First Stearman Flight For 2013

Glorious evening for flying.

 

Willamette Valley is Spring green.

This is the Molalla River.

Trying to catch that sparkle off the water

The Molalla tends to wind around.

Farmer's catch ponds.

Same catch ponds with the 'sparkle'.

Filbert orchard leafing out - right/center.

 Some spring burning of debris across the valley.

 Instrument panel right in front of me. Lower left is the altimeter - cruising about 1200' above the valley.

80' on the valley floor. I brought a light jacket just in case 1000' feet up was cooler.
Probably would have been okay but you can't hop out and grab a jacket in a Stearman open-cockpit biplane. You need to be prepared. And it is always cooler up there at altitude.

I get most of my photo 'success' in the air by setting my digital camera on the 'beach' setting. The smarty pants phone is near worthless up here with all the glare on the screen. Not to mention it does not have a strap to hang onto like my digital camera does. I would not like the windstream to whip that phone out of my hands.

The last three photos are attempting to segregate the haze/smog out of the horizon but this is a struggle for my little digital camera.

Mt. Hood received quite a bit of snow and still offers spring skiing. No sudden snow melts provoking the rivers to rise this year. Nice quiet spring so far.