Archive for the Category ◊ Flying ◊
OK, now that I’ve had some sleep — typical: an intended nap turned into a crash-and-burn — I can start working through my ‘To Do’ list, which includes dumping photos off my phone from the weekend.
Some highway scenes:
While talking to my mother-in-law earlier this evening, I’ve only just realised how late it is in the airshow season and I haven’t flown in the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome biplane yet. ORA’s airshows finish around the middle of October and usually by this time I’ve made several trips over the Hudson River. Maybe it’s because I’ve been to three airshows, flew once with Alan, had a biplane ride in Ottawa in July, and my summer’s flown by at breakneck speed, but it just occurred to me that I only have one opportunity left to make an ORA biplane ride this year. With two weddings booked and various commitments between now and then, my fingers and toes are crossed that the weather — and aircraft — cooperate for my next road trip to Rhinebeck and I can put on my goggles and helmet and fly!
The photo above was taken during the last weekend of the 2007 season. The museum folk know that I like to film from the backseat and are very accommodating about it, so that’s where I usually sit. On this particular trip I was sitting behind a couple who were riding in a biplane for the first time and were pretty thrilled with the experience. I especially remember the wife’s reaction, and I wanted to capture it.
I’m back from my weekend adventures in Boston/Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and it’s a ridiculous time of the morning to be on a computer. (But when has that stopped me from posting before?)
I downloaded and backed up all the photos — all 778 of them; there’s a special reason why there are so many from a single weekend — and before I hit the sack I’ll share a few from the Buffalo-NYC flight, which was ungodly early but incredibly beautiful.
The weekend of May 29-31 was, in a word, BRILLIANT. All missions were accomplished, and then some. (Makes me want to pun the title: The ReCAP.)
Thursday: arrived at Helma’s, was fed heartily (as always!)
Friday: met with Executor, picked up David’s flight bag, went to Mona’s house
Saturday: went to temple for David’s yizkor, lunch with Helma, then Mona’s house for birthday dinner
Sunday: went flying with Alan, Helma’s house, then Mona’s before driving home
I originally wanted to fly on Friday, but the weather was pretty foul so I opted for an impromptu meeting with the Executor. To have David’s flight bag back and finally wear our headsets again was a great feeling! It seems a bit silly to get attached to something as nondescript as a headset, but if you’ve been reading this website for more than a few years you’ll have seen the scores of flying photos and videoclips I shot with us squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder in our little Tri-Pacer cockpit, David wearing his light green David Clarks and me wearing my Red Barons. These are very fond memories for me, and just seeing that bag again triggered the anticipation of flying adventures and made my heart leap a little.
But my main purpose of this particular birthday trip, 42 years after David entered this world, was to visit his mother. We spent most of three days together, talking about David as a baby, a little boy, his childhood, bar mitzvah, all the way through school, college, married life, learning to fly, Civil Air Patrol, working life, our lives together, and his last days. Mona filled blanks for me, and I filled in blanks for her. It was dizzying how much we covered in one weekend, but I’m convinced this was the best thing that could’ve happened on May 30, 2009.
I went to Temple Israel on Saturday and attended the entire service, from beginning to end. There were three items on the agenda: David’s birthday, yizkor, and shavuot. When I arrived I sat at the back, and the rabbi — in mid-service — came all the way down from the front and greeted me. I have to say, this really made an impression! The rabbi and I last met in 2005, at Mercy Hospital and the hospice, and he remembered me.
I took away many ideas from that service, but perhaps the one that stood out the most was that of celebrating the life of the person(s) we’ve lost. { continue reading… }
[A photo I took of Vinny, the boy who wanted to fly, and did.*]
This is amazing, I can’t believe such a thing exists, but according to the website Air Time Canada has been around for 14 years. They’re in the Vancouver area and fly out of Boundary Bay Airport.
From the website:
Air Time Canada is a non-profit organization that administers free and nearly-free aviation-based leadership and self confidence programs for teens and adults. The program is run and paid for by volunteers and by voluntary donations from past participants.
A FREE introduction to flying? No shilling for companies? They say not. Here’s info on their Co-Pilot Program. After a quick skim, one limitation is that Transport Canada restricts the participant weight to 170lbs (just over 77kgs), which means it really is oriented to young people. But their one-day Ground School is completely free — they even pay for lunch!
If you have kids interested in aviation (or might be) and you live in the Lower Mainland of BC, definitely check it out! And if you do participate in one of their programs, I’d love to hear what you have to say about it. I hope this nonprofit group is around for a long time yet, maybe my nieces or nephew would be good candidates in a few years.
A couple “Flying Fielding” photos:
You know what? I don’t really mind winter coming on, because I need all this indoor time to go through the crazy gigabytes of photos and video I shot over the summer. Spring and summer were a complete BLUR, and if I leave everything sitting on my drives I won’t remember anything I did.
Here, for example, is a short clip of the flight I took in the Beech D18S Expeditor at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum the third week of August. I flew in a variety of aircraft this year, but of all the rides this one was my favourite. We banked so steeply and quickly that I had to fight the G-force to keep my camera hand up to shoot this video!
I flew in the DC-3 Dakota in July for the second time and it was still loads of fun, but this was my first time in the Beech and it was even BETTER! I don’t know if it’s customary for the Beech pilots to do that many dips and turns for member rides, but we were airborne for a generously long period of time compared to other flights I’ve taken at the museum. The pilots were thoroughly enjoying themselves, too, despite the incredible heat and humidity that day.
images & text © 2002-2010 All Rights Reserved by Gail Edwin-Fielding.
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