C-17 at sunset.

Happened to spot this C-17 at the airport as I was out there last night. Pity that I only ad my cell phone for pics. Still...

Turn your sound up to really enjoy it.

I was jealous of him for a minute, watching him take off any fly away. But then again, I'll be doing the same thing tomorrow flying off on a new adventure. The Lair Sitter already has the keys and the secret location of the dog treat box. But I'll be blogging as I go, so stay tuned. And those of you in the Northeast, shoot me a comment if you're near an airport and want to grab a bite.

Long overdue--Flight!

I have been so busy with work this summer that I've been neglecting a lot of other things: work on the house and yard, my bike, my kayak, my airplane...

In fact, I've flown so little that the FBO moved my airplane into another hangar to get it out of the way of the ones that DO fly.

I'm so sorry, airplane.

I finally got a chance to get up this weekend though. First time in a while.

Holding short. Run-up and mag checks. Dashboard dino says "Good to go".

8,500 feet of opportunity and adventure ahead.

Shenandoah Valley farms below.

Winchester and the airport there, OKW.

A couple of stray clouds are the only other things up here at 4,500 feet besides me.

A dam on the Shenandoah Rover down near Front Royal.

I was going to fly an hour down the valley to Shenandoah Valley Regional in Weyers Cave, Virginia, but there was a haze layer over the mountains to the south. I could have made the flight, but visibility would have been poor. So I'll save that one for another day. Instead, I just got some maneuver practice in. Turns, stalls...slow flight.

Full flaps, max power, pitched up. Two minutes of keeping it under 45 knots indicated, including a 360-degree turn. Lots of stall horn but no stall, This plane slows well.

Hello to my friends at Mt. Weather. You guys didn't think I'd forgotten you, did you?

Up the Shenandoah River, back in West Virginia now.

Mr. Peabody's coal train sits by the river.

Harpers Ferry ahead, at the conflux of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers.

And Harpers Ferry has an RV park, which could come in handy when family comes to visit.

On final for home. That was a quick 2.1 hours. I shot a few landings and called it a day.

The new C-17 neighbors. So small compared to the C-5 Galaxies that used to park there.

Back inside the main hangar again. I'll fly it more. I promise.

Monday Flyday.

Yesterday it was time for that annual aviation ritual known as the annual inspection, a ritual in which every non-commercial aircraft gets poked and prodded and gone over with a fine-toothed comb, and any and all problems found have to be corrected before it can fly again. (Commercial aircraft are even luckier--they get it ever hundred hours of flying time.)

So I was taxiing my aircraft over towards the repair shop on the other side of the field to drop it off, but I couldn't help notice what a beautiful day it was. Such a shame to not fly on a day like this.

Heck with it. "Tower, Super-Cool Cessna requests clearance for departure, Runway 26."

And I was off, heading north this time, just because I went south the last time.

Here's that nice Potomac River below, still carrying a fair bit of sediment from all of the recent run-off.

A small dam and power plant, with a C&O Canal lock and lockhouse just visible on the left side of it.

Look.White stuff on the side of that mountain up ahead. Let's go see what that is.

It's the Whitetail Mountain ski resport, getting ready to put their "closed for the season" signs out. Still seems to have a fair bit of fake snow though.

Just flying over the Pennsylvania countryside, enjoying this great day.

"Hagerstown Tower, Super-Cool Cessna is right downwind for Runway 27."

On final. Winds variable. In the groove, while a King-Air waits at the hold-short.

Oooh. He's one of those "special" King-Airs.

Touch and go, and off again, this time back to the south. And just to the southwest, we have a powerplant on the Potomac River at Williamsport, MD, and the C&O Canal Cushwa Basin.

The bridge below is an aqueduct, and the canal used to run across it, boats, mules and all, to get over the Conococheague Creek. Now it's dry and it's got three pedestrians on it.

Another view of the aqueduct and the turning basin, one of the waypoints where coal and other cargoes were landed or loaded for shipment up and down the canal. Williamsport was kind off a big deal back in the day.

One of the canal locks below, on one of the few sections of the canal that still holds water today. This part is preserved for the tourists. Note to self: I still haven't been there on the ground yet.
Note to self #2: Get a better camera or start flying lower.

Never saw this before. It's long ponds full of water. Wonder what it is?

I played around a bit more, but finally I had to land, because I had somewhere else to be.

"Martinsburg Tower, Super-Cool Cessna is ten miles to the north inbound for two six."
"Super-Cool Cessna, report three mile right base."
...
"Martinsburg Tower, Super-Cool Cessna is three miles right base for two six."
"Super-Cool Cessna, clear for the option, two six."

"Martinsburg Tower, Even cooler Boeing C-17 Heavy on a ten-mile final for two six."

"Roger C-17. Cessna traffic, he's going to overtake you before you get down, can you hold your position until he lands?"

One of these days, Ima gonna say "no", just to see what they say.

"Super-Cool Cessna Roger. I'll be orbiting present location."
If nothing else, it was a great opportunity to shoot some airborn C-17 pics. (Again, need better camera.)

Now it's my turn. "Super-Cool Cessna, you are clear to land Runway Two Six. Caution wake turbulence from the C-17."

All lined up, glide path perfect...SHIT! He wasn't kidding about that wake turbulence!"

Lesson learned today: Avoid wake turbulence by planning for touchdown beyond touchdown point of big traffic ahead.


There he is, folks...one of the new C-17s of the 167th Airlift Wing.

And here's a couple more.

Gonna miss these old C-5s (below) when the last two are gone.

The other one is inside one of the hangers being readied for it's ferry flight to the Boneyard. Apparently they have to be 100% repaired and good to go before they make that last flight into desert storage. And that means that all of the parts stripped off of these last ones to keep the others flying have to be put back.

Fly Day!

Yesterday was such a nice day that I was able to get out flying again. Bruce, having nothing better to do and being a glutton for punishment, came along.

The first twenty minutes or so were "interesting" enough that I didn't get any pictures. We were hitting convective currents that had the aircraft bobbing up and down like a yo-yo or suddenly trying to go perpendicular to the horizon without warning. So because both hands were actually needed to fly the aircraft, no pictures got taken until we got down to Front Royal, VA, where those convective currents made for a seriously sporty landing that had Bruce looking just a bit nervous (as in "pulling the grab handle off of the side of the cockpit") but I still managed to get it on the runway and back off again without leaving any parts behind.

Normally I like this sort of challenge and would have stuck around for a few more shots at it, but I've learned over time to be sensitive to the feelings of my passengers, especially since when they barf, it's in my plane.

Here's a nice shot of the Shenandoah River, with Front Royal in the background.

And here's a close-up of the river, with my plane's shadow visible below...at least I hope that's MY plane's shadow.

And then, since we were in the neighborhood, we dropped by my friends at Mount Weather. Looks like someone is doing some new construction on-site.

Neat berm they've thrown up around it, either for privacy or security. Wonder what's that's all about.

And here's a nifty little secure compound within the overall secure compound that Mt. weather is.
That's a double fence with a clear gravel visibility zone in between them and just one gate on the west side.

And those three box-like objects you see there? Almost certainly massive air-conditioning chillers. Look on the roof of that big four-story building in the foreground and you'll see chillers on that roof. Look how small that building's chillers are compared to those monsters in the secure zone, that, to the casual eye, are on the roof of nothing. Well that should give you an idea of how large the underground spaces beneath this complex are. (The Wikipedia article claims 600,000 square feet.)

Here's another view.

And here's another "compound within a compound" on the east slope.

The building that looks like a church or a firehouse is one of the two main entry portals to the tunnel complex. But there's another one on the west slope that doesn't have that security perimeter around it, so there's got to be something more in this area.

I love watching this place and speculating. Just wait until I get a better camera.

(Hey Mt. Weather guys--this is what happens when your helicopters mess with G.A. pilots who are just flying past in the unrestricted airspace, minding their own business. Some of us get pissed and/or curious and come back again and again and again.)

Next, it was up the Shenandoah River into West Virginia, where this little blue house surrounded by evergreen trees set off both the "cat" and "liberal" detection alarms.

Sixty degrees out, but still a lot of ice on the water of the quarry below.

And here we are over Harpers Ferry, WV, where the Shenandoah River flows into the Potomac River, sixty miles above Washington, DC.

And what's that on the tracks? It looks like Mr. Peabody's coal train, heading back down south for another load.

And across the river to the north, the remains of the Union fortifications built atop Maryland Heights are just visible through the bare trees. Back in the day, they had some mighty big cannon up there that could dominate the town and river junction below, and every last cannon ball, bag of powder and cask of water had to be schlepped 1200 feet up the mountain from the river below. Not exactly a vacation assignment for the troops.

Give it a few weeks, and the leaves will render this all invisible until next winter

Another Harpers Ferry shot, just to point out all of the sediment in the rivers courtesy of last week's rains and snow melt. Normally, the water here would be almost totally clear.

Here's another train crossing the Potomac at Shepherdstown.

If you look close, you'll see that it's twelve locomotives all strung together and no cars. Interesting.

I tried to get a picture of my favorite Thai place downtown but muffed the shot.

Then it was back into the pattern to land.

Here's two of the new little Boeing C-17 transports (left) with the last two Lockheed C-5a transports that will soon be heading out to retirement at Davis Monthan AFB's boneyard.

Short final for Runway 8. Air's smooth as glass now. I hate to land.

The C-5s again. I hated them when they came here but I'll miss them when they're gone.

Time to put the toy back in the toybox with another 2.1 hours on the Hobbs. Until next time.