I found the edge of the cloud layer as we crossed the western edge of Galveston Bay, climbing through 5,000 feet. A thin stratus layer, it had began the day down around 1,500 feet (making Louise’s morning commute of 100 miles in her RV-6 a little lower than usual), and stuck around until evening to make the day a bit gray. The reports said there were scattered clouds at 2,800, but as I climbed out for my after-dinner exercise, those were few and far between. The upper layer had breaks in the distance – splashes of low sun reflecting off the white petrochemical tanks of Texas city, brighter air to the north and east … I had a hunch that I’d find a hole over the Bay. The Bay is always a good bet for clear air, whether the clouds are cumulous or stratus – if the weather is flyable at all, the breaks will be over the water.
Coming up on the coastline, I saw a flock of little cumulous ahead and below, lit up like they were on a stage – I knew the break was there! I added power to climb and accelerate, crossing the line from shadow to sun and seeing the bright blue above in a mile-wide break. I cleared the edge of the cloud, turned hard left then hard right to clear the airspace – I was alone! With 150 knots indicating on the EFIS, I pulled straight up and pegged the VSI, popping through the three hundred foot thick layer just as Glenn Miller came on the XM radio, belting it out….yes, I was “In the Mood”!
The evening sun hit me at the same time as the music, and I pulled over the top and rolled upright completing an Immelman to VFR “over the top”. There was nothing above, and water below – holes were opening up to the east and the north, and I could see that the back edge of the charted cold front was about to move through with the end of the day. The layer was almost transparent in spots, but looking towards the sun it was a beautiful white, flat field. The music invited me to look for Messerschmitts, or maybe Zeros….the world above knew nothing of the times of men – the sky the same now as it was then – timeless in fact, or maybe a time machine. It invited the imagination – scenes of contrails and smoke trails out of the bubble canopy, watching for fast-moving dots sliding out of the sun’s bright rays. “Never fly straight and level in a combat zone!” echoed in my mind, countless movies having burned themselves into my memory. “Yes Sir!” my hands and feet responded, twisting and turning to the rhythms of 1940’s jazz, courtesy of 21st century satellite electronics, a marvelous aluminum steed and a good old Lycoming “tractor engine”. Rolling, looping, corkscrewing through the air – point the lift vector and pull! Feel the shudder as you run out of airspeed, let the nose drop for more, and off you go again…the shadows of those who have done this for real are out there, and the land below could be – anywhere!
I fought the shadows of time up to 10,000 feet and then back down again to where the white fields, now shadows themselves, were breaking up and parting to show the land and water below. The South Sea islands became the Oyster beds of Galveston Bay once again, and the fields of England just the pastures of the coastal bend. The music had slowed …. was that Jimmy Dorsey now? The Valkyrie was pointed for the barn, and we swayed slowly from side to side as the altitude and airspeed slipped away, zeroing in on home (both in space and time) once again. Beautiful machines these little aluminum fighters we have built in our garages and basements. Time machines, really…..
Paul
Coming up on the coastline, I saw a flock of little cumulous ahead and below, lit up like they were on a stage – I knew the break was there! I added power to climb and accelerate, crossing the line from shadow to sun and seeing the bright blue above in a mile-wide break. I cleared the edge of the cloud, turned hard left then hard right to clear the airspace – I was alone! With 150 knots indicating on the EFIS, I pulled straight up and pegged the VSI, popping through the three hundred foot thick layer just as Glenn Miller came on the XM radio, belting it out….yes, I was “In the Mood”!
The evening sun hit me at the same time as the music, and I pulled over the top and rolled upright completing an Immelman to VFR “over the top”. There was nothing above, and water below – holes were opening up to the east and the north, and I could see that the back edge of the charted cold front was about to move through with the end of the day. The layer was almost transparent in spots, but looking towards the sun it was a beautiful white, flat field. The music invited me to look for Messerschmitts, or maybe Zeros….the world above knew nothing of the times of men – the sky the same now as it was then – timeless in fact, or maybe a time machine. It invited the imagination – scenes of contrails and smoke trails out of the bubble canopy, watching for fast-moving dots sliding out of the sun’s bright rays. “Never fly straight and level in a combat zone!” echoed in my mind, countless movies having burned themselves into my memory. “Yes Sir!” my hands and feet responded, twisting and turning to the rhythms of 1940’s jazz, courtesy of 21st century satellite electronics, a marvelous aluminum steed and a good old Lycoming “tractor engine”. Rolling, looping, corkscrewing through the air – point the lift vector and pull! Feel the shudder as you run out of airspeed, let the nose drop for more, and off you go again…the shadows of those who have done this for real are out there, and the land below could be – anywhere!
I fought the shadows of time up to 10,000 feet and then back down again to where the white fields, now shadows themselves, were breaking up and parting to show the land and water below. The South Sea islands became the Oyster beds of Galveston Bay once again, and the fields of England just the pastures of the coastal bend. The music had slowed …. was that Jimmy Dorsey now? The Valkyrie was pointed for the barn, and we swayed slowly from side to side as the altitude and airspeed slipped away, zeroing in on home (both in space and time) once again. Beautiful machines these little aluminum fighters we have built in our garages and basements. Time machines, really…..
Paul
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