Jet and Thundercloud

       A thundercloud serves as striking background to the entrance of the Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama.

Old Mobile, Alabama

Tower at Iowa City Airport

     While putting in for a fuel topping and a case of engine oil, I caught a glimpse of the light tower outside the windows of the terminal at Iowa City Airport. 

Into the Sky

Mary and I entered the 2011 Air Race Classic. Link at right. 

Early during most mornings, David H. flies his Piper Cub around the pattern at Kickapoo Airport.

Armadillo's Rump

      Armadillos seem fascinating creatures. They are an omnivorous mammal that sleeps most of the day, has poor eyesight, a great sense of smell, and long claws for digging for food or for burrows. Fascinating facts at the National Geographic site.

Dallas Mavericks

Sculpture by Professor Charles Umlauf, "Spirit of Flight," standing before the old terminal at Dallas Love Field. in the background, we see images of the players on this year's Dallas Mavericks basketball team.

Eagles Growing More

Top two images show the young eagles. Above, one of the parent eagles.

Gary Flying My Friend Ellen

      Gary took my friend Ellen for a ride in the helicopter. She was tickled. And I felt tickled watching her. At times, non-aviation folks will walk tentatively toward an aircraft, a bit hesitant to board. Not my friend Ellen! She frisked right up to it and hopped into it, nimbly maneuvering her leg over the cyclic. (The cyclic is the helicopter's steering mechanism.) Here she is taking pictures of us as she and Gary returned to the ramp.

Lazy Eights

     I had the opportunity to fly as a safety pilot while H.-P. practiced "under the hood." In order to fly an airplane by its instruments only, as pilots do when they fly through the clouds, unable to see the ground, they must practice doing so in nice weather, but with their eyes covered just enough to omit everything above the cockpit. A pilot places "foggles" over his eyes to cover everything except his instruments. This mandates having another pilot flying with them to make sure they do not fly into someone else, or to prevent other mistakes.

     First we flew to Olney where they enjoy having beautifully maintained runways and a GPS approach:

      The chart above reminds me of an expression I hear often said by the volunteers and rehabbers at Wild Bird Rescue in reference to some nestling birds, such as the baby grackles: ". . . a face only a mother could love." Only pilots love the kind of charts the aviation navigation engineers developed to aide them in finding air fields while flying inside clouds.

        After H.-P. practiced his approaches, the final ones subsequently at Wichita Valley Airport, he practiced lazy eights, a maneuver practiced by pilots to develop perfect control of the aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration provides a good diagram to show what a lazy eight should look like:

        What fun to sit in the right seat while experiencing the undulations of the lazy eight! (Yes, more fun to fly them!) While climbing and descending during a lazy eight, the pilot tests his skill in maintaining constant speed while the airplane loses or gains with each turn. I took photos as H.-P. performed the maneuver. H.-P. pitched to a forty-five degree angle, bringing the nose of his aircraft up, and watched his altitude and airspeed as he flew the lazy eight. The horizon shows the North Central Texas countryside looking green in spite of the severe drought conditions.

Early Mornings at Ramp

       My flights with Gary and H.-P. take me to the airport as the sun rises. I post processed the images of the sunrise in the digital darkroom using Lightroom's vast options to make the otherwise drab images look surreal.

       

Chaps with Chaps and Boots

And one angry bull . . .

Cowboy Hat

More Bunnies this Year

Poetry: Revised History of Retractable Gear on Aircraft

On the spring Amelia covered her blond hair with a leather helmet
then donned her clear as air glass goggles over her blue eyes --
was the same spring Antoine set his headings 270 degrees

Skimming the sunny top of the clouds they came upon each other
in the sky, over the world, one heading east, one heading west
Antoine looked out his cockpit and saw Amelia’s bi-plane

her wings gliding along the top, a ship gliding smoothly in the air
He exclaimed, C’est une jolie image, Amelia et l'avion!
was what she thought of his plane, too, over the top of the clouds

Then a fantastic idea conceptualized in both brilliant minds
of wheels that would tuck up under the plane upon take-off
to glide through the air like a ship gliding across the surface

Amelia waved to Antoine and said, Nice day for flying, non? 

The WWI Curtiss "Jenny" piloted by Tom Danaher, Wichita Falls, Texas, 2008.

Yes, Clouds, Actually

Finally clouds have begun to form in my neck of the woods. We hope for rain.

Hot Day in Decorah

Windy Days

Fifty knots blowing across North Texas today. 

Turkey Vultures, Purple Martins, and Barn Swallows dashing through the winds.

Pelicans in Late May

          Seeing pelicans still in the area confirms our suspicion that they may have become year-round residents of Lake Wichita. A Purple Martin from Wild Bird Rescue shares the image above.

Cooper's Hawk

Through Dust and Hail Storms, I Serve

      I served as transporter for a Red-tailed Hawk and four nestling Barn Owls.  A large sign fell over in one of the recent storms, and it tore down a nest, sending its tenant, a young Red-tailed to the ground. Concerned citizens brought him to Wild Bird Rescue. The four Barns had hatched inside a hunter's deer blind. Since Wild Bird Rescue cannot raise large birds -- yet -- Gail Barnes at South Plains Rehabilitation Center receives them and raises them, eventually to release them back into the wild. (I enjoy alliteration and thought of titling this post "Barns to Barnes," but I could not bring myself so to do, ha-ha.)

      In Seymour I came upon the symbols for branding irons.

Windmills and quadruped power-lines: How pretty, no? 

I drove through a dust storm blowing at forty miles per hour across North Texas.

And encountered one of Ben's fave views . . .  a storm building rapidly . . . and waiting for me. Fortunately I came upon an underpass and tucked my car under it while the hail passed by.