Flying from Atlanta to Detroit

As I said, I had the window seat which was kind of cool since I haven't flown in this direction in a while and had a window seat.  So it was a chance for some pictures.

A shot of Atlanta as we were taking off.  It has probably been about 15 years since I've been to Atlanta proper.

I kind of liked the circular thing in the picture.  I'm not sure what causes it though.

I think these are the Appalachians.

I think this is the Ohio River and I think I have a pretty good idea of where it is because I think I've driven over one of those bridges when I visited a place in West Virginia.

Looking towards Toledo.

And a pretty decent shot of Detroit Metro.

Flying to Santa Ana

As I post this, I am currently in Santa Ana.  I am in the area for work.  Sadly, it looks like I'm not going to have too many opportunities for photography though as it gets dark pretty early here.  And I was pretty exhausted when I landed, so I pretty much slept the afternoon away.  I was hoping to go somewhere but it was a pretty rough flight.

This is the plane that would take me to Minneapolis in order to catch my connecting flight to John Wayne.  It was an Airbus 319 and it was a smaller plane than we were supposed to get, so the plane was pretty crowded.

A shot of the 737 that was parked next to us.  I kind of liked how the sunrise was behind the plane.

Another shot of that 737 as were were pulling out of the gate.

A shot of the airport as we were off the ground.  I kind of like the looks of this terminal although I think it is a little too stretched out.

I wish I would have taken this shot about 30 seconds before this when the moon was above the wing.  At any rate, I like the coloration on the wing.

It was pretty cloudy on the way over, so I didn't have too many chances for picture taking.  Fortunately, the clouds broke as we flew over the Mississippi.

A shot as we were pulling into the gate.

Frontier has one of my favorite airline liveries.  They usually have a cool animal on the tail although I think my favorite is the wolf.

Another 737.

The Airbus 319 that would take me to Orange County.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a window seat on the way over and it is just as well as I think it was cloudy all the way over.

More Pictures from On The Way to California

So anyways, I don't really like posting pictures when I'm travelling. The computer I use isn't well suited to that. I try to post enough pictures to keep things going but sometimes there are some pictures that don't quite make the cut. Anyways, these are some pictures during my flight over to California.
As we were leaving Metro Airport. To the left you can see the towers of the Fermi Nuclear Plant.

I want to say that splotch of sand is the Sleeping Bear Dunes but then I could be wrong.

Looking down at Minnesota.

The Mississippi River. I kind of like the lock to the one side.

A C-130 of the Minnesota National Guard.

Another C-130.

Pulling out of the gate as we head to California.

One of the maintenance facilites at Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Taking off and looking down at the airfield.

I kind of liked the look of this bank of clouds.

The moutains near Irvine cloaked in fog.

Another shot of that.

The El Toro Hangars.

There are ton of general aviation planes at John Wayne.

A United plane waiting to take off.

A United 737.

Heading to California - From Minneapolis to John Wayne

There were a couple of times I had direct flights from Detroit to John Wayne Airport and I'll have to admit that was pretty nice as I didn't have to wander through Minneapolis Airport. Oh well, it's not a bad airport, so I can deal with it.
The plane as it was landing. Unfortunately, I was a little crooked.

I remember seeing this statue before but I don't remember seeing the plack under it stating that Charles Schultz was a resident of Minnesota. That is pretty cool.

The Airbus 319 that would take me from Minneapolis to John Wayne.

Pulling out of the gate.

I think this was somewhere over California.

One of the El Toro Hangers.

Heading to California - From Detroit to Minneapolis

So I am in California for work related type stuff. It wasn't too bad of a flight over except it was cloudy during parts of it.
The plane that would take me to Minneapolis. Sadly, my trip was a bit of a blur so I don't quite remember what aircraft it was. I think it was a 757.

Pulling out of the gate.

This is as we were crossing into Lake Michigan. I think this may be Muskegon, but I'm not sure.

Crossing the Mississippi River as we were landing.

My Last Post from the Air

This is my last post from the air as Flight Tracker shows that we are getting pretty close to landing. This has actually been fun posting this blog almost real time as I travel towards home.

The sun is starting to set behind us as you can see hints of purples and pinks in the sky. As I look to the east it gets darker.

The sun is about at the right angle to give a nice light on the wing.


And the orangish glow towards the sunset. If you look in front of the wing you can definately see the skies to the east as they get a little more purple.



I hope you all enjoyed this little bit of real time posting.

Part of the Plains

I think I'm still over Colorado for these shots. It may be part of Kansas. Anyways some shots of the downward slope towards the east from the air.

the look about as exciting from the air as they do from the ground.

When I took the train, I didn't get to see as much of this part of Colorado as I did just now. It was dark on the train. And from the looks of it, I didn't miss much.

Denver from the Air

The clouds still remained broken long enough to give me a shot of Denver. Unfortunately it was too far away to get a better shot and I didn't have my longer lens on.

Somewhere Over Colorado

The clouds picked an opportune time to break for me. We were just getting over Aspen, Colorado and I looked down and saw the mountains. They look pretty impressive from the air but not quite as impressive as they did while I was riding the train. I kind of wish there was a snow cover like this when I took my train trip.

A little break in the clouds to reveal the snow covered mountains of the Rockies.

Another shot of the mountains.

Looking down at another mountain range.

I like to get part of the wing in the shot to give a sense of perspective for all of this.



It was absolutely gorgeous as the clouds broke even more to reveal a fuller mountain chain. Just look at all the snow.

Pulled back to give the full panorama.



Not quite as clear but you can still see the mountains.

Another pull back to get the full wing in the shot.

Unfortunately I got part of the window in this shot.

A little bit of mist over the mountains.

Another shot of more of the mountain chain.