An especially fun and productive flight
Today the sun was shining, the wind was light, and the temperature mild - the PHF airport was calling me.
Luckily I had my old steed, 5199A, scheduled for 1PM. I asked my wife to tag along as I had a special job for her on this flight.
We took off from work at noon and headed to the Newport News Schlotsky's for some sandwiches. I felt a little rushed during lunch since I knew we had a date with the airplane coming up. Over the meal we chatted a little bit about my game plan.
Today I wanted to take some aerial photos of different areas in Williamsburg with the camera pointing straight down. The goal was to create overlay images that I could place in Google Earth. Since most of Williamsburg is low-resolution in Google Earth our photos would add a nice amount of detail to the application – at least for the limited area that we would photograph.
Shooting overlay images requires a special technique. Ours was this:
Leaving the Schlotz' we headed down Jefferson Avenue toward the airport. Traffic was its usual "fun" self but in a few minutes we arrived and started getting all the gear out of the car: Canon PowerShot G3 camera, Garmin 296 GPS, 2 headsets, charts, sunglasses, iPod, etc.
After giving my credit card info to the kind folks at the desk we were walking on the ramp toward 99A. Krista started getting the gear in place in the cockpit and I started the preflight. The airplane was in top shape, as always, so before long we had the engine started and were cleared by Newport News Ground to taxi to runway 7.
On the taxi out we followed an Israeli Kfir C-2 fight jet to the runway. The optical distortion from the heat of his exhaust was hypnotizing. I have heard through the grapevine that these jets (based at PHF) are used to make high speed passes of our aircraft carriers to test their defensive systems. Must be a fun job – as long as the defensive systems aren't live. I was starting to wonder where he'd pull over to do his engine run-up when I remembered that jets don't normally do that. :) He basically taxied right onto the runway and blasted off – leaving us to hear and feel the low frequency rumble in his wake.
We departed a few minutes after him with a clearance to leave the area to the NW.
As we climbed out toward our first destination Krista gave me headings to help circle around the Fort Eustis airspace and Newport News gave us a frequency change approval. We were flying over downtown Williamsburg as I pulled the power back to slow down to about 85 kts. Krista kindly asked for permission before opening the window and then started shooting away with the camera out in the slipstream pointed straight down. I had to put some rudder in to counteract the open window – it took me a little bit to get the power and pitch worked out to maintain altitude at 85 kts.
As Krista clicked away with the shutter she would point left or right to tell me how I was tracking toward our targets. She removed her mic plug so that the wind in her face wouldn't turn on the voice-activated intercom. Since the iPod music turns off when the intercom or radio turns on, she was doing me a favor so I could listen to some Maroon 5 while I worked the flight controls and searched for traffic.
Before long we were circling our house and heading back downtown, taking photos along the way. After the photo shoot was all done, I circled around to the left and climbed to 3,000 in preparation for a practice ILS 7 back into Newport News. The ILS went well – I punched on the autopilot as we started tracking the localizer but turned it off about half way down since it seemed to desire a bumpier and slightly more right-of-center flight path than I really wanted. It was nailing the glideslope though.
We touched down with one of my softer landings in recent memory and pulled off on taxiway foxtrot. The tower gave us a clearance to taxi to the ramp, crossing runway 2, and monitor ground on 121.9.
It was such a great flight (with such a great copilot) that I was in a top-notch mood for the rest of the day. Krista posted her thoughts on her own blog.
So, here are some of the results of the flight (bonus points if you can tell me why the overlay pictures have "stair-stepped" edges):
Luckily I had my old steed, 5199A, scheduled for 1PM. I asked my wife to tag along as I had a special job for her on this flight.
We took off from work at noon and headed to the Newport News Schlotsky's for some sandwiches. I felt a little rushed during lunch since I knew we had a date with the airplane coming up. Over the meal we chatted a little bit about my game plan.
Today I wanted to take some aerial photos of different areas in Williamsburg with the camera pointing straight down. The goal was to create overlay images that I could place in Google Earth. Since most of Williamsburg is low-resolution in Google Earth our photos would add a nice amount of detail to the application – at least for the limited area that we would photograph.
Shooting overlay images requires a special technique. Ours was this:
- Use a high-wing airplane – a requirement to look straight down
- Open the window and stick out the camera – to get the angle we want and get a clear picture
- Fly slow – so the wind coming in the window (and the force on the camera) is less severe
- Fly wings level and maintain exact altitude – pitch and roll will affect the angle of the shot
Leaving the Schlotz' we headed down Jefferson Avenue toward the airport. Traffic was its usual "fun" self but in a few minutes we arrived and started getting all the gear out of the car: Canon PowerShot G3 camera, Garmin 296 GPS, 2 headsets, charts, sunglasses, iPod, etc.
After giving my credit card info to the kind folks at the desk we were walking on the ramp toward 99A. Krista started getting the gear in place in the cockpit and I started the preflight. The airplane was in top shape, as always, so before long we had the engine started and were cleared by Newport News Ground to taxi to runway 7.
On the taxi out we followed an Israeli Kfir C-2 fight jet to the runway. The optical distortion from the heat of his exhaust was hypnotizing. I have heard through the grapevine that these jets (based at PHF) are used to make high speed passes of our aircraft carriers to test their defensive systems. Must be a fun job – as long as the defensive systems aren't live. I was starting to wonder where he'd pull over to do his engine run-up when I remembered that jets don't normally do that. :) He basically taxied right onto the runway and blasted off – leaving us to hear and feel the low frequency rumble in his wake.
We departed a few minutes after him with a clearance to leave the area to the NW.
As we climbed out toward our first destination Krista gave me headings to help circle around the Fort Eustis airspace and Newport News gave us a frequency change approval. We were flying over downtown Williamsburg as I pulled the power back to slow down to about 85 kts. Krista kindly asked for permission before opening the window and then started shooting away with the camera out in the slipstream pointed straight down. I had to put some rudder in to counteract the open window – it took me a little bit to get the power and pitch worked out to maintain altitude at 85 kts.
As Krista clicked away with the shutter she would point left or right to tell me how I was tracking toward our targets. She removed her mic plug so that the wind in her face wouldn't turn on the voice-activated intercom. Since the iPod music turns off when the intercom or radio turns on, she was doing me a favor so I could listen to some Maroon 5 while I worked the flight controls and searched for traffic.
Before long we were circling our house and heading back downtown, taking photos along the way. After the photo shoot was all done, I circled around to the left and climbed to 3,000 in preparation for a practice ILS 7 back into Newport News. The ILS went well – I punched on the autopilot as we started tracking the localizer but turned it off about half way down since it seemed to desire a bumpier and slightly more right-of-center flight path than I really wanted. It was nailing the glideslope though.
We touched down with one of my softer landings in recent memory and pulled off on taxiway foxtrot. The tower gave us a clearance to taxi to the ramp, crossing runway 2, and monitor ground on 121.9.
It was such a great flight (with such a great copilot) that I was in a top-notch mood for the rest of the day. Krista posted her thoughts on her own blog.
So, here are some of the results of the flight (bonus points if you can tell me why the overlay pictures have "stair-stepped" edges):
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