Back to the Sky

This past summer has been one of the worst for weekend flying around these parts in memory. The weather was often marginal VFR or the forecast was so iffy that few recreational pilots dared go anywhere for fear of being weathered in away from home.

September has been a welcome change and this past weekend was simply gorgeous, with skies so blue that it could hurt your eyes. My home airport has a restaurant on it that is open four days a week for breakfast and lunch. Last weekend's traffic was insane.

This is a Cessna P337, also known as a pressurized Skymaster. The Air Force bought Skymasters (not the pressurized models) during the Vietnam War, probably the last piston-powered combat aircraft the U.S. purchased. They were used for observation, spotting and forward air controlling duties. They were the "slow FACs" (fast FACs, F-100s and F-4s, were used in high AAW threat areas).


This photo was taken the weekend before, when the skies were gray and threatening to rain.


This is an old tall building that is located many, many miles from a city or any similar building. I have no idea why it was built or by whom.



I did check FlightAware on Sunday morning, as I was doing my flight planning. There were over a hundred single-engine Cessnas on IFR flight plans, with Skylanes being the most numerous of the bunch.