ETLB Squawk Forums — Archive

Gardening Vs. Flying
A Kansas Color Flight

Sometimes, the wives of fliers don't appreciate all we go through while attempting to share the many glorious aspects of our activity with them.

Yesterday, my wife, Vi was pulling weeds from the garden, chopping down sunflower stalks and raking the lawn in preparation for over seeding. Even though I explained to her that by not taking a car tour, she was missing the fall color show that Kansas rarely exhibits. In a few days, the Kansas wind will have stripped the leaves  from the trees. She ignored my thoughtful suggestion and was determined to stay on her self-appointed task.

I'm off

In a rare flash of mental brilliance, "I thought, I'll go fly for a couple of hours, take photos then share them with her." So, I grabbed my helmet, goggles, silk scarf, leather jacket, and camera.  Immediately I was off to the aerodrome where I hangar my plane. I really didn't want to give her time to change her mind...imagine  that.

What a beautiful flight it was.  Even though Kansas trees have a limited color range, the terrain was cloaked in browns, deep reds, and an occasional yellow, was a remarkably beautiful sight from 500 feet AGL. Although the Arkansas River has almost dried up, the man-made ponds, reflecting pools and "lakes" around which subdivisions are made still held enough water to provided sharp contrast to the landscape.


You have likely heard the instrumental titled "Canadian Sunset", well, Kansas has some beautiful sunsets too. Although our "music" is generated by neighing horses, bellowing cows, and grunting bison. Almost every night the sky is aglow with some shade of orange, red, and yellow refelecting off the clouds.  The sunset  photo was taken on the ground shortly after landing.  I hangar on property that is also a horse farm, two of the critters can be seen  in the foreground.

Continued on  next  post


The photos below depict some of  what I saw, perhaps you fly over similar scenes:

Continuation of story

Back home

I returned home to find Vi still in the garden.  As I handed her a glass of iced water with a slice of lemon in it I noted her appearance.  She looked an itinerant farm laborer after a day of  picking potato bugs off dusty plants. Her shirt had a sweat streak down the back, clean "rivers" marked her face where sweat had washed away the dirt, her glasses looked like the "foggles" used to train pilots for instrument flights, and she displayed wet half moons under her armpits bigger than any those Refrigerator Perry ever had. Her disposition was somewhere between that of an attacking Wolverine and cornered mountain lion. She was not a "happy camper."

Somehow, I got the feeling that I was supposed to have helped her with the garden chores instead of going flying. At times, we definitely operate on different radio frequencies. She was raised in an area of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan densely populated with Indians. To  my understanding, the squaws cooked, cleaned, gardened and built fires while the men fished, hunted, and did recon. To my way of thinking, things shouldn't be any different today; only the technology has changed. Apparently, Vi doesn't share that thinking.
  
I tried to maintain an arm's length distance when handing her the water glass, actually, I stood far enough away so I  could cowardly make her reach for it.  Right then, her frustration level had peaked and she wasn't about to take crap from anyone. Rather than compliment her on the completed garden work, I figured it best to keep my mouth shut.

Natural  beauty

Understandably, Vi was not very receptive to my suggestion of looking at the camera's viewer where I had displayed the beautiful scenery captured only hours earlier.  My, what a contrast between natural beauty and that of the human kind! It seemed best to keep conversation to a minimum.

She quickly dismissed my esoteric interpretation of nature's beautiful color display and handed me her hoe which she bluntly stated needed sharpening.  She also told me the mower blade was dull. With her beautiful brown eyes now narrowing and turning into a pair of concentrated laser beams, she silently drilled into me making it clear I was to cut up into manageable lengths, the hundred sunflower stalks she had hacked down earlier. The pictures could wait.

And so ends my day,  not only is the weather extreme here, but it appears to have a similarly wide effect on people. Maybe gardening is more important than  flying?  Naw, not in my opinion. How would your wives have responded?

Hope you have enjoyed this slice of life from central Kansas.

Paul D. Fiebich

Beautiful pictures Paul!
I think you were missinterpreting your wife. She wasn't having much funwhen you came back just  because she was working on the garden while you were just having fun. Next time instead of the ice water, compliment her job and take her for dinner, that way you keep a happy wife, a nice garden, and all the time to fly.  
Nice writting as usual.

Better to ask forgiveness than to ask permision.

    Did you get a new telephoto lens, or are you flying real low these days?

Flydog, I never got  above  500' on this flight; I still wanted to smell the barnyards and smoke from brush fires.  Many of the photos  were 200 to 300 feet altitude when that  wasn't a hazard.  I really lucked out when taking  the  photo of the combine.  It was in the field adjacent  to the runway where I was on final to land.  I bet we weren't 50' apart! Perfect  timing! I have  my little 14 megapixle camera set to almost its highest position, this allows  me to crop the photos without losing much resolution.

Ricardo, I hope I saved a little bit of  credibility with my wife for not helping her up front with the gardening.  I took her to a sports  bar were we watched her favorite team, the Green Bay Packers play and  spent about $30 on beer, chips and sandwiches. The welts on my back from the rubber hose are starting to go down.

Paul  Fiebich

That photo of the bridge is way cool. I love rustic themes and the fall colors really set that one off.

BTW Paul, if your wife is anything like mine, cleaning the ceiling fans without being told goes a long way...  

PauL: Now I understand  why she's doing the garden when the Packers are on TV  
Man, I miss football! Here they show a couple of Sunday games and also the Monday Night  but the broadcast is in Mexican!!!....no way! it will never be the same. That time is family time.
However  nobody can touch my Formula 1 time.   

Cool story and I guess that is why I refuse to marry again.

Well Paul , maybe you need one of these as a Christmas Present...!

regards Arthur

as you can see....its seen a few seasons....!
regards Arthur

Paul,

If you like the colors you should have been here with me in the Great Smokey Mtns. during October. I live at the foot of a mountain and the other side is the National Park. A true artists palette. Great fall flying when the colors are changing, come fly our mountains next fall. After all of the adventures you have been having you probably need a break. And your resident gardener couldn't turn a trip like that down. lol

Gary

Loved the pics and the story Paul!... Lots of rain and my nutty travel schedule limited me from enjoying a typical New England autumn colors flying season this year... One of the things I am really looking forward to as I build my max flying experience is seeing the world from a few hundred feet, instead of a few thousand... I know the Palouse is going to provide some great photo opportunities someday soon. Your story and photos keep that inspiration fresh in mind. Thanks!

Damn, Paul.........it sure is a lot prettier in Kansas than it is in the panhandle of Texas!
First of all we don't have many trees and no lakes or streams........that could be part of
the problem, LoL!  But I sure enjoy the pics.  There are sure some pretty houses in that
part of the world.  I would love a house on an island like that one house.  Only pics I
have would be pics like the first one............farm machinery stirring up dust!!

Gary and Redbird, you guys live in the premium part of  the  country  for fall colors.  I see those bus tour advertisements for color tours through the Smokies and up into  New England and can just imagine what it would be like to fly over all those splashes of color.  It would be great for a car tour also. I have relatives in the  Carolinas, upstate New York and New Hampshire but have only made car trips during the summer.  I will have to change plans one of these years and make the trips  in the fall.

Kurt, I have flown as far into the  Texas panhandle as Perryton and  you are right, no ponds,  lakes and only scant few trees.  How do you guys live  out there? Below is another local photo taken yesterday that might be typical of your area but instead  of soy  beans it would most likely be cotton that they would be picking. Notice the  dust trails from the  combines, we had a no wind day!  And yes, some portions of Kansas are pretty,  in their own right.

I enjoy all of your comments and sure appreciate having this board where we can share photos and information.

Paul D.  Fiebich

Paul, (re:picture)

Now that is something we don't see around here. During my working years I had the opportunity to travel the east coast and the gulf states out thru Texas. Every state has some unique quality that makes it special. In Texas the contrast from east to west is unreal. The east looks about like what you find in SC, the hill country like the foothills in TN and the west, well, wide open nothingness. But I did meet a few judges in the western parts that reenforce the image of the wild, wild west.  Don't really know how the guys out there found their way around before GPS. Guess our resident professor (redbird) would give them an A+ for their pilotage skills. If you ever do come our way give us a yell. Probably a few around here that would like to meet you in the flesh.

Gary0

Its a great story ! And dont think its different outside of US either. Divorcing from my  pshyciatrist wife 12 years ago very peacefully, I ve had run into a couple of similar "therapist" partnerships (donno why maybe Iam a shrink magnet or what) still could not find cure on this problem.
But as I see there is a huge demand on specialized therapist  on "women air sickness" .
For the last one I said at the first day. So I have had enough of the arguments and I said to the recent therapist partner at the first date: "look, I am a married man for 30 years to my flying habit and I will not under any circumstances divorce from it, take it or leave it"

Khhhhm.... ..its foggy, I am heading to collect walnuts from 3 trees  ...  
Have a good saturday

Quoted from Garyk Paul, (re:picture)
Guess our resident professor (redbird) would give them an A+ for their pilotage skills.
Gary0

oh no, the inferences are gonna follow me for life   ...  just for the record... It was almost a decade ago; but, I did make my first long xc during my initial pilot training in an Aeronca 11AC with only a compass... no gps, not even a heading indicator... it was "fun" but I do prefer at least having a handheld gps in my pocket for emergencies... truth be told though, I have become very dependent on WingX and my iPad...

back on topic - yes Paul, the colors are amazing here in NH at times. This year was not the best, and I only got up to see them once or twice; but, it is a very impressive show by mother nature many years...

Quoted from Garyk
In Texas ..... the west, well, wide open nothingness.  

you sure as hell arent kidding there!!!!  i did my long cross country when i lived in oklahoma back in 78.  i took off from max westheimer field in norman.....flew west to childress, tx in the pan handle...then north to gage, ok in the ok pan handle.  not too far west of norman the word "nothingness" became a stark reality.  nothing but scorpions, rattle snakes, armadillos, and red dirt.  not a sign of a human as far as i could see.  not a place i wanted to see how well i could execute a forced landing.  i kept gaining altitude because if the engine crapped out on me i wanted be able to glide to california.  i was glad i had a VOR because if i was looking for landmarks for way points i would have been S*** out of luck!