the air. I guess I got spoiled when I flew so much with my brother, because I’d have 10 or 20 shots to pick from after every flight. Jimmy was nice enough to bring along his camera to take some shots.

Prior to taking off, we discussed the protocols involved in photography in flight. Being so close to each other, we had to know who was doing what, when. Still, we kept a fair distance between us to avoid any mishaps. Everything went smoothly.

First, we headed west, toward the Brazos River.

The idea was to have the sun provide good lighting to the side. As you can see, the results were very nice!

I maneuvered below him, then above him, to give him a chance at a variety of shots.

Of course, I wasn’t just sitting back in the limelight, doing nothing! I was taking photos of him, too. You can see that it was a pleasant day, and although there was a bit of turbulence, it wasn’t too bad.

When we got to the Brazos River, we turned south and followed it a bit, then headed southeast toward Sport Flyer.

I didn’t want to be out too long (I had a family obligation in an hour), and Jimmy needed to refuel for his trip back to Alvin. And since my airport doesn’t have fuel, and Sport Flyer does, we were headed that way. I was going to accompany him but not land.

After we had decided we were done photographing each other, I naturally took advantage of the nice day to take lots of shots of things on the ground…

As we get closer to Sport Flyer, I look off in the distance and get this fairly clear shot of downtown Houston…

…not bad for being over 40 miles away! Jimmy starts to break away from our 2-plane formation, and decides on a straight-in approach.  I circle around the airport and take this photo of the typical house and hangar (and plane) of a member of the Sport Flyer aviation community.

As I pass by the threshold of runway 17, I see Jimmy on final approach.

I radio him to say “so long!’ and then continue my track to the north.

On the way to my airport, I see this field which looks like it was burned.

In contrast to that, it was nice to see some green on this farm in the middle of January.

A few minutes later, I see my airport, enter the pattern and land.

A short, but very pleasant flight with Jimmy Young. Time in the air, about 53 minutes.

Thanks for the photos, Jimmy!

 

Note:  If you enjoyed this or any of my other blog entries, I suggest you subscribe to this blog so that you are automatically notified when I make a new entry.  Go to the top of this page, and look along the left side for the subscription field.

January 12, 2008

It has been a long winter in many ways. The weather has not been cooperating, and I was out of commission for 6+ weeks due to a serious cold that turned into bronchitis. I managed to make it through the holidays and all my time off without flying, unfortunately, and was ready to start flying again at the New Year. But the weather didn’t cooperate right away. Finally, I got a call from Jimmy Young on a Friday, suggesting we do a little flying together.

 

As long as the weather held, we were on!

Jimmy had yet to fly very far from his home airport, Alvin, so this was going to be his longest flight yet in his recently acquired Kolb Firestar II. He gave me a call before he left so I’d have a good idea of when he’d be there, and he made good time. You can see from this map…

…that he has to take a less-than-direct route in order to avoid the congested Houston area as well as the Sugarland airspace. He landed and taxied to my hangar and spent a little time checking things over. Soon enough, we were on our way!

It may be hard to fathom, but, I’ve had my Kolb for about 2 years and still haven’t been able to fly with anyone that had a camera! So, I haven’t had any photos taken of me in the air. I guess I got spoiled when I flew so much with my brother, because I’d have 10 or 20 shots to pick from after every flight. Jimmy was nice enough to bring along his camera to take some shots.

Prior to taking off, we discussed the protocols involved in photography in flight. Being so close to each other, we had to know who was doing what, when. Still, we kept a fair distance between us to avoid any mishaps. Everything went smoothly.

First, we headed west, toward the Brazos River.

The idea was to have the sun provide good lighting to the side. As you can see, the results were very nice!

I maneuvered below him, then above him, to give him a chance at a variety of shots.

Of course, I wasn’t just sitting back in the limelight, doing nothing! I was taking photos of him, too. You can see that it was a pleasant day, and although there was a bit of turbulence, it wasn’t too bad.

When we got to the Brazos River, we turned south and followed it a bit, then headed southeast toward Sport Flyer.

I didn’t want to be out too long (I had a family obligation in an hour), and Jimmy needed to refuel for his trip back to Alvin. And since my airport doesn’t have fuel, and Sport Flyer does, we were headed that way. I was going to accompany him but not land.

After we had decided we were done photographing each other, I naturally took advantage of the nice day to take lots of shots of things on the ground…

As we get closer to Sport Flyer, I look off in the distance and get this fairly clear shot of downtown Houston…

…not bad for being over 40 miles away! Jimmy starts to break away from our 2-plane formation, and decides on a straight-in approach.  I circle around the airport and take this photo of the typical house and hangar (and plane) of a member of the Sport Flyer aviation community.

As I pass by the threshold of runway 17, I see Jimmy on final approach.

I radio him to say “so long!’ and then continue my track to the north.

On the way to my airport, I see this field which looks like it was burned.

In contrast to that, it was nice to see some green on this farm in the middle of January.

A few minutes later, I see my airport, enter the pattern and land.

A short, but very pleasant flight with Jimmy Young. Time in the air, about 53 minutes.

Thanks for the photos, Jimmy!

 

Note:  If you enjoyed this or any of my other blog entries, I suggest you subscribe to this blog so that you are automatically notified when I make a new entry.  Go to the top of this page, and look along the left side for the subscription field.

August 25, 2007

I’ve been getting grief from all corners of the world over not posting any stories for a while. Yes, I go to all this trouble, and I get nothing but complaints! Yes, complaints from… well… you know who you are! 🙂

So, what have I been up to, you ask? Oh, I get up early, drive in to work, work all day, I’ve read a few books, watched a few of movies… you know, same thing you’re doing! Well, maybe you didn’t read any books.

But I’ve also been flying! No, not to Timbuktu, nor Key West, nor Poughkeepsie, nor Alaska (although that one is on my list). I’ve been doing mostly local flying, and I just figured you’d be pretty bored with those flights.

Well, let’s find out. Here’s some photos of a little outing I did on a Saturday in August. Nothing too far afield; I just headed toward Brenham, then kind-sorta toward Grawunder, then back to my place, with a side of river flying for a few minutes.

If this bores you, well, all I can say is, “I told you so.” If it doesn’t bore you, then you’ll be happy, and I’ll be happy to think this story wasn’t a waste of time.

My overview map should appear above, the blue line being my approximate path. my starting point is ‘Skydive Houston’.  The top part of the path was my route to Brenham… and just short of the town, I turned south and headed toward Bellville. I never made it there, either. As I said, I was just flying “local” with no particular destination.

It was a beautiful day and the wind was light.

I left around noon, and was expecting a fair amount of turbulence, but it wasn’t bad at all. Most of my flight was in the 800-1200 foot range… I stayed low mainly to see stuff but also because it was a bit rougher up high.

The first order of business when I take off is, my neighbor always wants an updated photo of his new hangar, so I oblige him.

Then only a mile or so later and I already get a bonus shot: a quantity of tractors and other farm vehicles! Wow! After that, I won’t need any more tractor shots for the whole day! (But don’t be disappointed… there are more to come.)

Another few minutes and I score this great shot of a lily-laden pond.

Then up ahead, secluded in a forest of oaks I see a grand looking house… later, when reviewing the photo and zooming in, I discover it is the Texana Manor.

My camera is doing a splendid job of picking up details. (It helps that it’s the middle of the day… and a bright, sunny day, at that!)

It wasn’t hard to spot this large home and compound, complete with round outdoor arena and large covered arena… apparently, someone loves horses!

Soon, I’m skirting the south end of Hempstead and get this far away shot of their high school.

Five miles later, I encounter the Brazos River and descend to about 500 feet. I follow the river, banking left and right and on the lookout for anything interesting. It doesn’t take long… some 4-wheelers have parked on the banks of the river and set out some fishing poles. Only the child seems interested in my plane.

On the other side of the river, I can’t help but take this shot of two very colorful tractors, hard at work.

This seems to be a day for grand houses, and this one doesn’t disappoint, with a very nice rock pool in the backyard. It even has a rock slide built into it!

I’m now within a couple of miles of the airport, but since I don’t really intend on landing, I decide to stay clear. Just before I turn south, I get this shot of it in the distance.

As I turn and then straighten out, I can’t help but see another grand house, sitting there plain as day. Sure looks nice!

Another few minutes and I pass over a separated highway, that looks like it just got some new blacktop because there aren’t any lines on it yet. I’m still not sure what highway that was… too lazy (well, too busy, really) to go look at my GPS… but it’s probably Hwy 290.

I’m startled to see, directly ahead of me, a runway… fairly long, too. It’s not on my map, so I figured it’s a “ag” runway — a runway used by agricultural planes. I dodge to the right a bit and take this shot, looking back at it. It’s always tempting to land on a “newly found” runway, but I get into more trouble that way! Instead, I record my position by taking a quick shot of my GPS screen, so I’ll know where the runway is.

Oh boy, yet another grand house, with a white Hummer and Jeep in the driveway! They have a nice pool, too.

This next view is of an oil field, but it’s probably hard to make them out… there are about ten wells in the picture. This is right before I crossed the Brazos River again.

A little motion catches my eye and, oof!, here’s another hard working farmer in his fire-engine red tractor!

I look up from the tractor to see the river again, and on the other side appears to be some kind of commercial nursery. As I pass it, I get another, closer shot.

I simply can’t resist yet another tractor shot, so here are two green tractors sitting next to the results of their hard work.

Another house, not really grand, but I liked the shot because of the bales of hay scattered around it. The pool is grand, though, don’t you think?

And here’s another house that is surrounded, but not by hay, by trees… maybe it’s an orchard?

More hay making, but the birds are what caught my eye.

This one still has me mystified… what are all the white “dots”? Even zooming in and then again at home, I can’t quite figure it out. Any ideas?

Well, my airport is now right in front of me, so I land and put the plane away. Time in the air: 1:13

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I can do local flights many, many times and see new stuff on each one.

So, that’s what my local flights look like, although most are early in the morning or late in the afternoon. I just got lucky this time, that it wasn’t too bumpy in the middle of the day.

I hope you weren’t too bored. 🙂

 

Note:  If you enjoyed this or any of my other blog entries, I suggest you subscribe to this blog so that you are automatically notified when I make a new entry.  Go to the top of this page, and look along the left side for the subscription field.

 

August 25, 2007

I’ve been getting grief from all corners of the world over not posting any stories for a while. Yes, I go to all this trouble, and I get nothing but complaints! Yes, complaints from… well… you know who you are! 🙂

So, what have I been up to, you ask? Oh, I get up early, drive in to work, work all day, I’ve read a few books, watched a few of movies… you know, same thing you’re doing! Well, maybe you didn’t read any books.

But I’ve also been flying! No, not to Timbuktu, nor Key West, nor Poughkeepsie, nor Alaska (although that one is on my list). I’ve been doing mostly local flying, and I just figured you’d be pretty bored with those flights.

Well, let’s find out. Here’s some photos of a little outing I did on a Saturday in August. Nothing too far afield; I just headed toward Brenham, then kind-sorta toward Grawunder, then back to my place, with a side of river flying for a few minutes.

If this bores you, well, all I can say is, “I told you so.” If it doesn’t bore you, then you’ll be happy, and I’ll be happy to think this story wasn’t a waste of time.

My overview map should appear above, the blue line being my approximate path. my starting point is ‘Skydive Houston’.  The top part of the path was my route to Brenham… and just short of the town, I turned south and headed toward Bellville. I never made it there, either. As I said, I was just flying “local” with no particular destination.

It was a beautiful day and the wind was light.

I left around noon, and was expecting a fair amount of turbulence, but it wasn’t bad at all. Most of my flight was in the 800-1200 foot range… I stayed low mainly to see stuff but also because it was a bit rougher up high.

The first order of business when I take off is, my neighbor always wants an updated photo of his new hangar, so I oblige him.

Then only a mile or so later and I already get a bonus shot: a quantity of tractors and other farm vehicles! Wow! After that, I won’t need any more tractor shots for the whole day! (But don’t be disappointed… there are more to come.)

Another few minutes and I score this great shot of a lily-laden pond.

Then up ahead, secluded in a forest of oaks I see a grand looking house… later, when reviewing the photo and zooming in, I discover it is the Texana Manor.

My camera is doing a splendid job of picking up details. (It helps that it’s the middle of the day… and a bright, sunny day, at that!)

It wasn’t hard to spot this large home and compound, complete with round outdoor arena and large covered arena… apparently, someone loves horses!

Soon, I’m skirting the south end of Hempstead and get this far away shot of their high school.

Five miles later, I encounter the Brazos River and descend to about 500 feet. I follow the river, banking left and right and on the lookout for anything interesting. It doesn’t take long… some 4-wheelers have parked on the banks of the river and set out some fishing poles. Only the child seems interested in my plane.

On the other side of the river, I can’t help but take this shot of two very colorful tractors, hard at work.

This seems to be a day for grand houses, and this one doesn’t disappoint, with a very nice rock pool in the backyard. It even has a rock slide built into it!

I’m now within a couple of miles of the airport, but since I don’t really intend on landing, I decide to stay clear. Just before I turn south, I get this shot of it in the distance.

As I turn and then straighten out, I can’t help but see another grand house, sitting there plain as day. Sure looks nice!

Another few minutes and I pass over a separated highway, that looks like it just got some new blacktop because there aren’t any lines on it yet. I’m still not sure what highway that was… too lazy (well, too busy, really) to go look at my GPS… but it’s probably Hwy 290.

I’m startled to see, directly ahead of me, a runway… fairly long, too. It’s not on my map, so I figured it’s a “ag” runway — a runway used by agricultural planes. I dodge to the right a bit and take this shot, looking back at it. It’s always tempting to land on a “newly found” runway, but I get into more trouble that way! Instead, I record my position by taking a quick shot of my GPS screen, so I’ll know where the runway is.

Oh boy, yet another grand house, with a white Hummer and Jeep in the driveway! They have a nice pool, too.

This next view is of an oil field, but it’s probably hard to make them out… there are about ten wells in the picture. This is right before I crossed the Brazos River again.

A little motion catches my eye and, oof!, here’s another hard working farmer in his fire-engine red tractor!

I look up from the tractor to see the river again, and on the other side appears to be some kind of commercial nursery. As I pass it, I get another, closer shot.

I simply can’t resist yet another tractor shot, so here are two green tractors sitting next to the results of their hard work.

Another house, not really grand, but I liked the shot because of the bales of hay scattered around it. The pool is grand, though, don’t you think?

And here’s another house that is surrounded, but not by hay, by trees… maybe it’s an orchard?

More hay making, but the birds are what caught my eye.

This one still has me mystified… what are all the white “dots”? Even zooming in and then again at home, I can’t quite figure it out. Any ideas?

Well, my airport is now right in front of me, so I land and put the plane away. Time in the air: 1:13

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I can do local flights many, many times and see new stuff on each one.

So, that’s what my local flights look like, although most are early in the morning or late in the afternoon. I just got lucky this time, that it wasn’t too bumpy in the middle of the day.

I hope you weren’t too bored. 🙂

 

Note:  If you enjoyed this or any of my other blog entries, I suggest you subscribe to this blog so that you are automatically notified when I make a new entry.  Go to the top of this page, and look along the left side for the subscription field.

 

September 2, 2006

I’ve been so busy moving houses and everything associated with getting the old house ready to sell, and getting the new house in order, that I haven’t had much time for flying… which is, as you might imagine, a kind of torture for a pilot living with a runway out the back door!

And much like a new ultralight flyer, the few flights I’ve made were very close by… circling the pattern mostly. It’s funny: I’ve flown multi-state cross-country flights on multiple occasions, but now that I’m starting fresh at a new airport, I revert back to a beginners method of just flying locally!

So today, a warm September day, I decided to branch out just a bit more and see what a wider circle will reveal.

Just as I’m about to takeoff, my friend Steve Simpson pulls up. He’s borrowing my trailer so he can move the wings he’s building from his house to a hangar at Dry Creek. Here I capture him driving off with the trailer.

Just south of the airport is this fantastic house! I see it right in front of me each time I take off to the south.

As I circle around I orient myself to the north and fly along highway 362. Here’s a well kept cemetery, right off 362, I pass every day as I go to work.

Just a bit further north and I see the high school stadium to my right. My son — who is in the band — had his first football game the night before and yelled himself hoarse. It was fun to see the game, even if the team did get crushed by their opponents.

In case you can’t tell, I’m still shooting my pictures through lexan. It’s obvious in the stadium photo if you look at it hard. Someday I hope to resolve that issue!

Across the freeway to the north is the high school itself. It’s a very nice facility with practice football/soccer pitches, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, and the classrooms and offices are top-notch. A really first-class facility.

After circling the high school for a minute or two, I turn west so that I’m parallel U.S. Highway 290. To my left are the stores and shops at highway 2920. At the bottom of the photo is Hwy 290. Along the top you can barely see old 290, what they now call Business 290. Waller County is fairly rural, so even though it doesn’t look like much, these businesses are a boon.

I shift my gaze to the right just a bit to take in a view of the town of Waller.

Some movement below me catches my eye so I look down to see cows and birds in their symbiosis. When the cows step, they create a hoof-size hole an inch or two deep, and the birds go after any bugs that get stirred up by the process.

Cruising above Hwy 290, the town of Prairie View comes up quickly.

To my right is Prairie View A&M University, and to my left are a row of homes, put up (I assume) as off-campus housing for the students.

I look down at the feeder road to the highway and see a juxtaposition of the old and the new.

Approaching Hwy 290 and Texas Hwy 6, to my left is the huge Lawrence Marshall car dealership.

On my right is the interesting looking Frazier’s statuary.

Zooming in a bit, it almost look like a miniature Parthenon.

Just ahead — on the NW corner of the highway intersection — is the old Ultralight America field. They were evicted and it’s looking pretty ramshackle.

Turning to the south, skirting the west side of Hempstead, I spot a cemetery.

Looking to my left, I see the sun — rising in the east — reflecting off water between the furrows of a field. It almost looks like snow in the photo.

Frequent visitors to Texas-Flyer know that I like to take pictures of tractors I see, but it’s rare I see one driving down a road.

Looking up and out to the east, into the sun, is hard on the eyes, but with the sun streaming through some moderately high clouds, it’s kinda pretty.

This impressive horse ranch caught my eye because there was a horse turning the carousel in the middle of the photo.

A few moments later, I spot this fabulous mansion and pool, trying to hide out in the trees.

After a few more moments, I’m back out into the farm land and suddenly spot this very odd sight. It’s obviously something done by man, but I have no clue why you’d trim the brush in such an angular way.

A bit later on, I’m again puzzled… this time by this two-tone field.

I’m just about ready to head back to the airport when I realize it’s just right ahead of me. I guess I really knew where I was going, eh? That’s when I remembered that there is a long stretch of fields just south of the airport that would make some great hedgerow hopping. So, I bank to the right and head south along highway 362.

I see the long stretch of fields off to my left and then see Dewberry Farms up ahead. I recalled that they have a corn maze, so I go circle it to get a good shot. Then I circle back around so I can figure out the best spot to start my approach. I see Sport Flyer airport community in the distance and realize that the best place to start is just north of their field. So, I bank around — keeping an eye out for other aircraft — and come down to about 20 feet and starting my hopping, going north back toward my airport.

After I get settled at a good speed and feel confident about the winds (very light), I take a quick shot out my left side at my shadow. I’m really enjoying this because there are no telephone poles. Here’s the view out the front. Next, I’m over a field with the big round bales of hay… and then, whoops, I see some dove hunters in the field. If I’d known they were there, I wouldn’t have encroached upon their pastime. So, I pull up quickly and ascend to 1000 feet, then head back over to the airport… There’s my house!… somewhere under those trees!

A quick and easy landing and I taxi back to my hangar.

A very nice one-hour flight, covering about 70 miles… and a nice feeling about the surrounding neighborhood!

 

Note:  If you enjoyed this or any of my other blog entries, I suggest you subscribe to this blog so that you are automatically notified when I make a new entry.  Go to the top of this page, and look along the left side for the subscription field.

September 2, 2006

I’ve been so busy moving houses and everything associated with getting the old house ready to sell, and getting the new house in order, that I haven’t had much time for flying… which is, as you might imagine, a kind of torture for a pilot living with a runway out the back door!

And much like a new ultralight flyer, the few flights I’ve made were very close by… circling the pattern mostly. It’s funny: I’ve flown multi-state cross-country flights on multiple occasions, but now that I’m starting fresh at a new airport, I revert back to a beginners method of just flying locally!

So today, a warm September day, I decided to branch out just a bit more and see what a wider circle will reveal.

Just as I’m about to takeoff, my friend Steve Simpson pulls up. He’s borrowing my trailer so he can move the wings he’s building from his house to a hangar at Dry Creek. Here I capture him driving off with the trailer.

Just south of the airport is this fantastic house! I see it right in front of me each time I take off to the south.

As I circle around I orient myself to the north and fly along highway 362. Here’s a well kept cemetery, right off 362, I pass every day as I go to work.

Just a bit further north and I see the high school stadium to my right. My son — who is in the band — had his first football game the night before and yelled himself hoarse. It was fun to see the game, even if the team did get crushed by their opponents.

In case you can’t tell, I’m still shooting my pictures through lexan. It’s obvious in the stadium photo if you look at it hard. Someday I hope to resolve that issue!

Across the freeway to the north is the high school itself. It’s a very nice facility with practice football/soccer pitches, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, and the classrooms and offices are top-notch. A really first-class facility.

After circling the high school for a minute or two, I turn west so that I’m parallel U.S. Highway 290. To my left are the stores and shops at highway 2920. At the bottom of the photo is Hwy 290. Along the top you can barely see old 290, what they now call Business 290. Waller County is fairly rural, so even though it doesn’t look like much, these businesses are a boon.

I shift my gaze to the right just a bit to take in a view of the town of Waller.

Some movement below me catches my eye so I look down to see cows and birds in their symbiosis. When the cows step, they create a hoof-size hole an inch or two deep, and the birds go after any bugs that get stirred up by the process.

Cruising above Hwy 290, the town of Prairie View comes up quickly.

To my right is Prairie View A&M University, and to my left are a row of homes, put up (I assume) as off-campus housing for the students.

I look down at the feeder road to the highway and see a juxtaposition of the old and the new.

Approaching Hwy 290 and Texas Hwy 6, to my left is the huge Lawrence Marshall car dealership.

On my right is the interesting looking Frazier’s statuary.

Zooming in a bit, it almost look like a miniature Parthenon.

Just ahead — on the NW corner of the highway intersection — is the old Ultralight America field. They were evicted and it’s looking pretty ramshackle.

Turning to the south, skirting the west side of Hempstead, I spot a cemetery.

Looking to my left, I see the sun — rising in the east — reflecting off water between the furrows of a field. It almost looks like snow in the photo.

Frequent visitors to Texas-Flyer know that I like to take pictures of tractors I see, but it’s rare I see one driving down a road.

Looking up and out to the east, into the sun, is hard on the eyes, but with the sun streaming through some moderately high clouds, it’s kinda pretty.

This impressive horse ranch caught my eye because there was a horse turning the carousel in the middle of the photo.

A few moments later, I spot this fabulous mansion and pool, trying to hide out in the trees.

After a few more moments, I’m back out into the farm land and suddenly spot this very odd sight. It’s obviously something done by man, but I have no clue why you’d trim the brush in such an angular way.

A bit later on, I’m again puzzled… this time by this two-tone field.

I’m just about ready to head back to the airport when I realize it’s just right ahead of me. I guess I really knew where I was going, eh? That’s when I remembered that there is a long stretch of fields just south of the airport that would make some great hedgerow hopping. So, I bank to the right and head south along highway 362.

I see the long stretch of fields off to my left and then see Dewberry Farms up ahead. I recalled that they have a corn maze, so I go circle it to get a good shot. Then I circle back around so I can figure out the best spot to start my approach. I see Sport Flyer airport community in the distance and realize that the best place to start is just north of their field. So, I bank around — keeping an eye out for other aircraft — and come down to about 20 feet and starting my hopping, going north back toward my airport.

After I get settled at a good speed and feel confident about the winds (very light), I take a quick shot out my left side at my shadow. I’m really enjoying this because there are no telephone poles. Here’s the view out the front. Next, I’m over a field with the big round bales of hay… and then, whoops, I see some dove hunters in the field. If I’d known they were there, I wouldn’t have encroached upon their pastime. So, I pull up quickly and ascend to 1000 feet, then head back over to the airport… There’s my house!… somewhere under those trees!

A quick and easy landing and I taxi back to my hangar.

A very nice one-hour flight, covering about 70 miles… and a nice feeling about the surrounding neighborhood!

 

Note:  If you enjoyed this or any of my other blog entries, I suggest you subscribe to this blog so that you are automatically notified when I make a new entry.  Go to the top of this page, and look along the left side for the subscription field.