About This Website
(i.e., Obligatory
Biographical Mumbo-Jumbo)
What is this website about? This site is my paean to aviation, a visual chronicle of my flying experiences. Like most pilots, I keep a logbook of my activities. It is a prized possession, an exacting memoir of past adventures, airplanes flown, and places visited. But what it doesn't have are pictures. For me, a significant portion of my fascination with flight lives within remembered images. While the logbook items are important, the images often hold more meaning for me. That's why this website exists. On top of that, it's an attempt (somewhat feeble, granted) to share my flying experiences with others.
"Why?" That's the most common question I hear from people who learn that I fly. Many will immediately look for a practical explanation for this perceived madness. But practicality, at least in a tangible or financial sense, is completely outside of scope here. - I fly because, while at the controls of an aircraft, earthbound worries stay on the ground. My wife's version of this statement is that "flying is therapy". She's right. - I fly because soaring through the sky in control of my own destiny is the realization of a childhood dream.
- I fly (and take pictures) because, from above, the Earth can be dazzlingly beautiful. And even when it's not, it's still fascinating to see the everyday world from such a different perspective. - I fly because, more than anything else I have ever experienced, aviation blends science and art in a way that inspires passion. I don't expect everyone to understand why I fly. There will always be those who view light aircraft as unnecessary, dangerous toys for the rich. I think this stereotype is inaccurate and unfair. The average aviator is far more safety conscious and aware of his surroundings than the average driver. Many of us are not wealthy, but have worked hard and made financial sacrifices in other aspects of our lives to follow our dreams. Influential Characters As long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by flight and flying machines. In my younger days, it never occurred to me that I could be a pilot because I never met any "ordinary" people that flew. That all changed one fall day in 2000 when I strapped into the back seat of Dave's Citabria for my first flight in a light aircraft. Once aloft, Dave surrendered the controls to me and pointed to a nearby lake.
"Fly a circle around that lake." I coaxed the Citabria into a shallow bank to begin my circle. The controls were surprisingly responsive. I pushed the stick left to bank the aircraft and the Citabria pushed back as her ailerons deflected into the air stream. "Steeper," Dave cajoled. As I pushed more, I could feel the pressure in the controls change, continuously telegraphing the interaction between the airplane and the air that held it aloft. The experience imparted an incredible feeling of freedom and control. While at the controls of that airplane, physics actually sang to me. The ride was soon over, but the hook was set. Dave also took my buddy Kent for a ride that day and evoked a similarly enthusiastic reaction. Within a month, Kent and I had enrolled in ground school through Kalamazoo Community College.
I earned my private pilot certificate on September 23, 2002 with training from the fine folks at Conrad Aero in Three Rivers, MI (20 minutes south of Kalamazoo). I managed to beat Kent to the check ride by a month because of my "better qualifications" (i.e., dumb luck, better weather, and an ounce of opportunistic behavior). Photography Nothing fancy - a 3.2 or 7.2 megapixel Sony Cybershot camera. After January 1 2009, I began using a 10.1 megapixel Kodak Z1012 IS higher end point and shoot camera with image stabilization and a 12X optical zoom. All pictures in the site were taken by me unless otherwise noted. Because I am busy flying, anything fancier than a point-and-shoot is overkill. Some tips for photography from light aircraft: 1. Situational awareness comes first. Most of my shots are taken without looking through the viewfinder and should not pose even as much distraction as switching frequencies on the radio. If the photos don't turn out...that's fine. Electrons are cheap. 2. The best photos are taken through an open window. If this isn't possible, place the camera lens close to the window...preferably a clean area...to minimize reflections. 3. The best aerial photos are usually obtained when the sun is low on the horizon and with the sun at your "back". Low angle sunlight tends to accentuate the contrast of ground features and generate warm colors. 4. Camera settings:
5. Get some decent photo editing software to help you zoom, crop, and rotate. Blind shots out the window do not lend themselves to well-framed photos! Most software will have a color balancing feature can remove blue or green tints caused by aircraft windows. I have used Paint Shop Pro X for the last several years and it works well for me. Paint Shop has a terrific "horizon" feature that allows you to identify the horizon by drawing a line on it, after which the software will rotate the horizon to level and crop the image to an appropriate aspect ratio. Simple, but I use this feature A LOT. What About Cheating? With digital photography comes the temptation to cheat a bit and create scenes that never existed in real life. I use Paint Shop Pro to fix framing (crop and rotate), remove digital noise, clarify photos taken on hazy days, and make minor adjustments to color, brightness and contrast - all with the intention of reproducing the original scene as closely as possible. The photos on this site are otherwise unadulterated. Well...mostly. The banner is a "Paint Shopped" composite of multiple photos. Sometimes it's fun to cheat a little and I have made a habit of doing so on previous site banners.
Thanks Thanks to Scott Savett for kindly providing the web space. |
Page last updated on May 22, 2010
