Clouds have always struck me as magical; gorgeous intangible shapes drifting through the sky.  Part of the magic of flight is the ability to take wing and exist in the same realm as the clouds and to soar over and around them (but not through them, I am VFR only, after all).

October 12, 2003:  The town of Paw Paw was nearly obscured by clouds as Dave and I passed overhead in Six Eight Wiskey.

May 16, 2004:  The view from Warrior 481 while en route to Torchport Airpark.  A scattered cloud layer took shape north of South Haven and persisted until just south of Traverse City.  It was the longest time I had ever spent flying above the clouds as pilot in command and a beautiful way to begin a morning flight.

August 7, 2004:  A spectacular cloudscape viewed from 8500 feet.  Portions of suburban Flint, MI are visible through the gaps between clouds.  Flint's Bishop Airport can be seen left of center.

August 10, 2004:  A morning excursion from South Haven, MI to Bloomington, IN almost didn't occur when Kent and I arrived at the airport and found a dense scattered cloud layer at 1000 feet.  But climbing through one of the large chasms that fractured the cloud deck was truly a sight to behold.  This photo, taken by Kent, was captured looking east toward the rising sun.  As we cruised away from South Haven at 6500 feet, the scattered layer quickly gave way to clear skies over northern Indiana.

November 11, 2004:  A confluence of interesting cloud formations over the Lake Michigan shoreline.  There was a high overcast layer at 10,000 feet and a haze layer from ground level up to 3500 feet.  At the top of haze layer, a single isolated cloud floated like an island in the haze.  The red spot near the center of frame is the evening sun reflecting off of the surface of Lake Michigan.  This photo was taken from 500 feet above the haze layer.

November 11, 2004:  Rays of sunlight penetrate the high overcast, creating an impressive sunbeam effect in the haze.  Beneath the sea of haze, the surface of Lake Michigan brightly reflects those sunbeams directed earthward.  Dave's Decathlon can be seen in the far right edge of the frame.

November 28, 2004:  A high-contrast cloudscape under the evening sun.

November 28, 2004:  A vista of clouds seen over the nose of Warrior 481 while flying along the Lake Michigan shoreline in the evening.

June 24, 2005: Kristy and I observed this interesting confluence of cumulus and stratiform clouds as we passed east of Tampa, FL en route to Fort Myers, FL.  Photo by Kristy.

June 24, 2005: This ominous line of clouds formed a wall several miles east of our route to Fort Myers, FL.  It was all that remained of a powerful thunderstorm system that had blocked our path the previous day, causing us to spend the night in Crystal River, FL.  Kudos to the manager of the Crystal River Best Western, who personally transported Kristy and I from the airport to her hotel (and back).

September 2, 2006:  On September 2, Kristy and I dropped in to the South Haven Airport for a visit.  It had been ten months since we moved the Warrior to Le Roy, NY.  While we were on the ground, the afternoon cumulus began to pop.  After departure, we climbed above the cloud deck and captured this shot of the South Haven pier framed by the clouds.

November 23, 2006: "Washboard"  Just south of Hamilton, Ontario, we observed this broken cloud deck at about 1500 feet.  Each runner was aligned with the northeasterly wind blowing off of Lake Ontario.  Once we passed Hamilton and the western end of the lake, the clouds vanished.