Fall colors...from the air.

It was a beautiful day today. Sunny and windless, and the fall colors about peaking. And then the phone calls started coming in from the airport: "Hey--this is your plane. C'mon!"

I could never forgive myself for passing this day up. (Click on the pictures to see them larger...the small frames here don't do them justice.)

It was really a good day to fly. Cool, crisp air, no wind, and the trees below were all in their red, yellow and orange glory. I took up a heading of "westish" and went out to play.

Here's Paw Paw, West Virginia to the north.

And here's my first destination--the Mexico Farms Airport. (Not the big cement strip--that's Cumberland (Maryland) Regional. Mexico Farms is the grass strip below and to the right. Yeah, that.)

On the ground at Mexico Farms.

No one here but me. The place is deserted. Just some tractors working the adjacent farm field.

See, Aaron...this is what flying and airports are supposed to be like. You keep those towers and controllers that you like so much.

And THIS--this is a runway. Be ready for an immediate left turn-out up a valley, because you ain't climbing over that ridge ahead with anything small enough to get in here in the first place.

As I was leaving, the annoying little student pilot who'd been shooting patterns and garbaging up the radio at Cumberland dropped in here.

Turnabout seemed to be fair. Since he was there, I hit Cumberland.

Then I headed north into Pennsylvania for a bit and just coasted along, enjoying the view.

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I overflew the Sideling Hill cut where I-68 was blasted through the Blue Ridge.

And then I dropped in on the Potomac Airpark at Hancock, MD, shown just across the Potomac River from the town. I flew right traffic in here to Runway 29 just because I haven't made that approach in a while.

The high terrain just south of the strip makes left traffic inappropriate and stupid.

Then is was back towards home again, stopping just long enough to be a Nosy Parker and investigate some smoke, which turned out to be a farmer's bonfire.

And overflying the quarry on the way into my field, I saw these tunnels that I'd not seen before. Got to put new flashlight batteries on my shopping list.

Three hours of fun, four states and five take-offs/landings. (Two when I got home, just because.)
I've been slacking off on the flying as of late. Days like this convince me to quit doing that.