{"id":4785,"date":"2019-11-19T15:33:07","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T21:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/?p=4785"},"modified":"2023-11-20T15:34:22","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T21:34:22","slug":"sky-writing_","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/?p=4785","title":{"rendered":"Sky writing_"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had an idea.\u00a0 That idea was formed many years ago and has rattled around in my noggin for quite some time.\u00a0 The day came — November 19, 2019 — when all of my ideas, thoughts, planning and efforts came together with a nice day for flying along with the actual execution of my idea.<\/p>\n

The idea of skywriting, using smoke, is quite old, having been done only 12 years after the invention of aviation.\u00a0 My take on it — using GPS — is by definition less than 20 years old.\u00a0 While the idea I came up with isn’t new, or original, I did initially come up with it long before it became popular…. I just didn’t get around to it until now.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure if there is an actual name for tracing words on GPS screens.\u00a0 My kind of “skywriting” isn’t writing in the sky, it’s using an aircraft to fly around in the sky in order to trace words on a flight track.\u00a0 Maybe “trackwriting”?\u00a0 That doesn’t sound very elegant or cool, does it?\u00a0 Oh well.<\/p>\n

Anyway, my brother Jim came along for the ride, wanting to try out a new, big lens that he had just purchased.\u00a0 Unfortunately, because it was a cold day and the doors were on, the giant telephoto lens would be difficult to wield in the small space of my cockpit.\u00a0 He ended up taking a smaller lens.\u00a0 He was a trooper, though, hanging in there while I executed my flight track. (My “canvas”, the area between Anahuac and Beaumont, has got to be one of the dullest landscapes from the air, especially at this time of year.\u00a0 Everything is almost monochrome.\u00a0 So he wasn’t too busy but I’ll be the first one to say it was a bit tedious for several of the legs.\u00a0 The result though, in my opinion, was well worth it.<\/p>\n

So, here is what the initial flight plan looked like on my iFlyGPS planning software (the purple line; the white dots are my turn points):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And, after the 2 hour 46 minute flight time, this is what the track looked like:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For those of you who may not actually “see” what I wrote, it’s\u00a0 “I love Amy” and, below it, a big heart.\u00a0 (Amy is my wife.)\u00a0 The loop around the top wasn’t planned,: it was something that was spur of the moment.<\/p>\n

Unlike true skywriting where one can turn the smoke on and off as needed,\u00a0 I couldn’t turn my GPS tracking on and off.\u00a0 So, the entire track had to be connected and that meant some kind of script, or long-hand.\u00a0 Overall, I’m pretty happy with it… I rounded off areas that should be rounded off, even though the flight plan showed more angular turns.<\/p>\n

I was a little nervous about presenting it to my wife, but I had no reason to worry… she laughed and laughed when I showed her the result…\u00a0 she loved it!<\/p>\n

I did take a few photos that day, unassociated with the flight plan:<\/p>\n

\"Coast <\/a>
Coast Guard helo doing stop and go’s on the south end of the runway <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ag <\/a>
Ag pilots were busy using the turf runway <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"4N1A7901\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"4N1A7905\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"Once <\/a>
Once we got up (and were doing the “I”) I grabbed this shot showing Lake Anahuac and a pretty nice (but hazy) day. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"4N1A7909\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Looking <\/a>
Looking back at the airport while doing the “l” <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Looking <\/a>
Looking due east along I-10 <\/div> <\/div>
\"Interesting <\/a>
Interesting “S” shapes, which are probably left over from an old creek or bayou <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This is the other Chambers County airport, Winnie-Stowell. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Jefferson <\/a>
Jefferson Refinery in Winnie TX <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"East <\/a>
East Chambers High School (and Jr. High and Elementary schools) in Winnie TX <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A very tall antenna… the Stowell Cumulus Broadcasting Tower, near the Stanolind Reservoir <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Someone's <\/a>
Someone’s private turf runway and hangar, near Fannett TX <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A grass fire in the distance… we’re heading that way, so…. <\/div> <\/div>
\"It <\/a>
It doesn’t look so bad up close. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Another <\/a>
Another very tall antenna <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Wow! <\/a>
Wow! It’s been a while since I got a tractor shot! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The Trinity River, Lost River and Lost Lake in the distance. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Homes <\/a>
Homes along Jack’s Pass, between Trinity River and Trinity Bay <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The 2 hour 46 minute flight — the sky writing portion spent mostly at 2700 feet — covered 151.3 nm, was fun to fly and definitely made Amy very happy!<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

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To leave a comment, please scroll down to the bottom of this page<\/strong>.\u00a0 Thanks!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 To subscribe,\u00a0open this page<\/a>\u00a0in a web browser (if you haven\u2019t already) and go to the top of this page, and look along the left side for the subscription field.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had an idea.\u00a0 That idea was formed many years ago and has rattled around in my noggin for quite some time.\u00a0 The day came — November 19, 2019 — when all of my ideas, thoughts, planning and efforts came together with a nice day for flying along with the actual execution of my idea. … Continue reading Sky writing_<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cavalon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/heart.jpg?fit=899%2C612&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4786,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4785\/revisions\/4786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}