Ft Pierce, Florida

May 31 - June 12

After all the hard work of the mapping season was over one of the other mapping pilots and I went down to Florida to build some multi-engine time. We took a trip down to the everglades and took an air boat tour.

We saw lots of wildlife and most importantly a couple of large alligators. Apparently they are big fans of marshmallows, and pretty much anything else that might land in the water.

As an added bonus we just happened to be there for the latest shuttle launch.

And now I will take a short vacation in Grand Rapids before heading back to Oregon for fire patrol duty again this summer.

Storm Chasing in Colorado and Kansas

May 10 - 27


While I was in Denver I was stationed there with another pilot who was a bit of an amateur storm chaser. So we went out one day and got some shots of a hail storm in Ft Lupton, Colorado.

All the white in the picture is hail and it was so deep on the road that it scraped the bottom of the car as we drove through. After the hail storm a heavy rain came through and melted most of the hail. All of the farm fields became rivers, draining into the next lower farm field.

On another day we drove into western Kansas and chased a building storm cloud which actually ended up producing a tornado.

Denver, CO

May 10 - 27


This was definitely the highlight stop of the whole trip! All the way from the midwest the land is very flat, mostly farmland, until all of a sudden the Rockies spring up out of nowhere. You don't even realize that you've gained about 5,000 ft in elevation along the way.

This was the view from the airport in Erie, which is on the west side of Denver. We worked from here to the west over the non-snow covered mountain ridges and north toward Ft Collins. This was also by far the busiest airspace we worked in the whole trip!

The best road trip was to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was great to be able to see it before the summer rush had started. We hiked a 7 mile loop through the park.

At both ends of the hike we walked through huge herds of elk (and I mean hundreds of them). We were literally so close we could reach out and pet them.

We also drove to the top of Pike's Peak and walked through the rock formations in "Garden of the Gods" park near Colorado Springs.


P.S. If you're ever in Lincoln, NE the Hampton Inn there had, by far, the most comfortable beds of the trip.

Bad Weather and Boring Locations

March 24 - April 3 Stillwater, OK

Much of the time in Stillwater was spent sitting in the motel room waiting out severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings.

April 4 - 7 Bloomington, IL

This was just a stop on the way to Jackson, MI. I was here for 3 days waiting out the weather. Fortunately that meant I was able to spend a few days with a good friend from Grad School who teaches at the University in Bloomington.

April 8 - 20 Jackson, MI

This was a drama filled stop where one person was fired, one person quit, one new person started and I got to clean up all the messes related to each. Oh yeah, and there was a blizzard in there too.

April 21 - 22 Rockford, IL

This was another stop due to weather enroute to Minnesota.

April 23 - 27 Alexandria, MN

Alexandria is in the middle of nowhere (NW of Minneapolis) and I swear I took more pictures of water than of land.

April 28 - May 8 Elkhart, IN

Do I really need to say anything here?

South Texas

March 20-23


I left Amarillo for Waco,TX with a stop overnight in Abilene on the way due to weather. Waco is just east of Crawford, TX. Fortunately for me "Dubya" wasn't playing at his ranch so I didn't have any TFR issues. I didn't actually do any work here as I was quickly sent up to Oklahoma instead but I did get to do a little sight seeing.

Waco is the birthplace of Dr. Pepper! I took the tour of the museum and got to sample the original recipe which uses cane sugar rather than corn syrup. I did actually taste noticeably better.

I took a day trip down to San Antonio and went through the Alamo and walked the entire length of the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk is an area in downtown San Antonio and it has lots of shops, restaurants and hotels, etc. all along the river. You can take boat tours but it was much more fun to just walk.

Amarillo, TX

March 4 - 17

Amarillo is another very flat area with a lot of ranching and farm land. It has an elevation of 3,650 ft. which meant that our high altitude work was at 10,000 ft. This was my first time flying over 10,000 ft in a small plane.




There is a large canyon southeast of the city called Palo Duro Canyon. One afternoon we were able to drive into the park at the canyon and do some hiking.

We saw a small cave in the side of one of the canyon walls and climbed up to it. It didn't go in very far but it had a great view.

On another day we drove over to Sante Fe, NM. It was quite a hike but the view from the top of the ski resort north of town was worth it. If there hadn't been a fire in the valley below we could have seen all the way to Albuquerque.

The town of Sante Fe was pretty cool too. All of the buildings (homes, businesses, government) were made of adobe and were either red, tan, or grey clay colored. It reminded me of Sedona, AZ in that respect. It seemed like it would be a cool place to live if you didn't mind being a little out in the middle of nowhere.

Tulsa, OK

February 18 - March 3

Tulsa has to have one of the busiest Class D airports in the country. The International airport was not that busy but there are several large flight schools on the other airport. It would get so busy at times that they would have a seperate tower frequency for each of the parallel runways. One day they had a fly out for lunch and ATC actually called a flight of 19 as traffic for me. We didn't have many weather days here but we did manage to catch a couple of minor league hockey games. We also hiked around Dripping Spring Lake in Okmulgee and we took a trip over to Oklahoma City and saw the bombing memorial.

Little Rock, AR

February 16 - 17

We made a stop in Little Rock enroute to the next assignment and ended up being there a couple of days due to high winds. We took a hike up to Pinnacle mountain which is just northwest of the city.

The trail was only three miles round trip and it had a great view of the Arkansas river. Next we drove down to Hot Springs. Apparently this was the place to go for health improving baths in the early 1900s. There's not alot there now except for a few of the bath houses that have been turned into museums and a horse racing facility.

Jackson, MS

January 24 - February 15

On the way to Jackson I made a fuel stop in Montgomery, AL. This was where we made a fuel stop each day we were doing the Katrina relief flights. A year and a half later and the people at the FBO still remembered me. I guess its hard to forget someone who leaves underwear on your ramp (long story). Anyway, all I really have to say about Mississippi is that it is flat, flat, flat. We mapped about 40% of the state and most of the shots had to look identical. I was able to land at a couple of the airports we dropped supplies at (Hattiesburg and McComb) which was nice. The weather was mostly in the 60s so it was a great place to be in February while everyone else was getting snowed on.

Atlanta, GA

Dec 23 - Jan 24

We were actually based in Athens, GA which is over an hours drive from downtown Atlanta. Its a nice college town northeast of Atlanta but close enough to see some of the sites in Atlanta. Our first trip in we went to see the Georgia Aquarium. Its designed with a central hub with spokes going off of it and each one is a different water environment. One is river habitat, one is ocean, one has the penguins, sea otters and seals, etc. Their main attractions are the Beluga whales and one section that is a giant tunnel with the fish all around you and at the end is a three-story tall wall where you can sit and watch the whale sharks and other fish swim by. Unfortunately only a couple of my pictures turned out because of distortion from the glass of the tanks.

While we were waiting for our time slot at the aquarium we walked across Olympic park and just as we got to the other side the parade for the Chik-fil-A Bowl was starting so we got to watch that too.

A few days later we went to see the Cirque du Soleil show Corteo. The acrobats were impressive as always but the show was not as good as others I've seen.

We also managed to get a little exercise on a trip to the Smokey Mountains. We spent the day driving through the area and hiking up to several waterfalls. We all thought it was a great break to get out and walk around in the fresh air. It didn't hurt that it was in the 60s for our outing either.







A few days before I left we were able to get a tour of the Atlanta Approach Control facility. They have the busiest airspace in the country and we got to see how they keep track of all the planes, how they hand them off between different sectors and how the air is divided up. Seeing them in action gives you a new appreciation for what they do and how each plane fits in the grand scheme of that airspace.

Rolling Hills of Kentucky

Dec 11 - 23

The next stop was the bustling metroplois of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. Its about 30 miles east of Lexington. I'm sure the rolling hills are quite impressive in the summer when the grass is green and the trees have leaves. This area is the horse capital of the world and there are large farms with impressive houses in every direction.



The weather was warm enough here that I was able to get in a round of golf. Even with rental clubs I was able to break 100 and I found enough lost balls along the way to get me through a few more rounds if the opportunity arises.

Cincinnati

Dec 2 - 11

The next assignment was in the Class B airspace in Cincinnati, OH. We were able to take one road trip up to Dayton to see the U.S. Air Force Museum. It is definitely a day long trip to see everything. There are displays from the beginning of flight all the way up to the stealth bomber, the aviation hall of fame, and an IMAX theatre with a cool fighter pilot movie. My favorite part was the hangar with several of the retired Air Force One's, a few of them are even set up so you can walk through them. The other half of that hangar has several experimental, one-of-a-kind aircraft. The best part is that everything except the IMAX movie is FREE!

Back to Where it All Began

Nov 1 - Dec 2

Out of all the possible places in the country my first assignment is right back to the airport where I learned to fly in Holland, Michigan!

What a great way to start out this trip! I was able to stay with a friend and visit with lots of others. I was able to attend a couple of meetings and see everyone from my old Civil Air Patrol squadron. I was able to play hockey with my old hockey team (Sorry, the action shots didn't turn out). And, I was able to spend Thanksgiving with friends instead of eating at Cracker Barrel with the guys.

The flying was in bunches with several days of low clouds and generally dreary weather in between. The week of Thanksgiving brought record high temperatures and clear skies so naturally my plane broke down. Eventually, we were chased out of the area by lake effect snow before we could finish. Hopefully I'll get to return in the spring to finish up.

Training in upstate New York

Oct 20 - Nov 1

For the past week and a half I've been in Batavia, New York to train as an aerial mapping pilot. Batavia is a small town between Buffalo and Rochester. The snow from the big snow storm was gone by the time I got here but they are still picking up all of the downed tree branches the storm caused.

Outside of training time several of us were able to make a trip over to Niagara Falls. We had lunch over in Canada and got some great shots of the falls. The most amazing part of the trip was that they allowed a van load of pilots back and forth across the border.





The Canadian falls is in a horseshoe shape and is the more impressive one. It was really windy and cold the day we were there which is why the mist is so high.





The American falls isn't as spectacular but you can walk out on the island in the river between the two falls and you can look right over the edge. There was so much spray from the water that day that I couldn't get a shot of the drop off without drowning the camera.

A Summer of Fire Patrol in Oregon

This summer I embarked on the first steps in my transition to a career as a pilot. I got a job as a fire patrol pilot in Eugene, Oregon. I spent several afternoons each week patroling over the foothills of the Cascade mountains looking for any signs of fire. The goal was to try and spot the very first signs of a fire so that they could be put out before they ended up like this one.




There was some pretty incredible scenery, which you could actually see when they weren't burning fields in the valleys, as well as a long string of beautiful weather.




I could often see the peaks of the Three Sisters




or the peak of Mt. Jefferson in the distance.