National Geographic moments

Matthew

Matthew

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Apr 18, 2005
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kojc, kixd, k34
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Matthew
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K34
I went out for a short hop Saturday morning, just to clear my head.

Sitting on one of the taxi lights was one beauty of a red-tail hawk, we eyeballed each other pretty closely as I rolled by. A few minutes later I was slowly cruising past a flock of geese. I gave them plenty of room, but still had a good view of them as we were headed in the same general direction.

Later, I started thinking about some of the sights I've seen from an airplane that really left an impression.

I can think of a couple of the ones I remember best:

My daughter pointed out her window one time, and we circled a pasture and watched a couple of horses taking turns chasing each other around.

My other daughter was fascinated by a flock of ducks or geese flying in a v-formation just over the surface of a lake we were flying over.

Popping up into clear skies over solid clouds.

Flying in a very thin layer of clear sky between cloud layers and seeing the sunset through that gap.


Anybody else have any to share?
 
Flying just offshore of the Florida Keys at 300 feet when the sun was high and the water was clear enough to spot schools of dolphins.
 
ive circled with many soaring birds in the glider. on sunday matt and I both circled with a hawk ,that was cool, 2 gliders and a bird sharing a thermal.
 
One of the HD channels (National Geo or Discovery, I forget which) has been running a two-hour film called "Winged Migration". It has amazing close-up HD footage of all kinds of migrating birds in various parts of the world. There's a lot of footage shot from ultralight aircraft in tight formation with geese, etc.

That said, there's a flock of Canada geese at our airport right now, and they're a royal pain. I'd sure hate to get one of those drumsticks through my windshield right after liftoff. Their "souvenirs" tend to get tires and wheel wells messy, too. The airport coyote is falling down on the job.

Last month's AOPA Pilot magazine mentioned our airport's goose problem in an article about wildlife encounters:
"Pearson Field in Vancouver, Washington, [...] lies next to a wildlife refuge. Pilots are careful to stay 2,000 feet above the refuge so as not to ruffle the feathers of the Canada geese, only to find upon landing that the geese spend their day at the airport. at Pearson Field in Vancouver, Washington, where the airport lies next to a wildlife refuge. Pilots are careful to stay 2,000 feet above the refuge so as not to ruffle the feathers of the Canada geese, only to find upon landing that the geese spend their day at the airport. Pilots gun their engines to scare their way through a flock blocking the taxiway, and the flock then grudgingly, and as slowly as possible, parts."
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Ken Ibold said:
Flying just offshore of the Florida Keys at 300 feet when the sun was high and the water was clear enough to spot schools of dolphins.
Click to expand...

Same here except different beach and I was looking at beach babes:D
 
To Brent's comment...while flying in Maui several years ago the CFI (I can't pronounce anything there) and I did several slow low passes over a "clothing optional" beach. There didn't appear to much of an option from my view point :D
And none of those women were anywhere near NG material, if you know what I mean :rofl:
 
kevin47881 said:
To Brent's comment...while flying in Maui several years ago the CFI (I can't pronounce anything there) and I did several slow low passes over a "clothing optional" beach. There didn't appear to much of an option from my view point :D
And none of those women were anywhere near NG material, if you know what I mean :rofl:
Click to expand...
This was when I lived in Miami and we'd just go to South Beach. That is one time when it's better to be on the ground than in the air.
 
During the winter in Colorado, we'd go fly the ridges along a canyon by my house, the Elk would winter in that area. I've seen thousands on them in one spot doing that.

One morning while taking my brother flying, we saw a big ol' black bear ambling up to a stock pond in the mountains.

The sunset a few nights ago was brilliant red from all the smoke and dust in the air...
 
Ken Ibold said:
This was when I lived in Miami and we'd just go to South Beach. That is one time when it's better to be on the ground than in the air.
Click to expand...

Oh man, oh man! Story Time!

I was just past 17 years old, and working on a lobster boat (F/V Dawn Marie) out of Islesford, ME. My uncle was a bit, erm, sporadic - we never left harbor at the same time two days in a row, with no rhyme or reason. Some days, he'd wake me at 2AM, other's, at 6.

Anyways, one particular morning in mid August, my uncle woke me at 2:30 for an improptu offshore trip - forecasts had changed overnight and he wanted to move some gear around. As an extra special treat, he let me bring the boat in from the mooring (something he had only recently let me do).

Into the rowboat I go. No one else is down harbor, we're the only ones on the co-op. The night before was a rather large beach party (that I had been at, unbeknownst to my uncle) for a wealthy summer resident's wife. I left the party at midnight, knowing it would be an early day...

Anyways, I drop my oars down and start rowing, slowly, out towards the mooring, milking the run out as the last time before 3pm I'd get any rest.

As I'm meandering through the overnight rental moorings (I went the long way to the boat, "to better line up on the stern" I told my uncle :P ), I heard what can only be described as labored breathing. Being 17, and my girlfriend being many miles and hours away, I took my oars out to make no noise...

... and low and behold, there was a couple, topside, in the harbor, at O-Dark-Thirty, making waves in the harbor. I was blown away. I was scared to put the oars back in the water (I was only about 15' away), but I didn't want to get caught.

*crackle* *hiss* "ANDREW WTF ARE YOU DOING HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE YOU TO GET MY #$@#$ BOAT OFF OF THE @#$@#$@ MOORING!!!!"

Yup. I had my VHF radio on me (in case I couldn't get the boat to turn over, we had been running through electrical problems lately), and, in my stupidity, I turned it up to full volume when I got in the skiff.

The couple freeze. I freeze. The guy looks down at his female companion, looks at me, and smiles. I think "Oh CRAP, I'm going to jail, I'm a pervert!!!"

He says: "Go get the !@#$@#$ boat, will you? And never mention this again!"

I've never rowed so fast before. Never told my uncle, he probably would have thrown me overboard and gone to take a look for himself. I miss those days sometimes.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
Sent this email to a friend of mine a few years ago...


The flight into Anchorage was pretty neat. We landed on 24R. This required us to fly a left hand pattern over the city. As we were turning on the base leg, I could see a Piper Cub landing at Merrill Field at the same time a pair of F-16s were entering the break at Elmendorf Air Force Base. While on final, we were doing simultaneous ops with a Beaver on floats that was landing at Lake Hood. All in all it was an awesome ending to a lousy day.
 
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