Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Picture of the Day: August 23

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today...

...so I figured it would be a great chance to get out there and enjoy it...

...from the air!!

I grabbed the C150 for a couple hours and figured I'd use the nice weather to do some airport hopping. Up first: KOKV, Winchester, VA. This is left downwind for runway 14.

On the way to OKV I heard a pilot mention something about an earthquake on the CTAF. I thought it was kind of weird until I landed. As I was walking inside with one of the line guys he asked me if I'd been in the air during the earthquake, then led me inside to the TV where the news stations were going nuts about a 5.9 magnitude earthquake that hit our area! I was dumbfounded to say the least...that's not something that happens very often on the East Coast, and certainly not of that intensity.

It turned out that the epicenter was only about 40 miles from my house, so rather than continuing on to the three other airports I'd planned to visit, I hopped back in the plane and went back to HWY. I was disappointed that I had to cut the flight short, especially since the weather was so nice, but it was more important to get back to make sure my dogs and house were ok. There will always be another day to fly!

It was a little bumpy as I crossed the ridges, but it smoothed out on the east side.

I decided to head toward Remington on the way back to make sure the house was at least standing and not in flames or something ridiculous like that. Along the way I finally found the tiny airport down the street! It's about a mile from my house, and they have a smiley face painted on the hangar roof. :)

Thankfully my dogs and house were ok. Also, I wasn't in the air during the earthquake - I was sitting in the plane, waiting to take off! I thought I had missed it. I had finished the runup and was on the taxiway, waiting for an R22 helicopter on final to get out of my way. I let the plane roll forward on the taxiway just a little, and as I did the airplane wobbled side to side for a few seconds. It felt weird - almost like someone had walked up to the plane, grabbed the wing, and rocked it up and down. I thought it was a little weird at the time; my plane occasionally moves like that when I go over a bump because of the spring steel landing gear, but the C150 doesn't have that type of gear. I also thought that maybe it was a gust of wind, but that didn't make sense either as there was very little wind. It wasn't until a couple hours later when I brought the plane back and was talking to Sam in the flight school that I realized that what I felt was actually the earthquake!

Though the flight was a bit shorter than I had planned, I have to admit...it's not often you get to write 'earthquake while taxiing' in your logbook. :)

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