Ahhh... flying! There is no substitute for the feeling of freedom that comes
from knocking about the sky in a light plane. It's just plain awesome! At this
point I'm a PPL with an IFR rating and have about 4 more training hours to
complete my commercial. Not sure why I'm getting it, but I'm always looking
for excuses to fly, so occassional instructing may be a good idea. I've taken
some aerobatic lessons, and someday I'm sure I'll get aerobatic certified. Other
than being great for safety reasons, it's a level of adrenaline that's unmatched
anywhere else.
Check out the photos of great places I've been, great things I've seen, and great
things I've done. Click any of the images below for a larger view.
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Yours truly in my favourite airplane -- a Piper Arrow with retracts and variable pitch. Fully IFR equipped. |
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Taking a friend for a ride. |
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Downtown Austin and Lake Travis. |
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I need to find these photos, because this was a fun & funny experience. I swear the control tower at Naples airport looked
just like a Port-O-Let. |
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I also need to find these photos, where I did a bunch of my commercial flight training, and some aerobatics in a Pitts S-2! |
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Controvertibly the most awesome fun aerobatic aircraft of all time, the roll-rate and vertical acceleration power of this
aircraft are simply bewildering! |
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While in was living in London (for one year), I was able to go flying in a rented Grumman Tiger AA-5B, like this one. That was the first
time I flew a caster-wheel aircraft and it was "interesting" . |
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Not really a flying photo, but a view out of my office window at British Airways in London. Yep, this was just before the Concordes were
permanently grounded.
I really need to find those flying photos don't I? |
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Miami Beach. A beautiful place to cruise. |
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More Miami Beach. |
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Much more Miami Beach. |
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Even more Miami Beach. |
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Yet more Miami Beach. |
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Wonder who's having more fun? |
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Golf course near Miami Beach. |
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Gotta admit the view from up here is awesome, isn't it? |
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Miami at night. |
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Landing approach at Kendall-Tamiami airport. Yeah it's blurry, but it's an awesome sight nonetheless. In the upper left
you can see a reflection of the ILS light pattern. |
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I need to find these photos, because Raleigh NC was such a "different" place to fly. |
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This camera is right-side up in the airplane! I was flying upside down in a loop in a Citabria aerobatic aircraft. Freakin' awesome! |
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Nose-dive in a spin. Yes, the aircraft is pointing straight down to the ground here. |
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This is the type of aircraft I flew -- a Citabria. For trivia purposes, I'll let you know that they originally came up with the
name simply by spelling "Airbatic" backwards. Other than being the first time I flew a tail-wheel aircraft, the power-to-weight
ratio made me wonder why this was so aerobatic -- to roll the aircraft, I had to first nose-dive to build speed, then quickly pull up
and start the roll. By the time I was inverted, I was pushing the yoke almost into the panel to help push the aircraft down, which
is really up when inverted. Rather interesting, but still fun, experience. |
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Me, a few years ago :) next to a Cessna 152 two-seater. The aircraft on the right is the one
I flew to Mount Rainier (see below...). |
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Headed to Mount Rainier. |
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Closer to Mount Rainier. |
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As beautiful as this is, it was somewhat disappointing -- with myself and 3 passengers in a Cessna 172, we could only get the
airplane up to 12,700 ft, and that was a few hundred feet shy of being able to fly OVER the mountain (no Ozzy pun intended). This photo
was taken at 12,500 ft. |
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Going past Mt. Rainier, you can see Mt. Adams in the background. |
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Coming up on Mt. St. Helens. Yes, the famous Mt. St. Helens volcano that blew it's top in the recent past. |
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The lava dome starts becoming apparent. |
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More lava dome shots. |
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Even more lava dome shots. |
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Spirit lake behind Mt. St. Helens. |
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The Microsoft campus, where I worked at the time. All the construction in the background was
also part of Microsoft. Remind me to tell you why Bill drives an F40 because of me sometime. |
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Naval base at Bremerton, about 25 miles west of Seattle. |
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More Bremerton. |
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Cool backwards photo just after take-off at Tacoma Narrows airport at dusk. |
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Sea-Tac airport at night. |
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More Sea-Tac airport. |
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Downtown Seattle and the Space Needle. |
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Puget Sound, shortly after dusk. |
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Random bridge. |
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Stadium in Seattle. |
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Random cool buildings near Seattle. IIRC this is UW's campus. |
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Space Needle. |
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Seattle downtown again. |
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King Dome, which AFAIK is now called the Seahawks Stadium. |
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Approach into Runway 13L at King County Airport, a.k.a. Boeing Field. Yes, this is where
Boeing does it's operations/testing. |
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Short approach to the same runway 13L. BTW, "13L" means that the runway is aligned
at a bearing of 130 degrees, and is the Left of 2 or more runways aligned in the same direction. In the previous
photo above, you can see runway 13R. |
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Ah yes, I remember when I flew that little Cessna 152. It's like the Toyota Corolla of airplanes -- small
and feature-less, but reliable. Think I needed a haircut? :) |
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Random highway around Seattle. I should really move this further up in the sequence, shouldn't I? |
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