Getting better, but still needs improvement...

As I was getting ready to tell you about my trip to Disney, I went back to look through the pictures and was immediately frustrated. I've learned that the things I really like to see from the air are clouds (when not in them), bodies of water, terrain features and runways (especially when they have planes on them - can you see the one in the picture below?).

While the pics are just for you to see the trip through my eyes, and catch some neat glimpses of our Mother Earth from a new perspective, they are also meant to document my journey. While you may not give a damn whether the airport in the photo above is KDAN, KMJX or KBQK, I do because I want to be able to go back and know what I was taking a picture of! This does happen to be KBQK or Brunswick-Golden Isles in GA and I am glad, at least that I could figure it out. But on long trips I may get pics of several runways and when I go back to view them, I have to whip out the sectional chart and view them chronologically to figure out what the hell was in the picture. However, I've learned some lessons that will help me improve my future travel diaries. Number 1 - the iPhone will work in a pinch, but is not the preferred capture method. Suck it up and carry the real camera, that's why we paid for it.  Number  2 - blog immediately or as soon as possible, because otherwise small details will be forgotten. And to this end - Number 3 - document as you go. This is becoming a possibility for me. Before now, I was always so nervous in the plane that I was a statue, moving as little as possible and staring at the instruments in front of me, for fear of God only knows what. While I do believe the extra set of eyes is helpful to the pilot, and I am happy to keep tabs on such things as the fuel tanks, engine temps, or other traffic, I'm not sure my (untrained) eyes on the instruments every second of a long flight is going to do a whole lot of good in the event something goes wrong. So I am slowly coming to grips with the fact that it's okay to take pictures, jot down a few things in a note pad and kick off my shoes and enjoy the ride a little bit...

But on the way to Disney, I didn't have this all figured out yet. I was dreading the 4 hour ride. I anticipated being stiff, being anxious, being (dare I say it) bored, and putting my bladder on the same schedule as the plane. I just don't sit still very well, at least without something to do. The ride to Disney on May 30th may have changed that for me for the better. The only other trip we took that was as long (longer, actually), was to Milwaukee for Oshkosh, and was fraught with some mayhem and lack of prior experience on any flight so long. So you can imagine how I might be feeling some trepidation. But this day was gorgeous! The flight was smooth! We stopped at the airport in Allendale, SC (88J) to fuel up, pee, stretch our legs and eat the sandwiches we packed (pic below).

The next half of the trip was awesome! There was so much new to see! Like Jekyll Island (below)! You could even see the golf course! There is a close up pic of it in my album. 

Once we hit FL, the water became the prettiest blue. The best thing I learned during this trip (unrelated to flying) was that there is a place called Anastasia Island, which is a part of St. Augustine! Imagine that! An island with my name :) And I've since learned that lots of things on the island are named Anastasia - too cool. I must own real estate there one day...

There are a lot of lakes in Florida and also a lot of air traffic. Both seemed to get more abundant the closer we got to Orlando. It also got a bit bumpy as we got close and descended. We flew into Kissimmee (KISM) and they drove our rental car right out to the plane. We were ready to start having some fun!

The way home was as pleasantly uneventful as coming. The only things to mention about it were that we a) got a picture of Hollywood Studios on the way out (can't miss the Tower of Terror) and b) a weird, large cloud was just sitting all by its lonesome with no visible source of convection, or so I thought. As we got closer, I realized it was smoke from the brush fires that were becoming a serious threat to certain parts of FL. 

There are plenty more pics in this album, but don't go looking for Mickey, because vacation pics are stored separately :)

Better late than never...

This entry has been a long time coming and it's certainly not because I haven't traveled since March. Since that time we have taken four trips; two of them to NJ. Unfortunately, I have been working nearly full time with a myriad of other duties and obligations, so the blogging went to the bottom of the list. Now, I am overwhelmed and don't know where to start. One of the four trips hardly counts, as it was only to fly into the Air Show in Lynchburg, which is about 25 minutes away. We went on Sunday, May 22nd. While the flight wasn't anything noteworthy, the air show was great and I really enjoyed it. You can see some of that footage here. I also took some pics - not bad for an iPhone.

So the first of the trips to NJ occurred on the weekend of May 13th. For some unknown reason, I don't have any pictures of the trip up. I am thinking that it's because I was too busy being worried about trying to beat the thunderstorms that were aiming to move through our flight path, even though I have no bearing on any flying decisions. There were smaller ones along the way that didn't really affect us but it was over Richmond, that things felt hairy to me, the Nervous Nelly. Jason (aka pilot) wanted to take the coast up in order to avoid all that mess, but instead he was given the regular route, cutting it a bit close. We were truly right at the edge of the storm that was over Richmond, and I really don't enjoy having nothing to see out my window because I am engulfed in a large cloud - it's a little disconcerting. Anyway, it was fine and I don't recall getting bounced around hardly at all, which was surprising.

On the way home, we had a cloud layer to break through as well, but once on top, all was well. It almost seemed like a cloud "road" because there were buildups to the left and right of us during a good chunk of the trip, but nothing in front of us that we had to dodge. By the time we made it to Danville, some convection was occurring, and it was a little bumpy, but it's the norm for this time of year and I am always happy when I can see the ground (maybe because it distracts me from any anxiety I might be having).

You can see the rest of the pics here, but again, there aren't that many. You might be thankful for this when you see the number of pics I took during our next two trips!  Next up....our trip to Orlando to see Mickey Mouse!

Not making it there...

So today, I went to my girls' soccer game while my husband went to preflight the plane (1966 Piper Cherokee Six named Debra). We were heading to Elmira, NY to attend the Sweet 16th of my husband's Goddaughter. We also were taking another passenger along, barely an acquaintance, because her aging, ill mother lives in Corning and she heard we were heading that way (BTW - she had never flown in a small plane before). We were planning to stay overnight and come back the next day. It was a beautiful day in Danville - sunny and 70 degrees, which was quite warm for this time of year. Husband filed IFR - destination weather was not as lovely. Got the plane loaded up and off we went. We had a head wind so we planned on it taking us a bit over three hours. At 7,000 feet, the visibility was great. The Shenandoah Valley was just beautiful!

We also cruised by Wintergreen Ski Resort (pictured below - look for the white trails).

Then Massanutten (it was on the end of this ridge, but we had already passed it and the wing was over)...

In terms of flying, it was not my most comfortable experience. We had a passenger that we were fairly unfamiliar with (although we agreed to bring her along because we felt like we were helping). A strong head wind was keeping our ground speed slow and we started to hit mountain waves. We heard another pilot request block clearance because he, too was experience mountain waves and couldn't color within the altitudinal lines. We went up to 9,000 feet and things seemed to be a bit better there. In the midst of things, I also took the following little video clip (Wintergreen again):

But my husband started to notice that every time he adjusted the mixture, a crackling would occur in the audio system. Don't ask super specifics - I am not very familiar with plane stuff, but he reached under the dash (and fiddling with wires near the mixture cable)  and found that sure enough something was shorting out in the audio panel. Long story short, the radio went out and we had no communications. With the bad weather ahead, there was no way to continue on, even though we were at least, if not more than, halfway there. So, the safe decision - turn around and head home VFR. Back through the mountain waves - no intercom, just sign language, talking loud and lifting headset away from ear to hear. The turbulence was definitely disconcerting to me, never mind the poor newbie passenger. We hit a pretty big one - I think that was the first time my head almost hit the ceiling. I had to retighten my belt after that. The comfort was that we were getting a good tailwind and our speed was great. Passing the James River, I managed to unclench my fingers from the bottom of the seat and snap this:

 Lo and behold, we made it safely back to Danville. This one definitely ranked as my least favorite flight, maybe due to the turbulence (which I can never seem to get accustomed to), or the stress of having someone along who's never been in the plane before, or just not making it there. Yet there was nothing unsafe about the flight and decisions made,  and I sure did manage to get some lovely views along the way (and only hope my pictures can do them justice). The sad news is Debra (the plane) will have to go and get fixed, so the next time I get to share the things I see out my window will be a while from now...