bird's eye valley view

I flew a plane the other day (you know, no big deal) and here are some aerial pics.

 Peace Pagoda

Amherst

 Sugarloaf Mountain

 Northampton

The Route 9 bridge, with traffic as usual

Uh oh, landing!

d.c.

Flight path

64 years young!

The Greats

Charley

Dancing in Dupont Circle

building an airplane

"It just takes some glue, a good saw, and some wood," Brad Delisle says of building his own personal airplane, and Delisle is making it happen with his father Mike in the basement of their Lakewood home. I had the pleasure of hanging out with them while they worked on their 1929 wooden Pietenpol Aircamper that will travel 60 miles per hour once finished and be covered in fabric. Amazing!

summer shoots

Here is what I have been doing recently.

Brianna Zarek, 9, covers her ears after an airplace ride at Galt Airport in Wonder Lake on Saturday afternoon, as her brother Jacob, 5, slaps hands with pilot Brian Spiro. Through the EAA Chapter 932's participation in the national EAA Young Eagles program, volunteer pilots offered the opportunity to go flying in a general aviation airplane to kids ages 8 to 17 once a month in the summer.

Austin Das, 13, of Wonder Lake, demonstrates a turn his plane ride took at Galt Airport in Wonder Lake on Saturday afternoon.

With the end of summer near, football season has snuck up on us again. My co-workers and I have had the joy of covering previews of all the teams recently.

I am apparently on the golf beat this summer! I am learning quite a bit more about this sport; however, my navigation skills around the courses are still miserable.

aerial photos

Last week I went up in a small plane to get some aerial photos of a new recreation area being developed.
I love heights. I have been in hot air balloons, jumped out of a plane, flown to the eastern hemisphere and back. Regardless, all did almost not end well as the dips and turns and bright sun and shooting out at a crooked horizon made me nauseous. Thanks to reporter Brett's "look forward!" advice I made it to the ground in one piece and the photos turned out alright.

Aerial photo looking at intersection of Pyott Road and Rakow Road.

A bulldozer works Wednesday at Three Oaks Recreation Center in Crystal Lake. Since the area was previously a quarry, many of the on-site stones were used in constructing the amenities.

The marina and trails at Three Oaks Recreation Center in Crystal Lake are scheduled to open in the fall of 2010, and the beach will open in the summer of 2011.

Three Oaks Recreation Center spans more than 500 acres. Below is the building from the shot above.

the warbird t-28

Steve Kulovsek of Prairie Grove talks about the T-28 airplane, an old Navy training plane, being restored at Warbird Restorations in Crystal Lake on Monday morning. The T-28 marks a pivotal point in aviation history as one of the last propeller models before the advent of the jet engine.

Jim Roozee talks about the fuselage of the T-28 airplane.

I got to sit in the cockpit. Here is a view from the driver's seat. Awesome!