Seeing America by small plane (big pictures)

[Major Nikon]

I've had my pilot ticket and my own plane for many years. All the vacations we take (except to other continents) are by my plane. The experience never gets old. It's much different than travel by the airlines. I fly at much lower altitudes, so the view is incredible. This is how people traveled back in the DC-3 days and the golden age of aviation. Instead of a hassle, getting there and back is the best part of the trip. I make fuel stops about every 400-500 miles. Since I live in Texas, pretty much anywhere in the country is no more than 2 fuel stops away. Flying through and around the clouds is an amazing experience. Sometimes unstable air makes for rising clouds all around you. Othertimes the clouds are very smooth on top and my landing gear might be skimming across the top of them. Going by small plane also opens up many more areas. I'm not bound by stopping in major cities. Small airports are everywhere, but I can also land at the large ones if I'm so inclined. Some things are so big you really don't get a good idea of their vastness until you see them by air. No picture can ever do justice to a large mountain range or the Grand Canyon.

[uppityperson]

1. Where is the second picture? It looks volcanic. Beautiful, thanks.

[Major Nikon]

2. It's in Arizona

It's called the San Francisco Volcano Field because it's named after the San Francisco mountain in AZ.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_volcanic_field

It was very cool to see from the air. There were lots of volcanoes spread out in a relatively small area. There were different types as well. Meteor Crater is also not very far from there which was formed by a huge meteor. Back in the 60's a small plane flew into Meteor Crater and couldn't get out. They orbited inside until they eventually crash landed the plane inside the crater. Some of the remnants of the plane are still inside. I didn't have to worry about that as my plane has a bit more power. The last picture was taken at about 12,500' above sea level. It was bumpy even at that altitude and just too bumpy to go any lower and get decent pictures.

[Glassunion]

3. Stunning. +1

I dream to one day own a small plane.

Ah... Dreams.

[ellisonz]

4. Awesome. n/t

[tawadi]

5. Great pics

The clouds and the river shot are my favorites. Thanks for sharing these.

[Major Nikon]

6. The river picture was the Grand Canyon

The cloud picture almost didn't happen. It was taken somewhere between south of Chicago and Dayton. I was on the ground at Oshkosh, WI during the huge Airventure fly-in. They shut down the airport there while the airshow is going on. Weather was moving in and we almost didn't get off. I filed my flight plan over the top of Chicago since I didn't want to fly over Lake Michigan. ATC took us way south of Chicago and the picture was taken somewhere around there maybe 30 minutes before dark.