So I finally got a new and very compact digital camera that I can leave in my flight bag that goes with me on all my flights. Now I can share some of the amazing things I see from time to time while traversing the skies of the continental U.S. Here's a couple shots from yesterday afternoon on a flight from Grand Rapids, Mich (KGRR) to Houston, Texas (KIAH).

Over southern Illinois at 36,000 ft. we encountered an area of thunderstorms that we had to deviate around. In fact we had to go quite a bit out of our way to get around a line of storms that had developed over Missouri.

This first picture is of the Multi Function Display with the weather radar on. The radar works just like ground based systems you might see on your local weather station. IOW green is light precip, yellow is heavier and red and purple are bad!! As you can see this line of storms is pretty serious and we don't mess around with them going well out of our way to stay clear. This picture also shows a feature of the weather radar called "React" mode which allows the radar to show in blue, the areas in which it can not get a good signal through. If the radar engergy can not penetrate the storm you know that the precipitation that it is showing is extremely heavy and therefore you can not accurately tell what lies behind that particular area of weather. That's called a radar shadow and must be avoided at all costs since you do not know what lies on the other side.




The next three pictures are out the window looking at this ominous line of weather.








The final picture is back in the cockpit looking at both the weather radar on the MFD and the main PFD (Primary Flight Display). There is a wealth of information contained on these screens. The left screen has all of our flight information and the right screen has navigation as well as radar and aircraft systems information on it.



For those of you who know your glass panels you can see in the screens that we:

-are flying at Flight Level 360 (36,000 ft.)
-speed is Mach .784
-true airspeed is 456 knots
-ground speed is 449 knots
-outside true air temperature is -50 degrees C
-the total air temperature is -33 degrees C
-we are 62.9 NM north of Little Rock, Arkansas
-the wind at this altitude is from about 260 degrees magnetic at 24 knots (very light for 36,000 ft)
-and finally on the TCAS display on the MFD that we have another aircraft about 5 miles ahead of us and 2000 ft. below us.


I hope to have some more interesting shots from time to time.

Great shot! What is it you fly Mike?

Oh sorry, that would help. I currently fly the Embraer 145 series of Regional Jets, the EMB-135, EMB-145 and EMB-145XR versions for ExpressJet Airlines. I will soon be switching jobs however and go to work flying 737s here in the states for Southwest Airlines.

Good luck

Awesome views! Much better than looking over the wing. I have always enjoyed the ride on the '-145's out of KGRK to Dallas n Houston, but have gotten a little to old and slow to mess with commercial air travel the last year or so. I'm very envious! Best of luck with the all 737 airline. Now you'll be going into Hobby instead of George Bush so will be able to get nice overheads from time to time around Ellington Field! Always wanted to do a scenery enhancement of the Houston ship channel near there (San Jacinto and BB-35).

Ron

Hey Ron, guess where I'm sitting at this very moment?

Fairfield Inn, Killeen, TX, getting ready to fly KGRK-KIAH.............

Small world huh.........

Couple more from the other day.

Fuel truck vs. airplane



Then a special treat as we taxied to the gate in Cleveland. A flight of four F/A-18s were taxiing in to the FBO. There was an auto race in Cleveland on Sunday and I think these four were there for a flyby. One of them had an external tank that said "Blue Blazers" on it. Don't know Navy squadrons very well.

Yes it is! Please enjoy your flight. BTW, if you have a little time, I would greatly appreaciate it if you were able to snap a few pics of the terminal from the airside point of view and when/if let me know n I'll give you my email address to pass them on. Another scenery I'd love to do would be KGRK. Haven't been out there in over a year, and couldn't access airside anyway. They now have a new terminal on the military side as well, which was not there before., but would sure be nice. I recently d/l'd the freeware C-130 from AlphaSim and choose to give it a go this AM. Went from Robert Gray to Randolf, and noticed on departure that there was a contract airline on the mil ramp (have no idea which AI package put that there), and enjoyed the sight altho I'm sure it should have been at the new terminal, not the old one near the north end. Sun out right now but well , you know!

Ron

Ya looks like it might be a bit of a rough ride back to IAH today.

I'll try to get as many as I can before we take off. Just PM me with your email address and I'll send them your way.

Thanks so very much. PM on the way.

Ron

There was an auto race in Cleveland on Sunday and I think these four were there for a flyby.

While they might have well done the flyby, I believe that any flyover that is performed by a military unit must be done as part of a training mission.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.

BTW, I've flown Southwest from STL to LIT several times and have run into storms just like that. It's quite a show from altitude.
Also, that storm hit us here and was quite nasty on the ground.
KJ

Nice stuff Mike. I like riding in the single-seat side of the aisle but your seat is much better.

Some more images from the last couple of trips. Click on the thumbnail image to see it full size.



First two images are from a departure out of Torreon, Mexico, which sits right about in the middle of the Mexican high desert. Lots of granite down that way. Luckily Torreon itself sits in a valley in between ranges. The second image is near Monterrey and Saltillo, Mexico which both have airports we fly to that are surrounded by high mountains on all sides. You litterally can't afford to screw up an instrument procedure down there, your life and eveyone's onboard depends on you getting it right the first time.

The next three images are coming into Albuquerque, New Mexico. It also has mountainous terrrain nearby. But at least it's only on one side of the airport as opposed to surrounding the whole field. KABQ is also home to Kirtland AFB which has several active units. The day we were there some F-16s were recovering on one of the other runways. I had to laugh as they were using the call sign "Top Gun", I kid you not. That's the best they could come up with??

After that there is a single image of us dodging some built up cumulonimbus clouds. This particular image is near Buffalo, New York where we skirted in between lines of thunderstorms on our way into our destination of Rochester.

Finally a couple random images of landmarks that many of you will no doubt recognize. First is an overhead view of the world's busiest airport, Chicago-O'Hare taken from 35,000 ft. The next two should be well known to American fans of the NASCAR racing series. Pocono Intl. Raceway is the first track located in the very southeastern corner of Pennsylvania and finally Michigan Intl. Speedway is located in south central Michigan near the town of Brooklyn.

Enjoy.

Great shots Mike, keep em coming..
If u ever fly over Offutt i'd love to see it?
Do u take requests?
Barry

Sure I'll take requests. Actually just overnighted in Omaha the other day. unfortunately we didn't get to fly over Offut or you bet I'd have a picture or two.

I'd love to see nice snaps of Rochester MN.
Spent many a happy time there working...Look for a massive blue glass building just oun the outskirts of town by the main freeway...

IBM building....

Barry

Updates from August of 2007

For starters some different aircraft from some of the destinations I fly to and from. First is a Northwest 757 that is 2000 ft. above us during cruise flight between CLE-ABQ. Then we have an "interesting" paint job on this ATR which was parked outside a paint shop in Montreal (CYUL). Finally an aircraft all of us should recognize. The AN-124 parked on the ramp in Cleveland delivering a Swiss built rocket fairing. Note the ominous clouds in the background as a thunderstorm was approaching.




Speaking of ominous clouds......it was a crazy week in the Eastern part of the United States this past week with day after day of widespread severe thunderstorms. All these storms made for some good opportunities to get some inflight shots of various storms that we worked our way around. The first two images show a massive thunderstorm cell that we gave a wide birth to get around. The next two images show some interesting airflow over and around the tops of thunderstorm clouds. Basically the tops of these clouds act like large rocks in a flow of water and so the winds aloft flow around them as well as push them along.









Finally some military shots. First one is of Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas, home of the C-130 for the Air Force. How many Hercs can you count in this image? Next is a look at Langley Air Force Base through a very think Virginia haze. Third is a look at Norfolk Navy Air Station in Norfolk, Virgina. Last but not least is a look at the largest naval base in the world, also in Norfolk. The approach to the civilian airport there takes you right over parts of the naval base. Here we are on final and you can see the East Coast base for the Navy's LCAC's (Hovercraft). Maybe an idea for an AI package some day.

Hey Mike, do you have anymore great pictures that you've took on your great adventures in the sky and tarmac? I enjoy them.

Paul

I do and they died an untimely death along with the hard drive on my laptop a couple weeks ago. So once I get around to getting a new hard drive installed I'll be able to post some more.

Moral of the story, no matter how old your computer, back up the hard drive often! I never once backed up my laptop as it was only 3 years old.

That's right. I forgot about your post on your labtop going belly up. Sorry to hear that.

Paul