first flight for a friend...

killbilly

Vocals, Lyrics, Triangle, Washboard, Kittens
I have discovered one of the great joys of being a pilot, and that's sharing the experience with one who has never been up in a small plane before. Chatting over snacks and beers one night, I offered to take her flying. She was enthusiastic about it, so when I had access to a decent plane and some good weather, we went for it.

She loved the flight - was scared at first, but really enjoyed it. I spent some time flying around and setting up the plane so she could get some good shots. I'm particularly fond of the night shots over Lake Buchanan.

She took a whole bunch of pictures, and was kind enough to let me download a few and put them on my picasaweb site. If you want to see the full gallery of pics she took, PM me and I'll give you a link to her flickr site.

Anyway, here ya go....
 

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Very nice shots, how'd you get that close to Congress... IFR flight plan? I remember even heading into Dulles was fast paced some days, I can imagine the fixation on your CDI while you pass over downtown.
 
Very nice shots, how'd you get that close to Congress... IFR flight plan? I remember even heading into Dulles was fast paced some days, I can imagine the fixation on your CDI while you pass over downtown.

Heh. That's the Capitol Building in Austin, TX, not Washington, DC. VFR the whole way.

The airport is slightly east and south of the city, and I wanted to be able to put downtown Austin on the right side of the airplane so she could take pictures. So when we departed Llano (KAQO) I headed east for a while before turning south. I figured approach control would swing us around the north side of downtown and sequence us for a right base and long final to 17R.

As it happened, it was a quiet night, so they brought us in directly over downtown. I was cleared #1 to land when I was still about 10nm out from KAUS. I love landing there at night. No traffic if it's late enough and a 10K foot runway to play with. They'll often let GA traffic just fly the pattern if it's not busy. Kinda cool.
 
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