Richard’s Ramblings

Sean and I went for a flight out of Reid-Hillview Airport today. We headed south towards Bonfante Gardens, a financially suffering family theme park with the terrible marketing department that came up with “Bonfante is Excellente” slogan.

After circling it, we headed further south to come around to the back of Watsonville, heading northward along the coast to Santa Cruz. At one point I spied a small group of animals that were in the water. While the likelihood of them being sea lions is much higher, the swimming patterns closely matched those of dolphins, so it could have been either. Circling further north towards my parents’ house, we then followed Highway 17 away from the coast back to San Jose.

We asked Bay Approach for permission to fly around inside controlled airspace in order to take photographs (with my Canon PowerShot G2!) of my house. Of course, the request was granted. My next-door neighbor, Donald, came out to investigate the sound of the plane circling overhead. His first thought was that the plane was flying unusually low and slow, and then he grew more confused as we turned right to begin the circle patterns over the neighborhood. After about four laps, we broke off, heading back to the general region of the airport. He was quite surprised when he found out afterward that it was me, and laughed when he saw the picture of himself watching the plane.

I miss flying. It’s been a long time…

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