dragonsblog

I'm so glad Tom flew with me on Saturday as my safety pilot/photographer and captured images and video of my "dream flight" to Iowa. He captured some fantastic images with his Canon digital SLR, a few of which I'm posting here. The image above shows the picturesque atmospheric conditions as we flew up the Mississippi River just north of Dubuque.


Tom captured a lonely little barge pushing upriver.


This view shows the broad expanse of the Mississippi at Guttenberg, including the dam there.


There were many wonderful patterns in the landscape below us, and Tom captured this one of a big John Deere tractor planting along the contours of a big field.


Tom caught this dramatic image as we flew over my cousin Stan's place north of Elkader. If you click on it to view the larger version you may be able to see Stan standing near his pond while his dog, Dutch, swims in it, and the shadow of our airplane passes by. The wing was washed and waxed that morning so the reflections really show up well.


We flew from Elkader to Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin, just before sunset and were treated to dramatic golden lighting of the rolling hills near the river as we detoured north near Effigy Mounds National Monument. The sun set as we waited for fuel in Prairie, and then we enjoyed a fast ride back to Westosha at night, thanks to smooth air and a tailwind.

The highlight of the trip for me was being able to land at Elkader Airport (I27) and drive into town to visit my grandmother, Abbie. It was so nice to not have to drive 5 hours each way to see her! Although it was a challenge to fly into Elkader's 1700' grass strip on top of a hill, it was quite enjoyable and I look forward to doing it again. I also enjoyed flying over the Kobliska farm north of town, which I've wanted to do for years. I hope to soon add some pictures of Elkader and the farm, or link to them on Tom's site.

Courtesy of Steve Wright and Roger Heerema, several of my co-workers and I were able to enjoy the Cubs game at Wrigley Field yesterday afternoon. It was a nice sunny day for a ball game, but a bit cold where we sat in the shade--normal for this time of year.

The outfield bleacher section of the park was remodeled over the winter. Here is a view from inside the park of the extended bleachers and the new restaurant in center field.

Here is a street side view of the new bleachers overhanging the sidewalk. Blair Kaman gave it a good review in the Tribune.

Cubs lost to the Marlins, of course, but the great thing about going to Wrigley is that you enjoy the experience anyway!

I can't believe I did what I did last Saturday. It's still sinking in. I keep looking at the photos and the videos, reliving the experiences, as usual in vain hope that I will never forget how it felt.

It's funny how a dream of how things can be in the future can become a dream of how things were in the past so quickly, separated only by the brief moments of the actual experience. The dream before and after can, in fact, hold as much or more joy than the actual experience, and can comfort in hard times and motivate one to accomplish so much.

I'm not sure when I first began imagining portions of the flight I took last Saturday, but I think it was close to twenty years ago, maybe more. Now it is hard to remember how much I dreamt of flying before I actually started taking lessons sixteen years ago. I know I wanted to fly in college and even before in high school. And I know I imagined building my own airplane and flying when I was even ten or eleven years old, maybe younger. How young was I when I first wanted to become a pilot? I spent my youth in airliners, flying around the planet 3-1/2 times by the time I was eleven, so was it as soon as I could understand what a pilot was?

My flight instructor, Dana, said I needed more pictures on my website of me as a licensed pilot-in-command. Well, I don't have that but I have some photos of me with trusty N96832 and of my first flight down the Chicago lakefront. This past weekend was beautiful flying weather here so it was nice to get out after being skunked by the weather the previous weekend.

I didn't fly all the way downtown Chicago in the evening, but went as far as Montrose Harbor. The lights of Wrigley Field are visible on the right side of this image, and the lights of downtown Chicago in the center.

I also flew over my home neighborhood, my old neighborhood in Libertyville, the Fort Sheridan area where I used to work, and a couple areas along the North Shore where Wright Architects has projects. Here is a shot of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, from a flight earlier in the afternoon.

A couple weeks ago I got checked out in the club's 172P's so from now on I'm moving up to the bigger iron! (So to speak--172's don't really qualify as "big iron." :)