The photograph in the blog of the 21st is still awaiting identification. There have been some funny comments and guesses, but we still don’t have a right answer. Any other guesses out there? It’s a strange thing!

We’ve been away for a couple of days. Yesterday, I had a choice. To blog or … to join a friend in his Piper Archer II.

Hmmm … blog … hmmm … taking an aerial tour of the Outer Banks with a friend. It was a no-brainer for Arnie and me. We had to drive home afterwards, so there wasn’t time to do both.

I’ll continue next time with a couple more One Shots from the Outer Banks, but I thought I’d take you on an informal tour of our time in the air.

The low-wing Piper has plastic windows that don’t open. Not quite like shooting out of a Bell helicopter with the doors removed, but it was a blast, and you’ll get an idea of what this place looks like from above. Occasionally, you may see some faint reflections of the instrument panel in the window.

We met Dave at the small airport on Roanoke Island. Dave had just had his annual physical and plane inspection, both required for pilots. All was well, but Dave is meticulous and double checks everything before taking off. It’s the mark of a good pilot, and I always love it when on the commercial flights, the pilot is out under the plane kicking tires and checking things out.

In this case, Dave saw a screw on the wing that was loose, so he got a new one and tightened it in.

Then, there was the step-by-step check list.

While we were waiting, a couple of Blackhawks came in. Strange, since they normally don’t land here. They hovered quite a while just a few feet above the tarmac before setting down for refueling. I couldn’t figure out why they would do that. They’d be wasting fuel, and there was no reason for them not to land right away. But what do I know.

After making sure the oil was up to temp, Dave did a visual check of the skies (more on this later) and had us do the same before confirming with the control tower for take off.

We headed east across the sound and circled the Wright Brothers Memorial. We have been there dozens of times, but it always looks different from the air.Dave let air space know that he was doing this, so others who do regular tours would not be surprised and would be on the lookout for us.

From there, we flew towards Cape Hatteras on the ocean side. We could see in Nags Head how the sea is ready to gobble up the next set of houses. It amazes us that people build so close to the shore and expect their houses to be safe. Mother Nature always wins, and she has been eating away at these Outer Banks for centuries, taking sand from here and depositing it there.

There was a movie filmed a bit further south called Nights in Rodanthe. The house used in the movie was captured by a bad storm. It was bought, moved inland a bit to higher ground, and rennovated. We saw it just after the storm, and it was surrounded by water.

Dave continued down the coast, and we recognized all the places we stop to photograph windsurfers and kiteboarders, where we have lunch when we’re down that way, and the various towns we go through on the way to Hatteras.

We banked to starboard down at the Cape to return back up the coast on the sound side. I had been regularly looking out the windows throughout the flight, seeking other aircraft.

“There’s an Osprey, ” Dave exclaimed as Arnie and I, too, picked up his lights. He was heading up north and to my unpracticed eye, was flying at quite a low altitude, certainly well below us. By Oprey, we’re talking military aircraft, not feathered bird.

“Isn’t he flying rather low?” I asked.

When the Osprey pilot saw us, he (I assume) realized that he was not where we expected any other aircraft to be and turned on his lights so he would be visible. There was no way that I could photograph him, even a grab shot, as he was lower and on Dave’s side. I was in the co-pilot’s seat, and Arnie was taking advantage of the back seats where he could photograph from either side.

After circling the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, we banked some more and headed homeward.

Arnie, Dave, and I commented on the wonderful patterns of current, shoals, and wind around Oregon Inlet. When we see this from the ground, there are often fisherman wading quite far out to their favorite spots. Some of the shoals you see here are merely waist deep.

We took in Bodie (pronounced “body”) Lighthouse and the wonderful marshes around it.

Then we banked to port to head back to the airport. We flew over one of our favorite fishing villages where we have made so many satisfying photographs. One would never know it from the air. There is great texture here and magical light, at least at the right time of day.

Conversation was kept to a minimum as we neared the airport. There was more activity over the radio, and we didn’t want to step on safety reports and dialog.

We flew past the airport, Dave on the radio, then did a gradual bank to port to approach the landing strip. There were reports of other planes, but we were in the clear.

The wind had picked up, but Dave made a gentle landing.The black you see is the black on the propeller tips.

We were probably up in the air only an hour or so, but it was such a great time for us. For Arnie and me, who love airplanes of any sort, it was a real treat. We took Dave to lunch, and savored the morning flight some more before we had to take off for home.

And to think, I could have been writing a blog instead!

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