The weather, and pictures!

The airplane I fly in (Cessna 150), and the type of flying I do (VFR) can be considered relatively dependent on all sorts of conditions. Mainly, the weather. Any combination of precipitation, temperature, cloud coverage, low visibility, winds, and certain types of turbulence, can render the aircraft grounded, and the pilot unable to fly.

That's what has happened over the last couple of weeks. The Canadian fall and winter has left it's mark on my attempts to fly. Thus, I have not found the will to update this blog, but I figured it was time to update it anyway. With something, for someone, anyone. You, myself, them.

I do have another lesson scheduled for Sunday. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. My instructor told me that one winter he had lessons booked every day, but do to the weather conditions, he wasn't able to fly for a month straight. I hope this doesn't happen in my case. I'm dying to get back in there.

Regardless, about a month ago I went to Varadero, Cuba for a vacation. During the entirety of the flight there and back, I was glued to the window, taking all the beauty in that comes with being about 36,000 feet in the air. I did manage to take some pictures and a video, which I thought I'd share with you here. I took pictures of things I found interesting. Though, they might not be interesting to you. But here it goes anyway.

The first couple of pictures are of the left wing overlooking the landscape. I like the pictures, but when I tried to edit colours and levels in 'Preview' on my mac, it saved them with those weird vertical lines. Try to ignore them.


The next shots are a few landscape shots I found interesting.


There are indeed many airports to spot from so high up, if one is on the lookout for them. I took this next shot upon landing in Toronto (CYYZ). Upon touchdown, and sometimes in the air, those wing flaps you see are actually called spoilers. They are used to slow down the airplane in the air and on the ground. Airliners will try to use the least amount of wheel-breaks as possible upon landing because the amount of energy involved in slowing down such a big airplane produces an immense amount of heat. If the breaks overheat, the airplane sometimes has to be inspected by engineers before it goes up again. As well, an airliner's breaks are immensely expensive to maintain and replace. Therefor, pilots of these airplanes use spoilers, other types of air-breaks, as well as reverse-thrust on the engines to help slow the airplane down.

In this picture, you can see what a marvel the modern wing really is. It opens up and exposes its innards. A mechanical wonder.


Lastly, here's a video I shot during take-off from Varadero Airport (VRA). I stopped filming just before it got interesting, showing Cuba's beautiful landscape. The memory card was full, so I had to stop filming. Anyway, enjoy what you can.