Mountain View and Lake Wentworth

June 24, 2017

Emilie Phillips

Flying home from Adina’s in New York, I realized I enjoy flying with other people. So, I tried to organize the Brookline crew to fly to Mountain View together.

There was a chance of rain that Saturday, so I didn’t send out the coordination email until the morning of the fly in. One other pilot said he was in. We arranged to takeoff at 11AM when the storm front should have passed. The weather actually improved earlier than forecast while I was still grocery shopping. Tyson looked out the window at 10AM to see the other pilot departing. That ended my attempt to fly north together. I grumbled for a bit, then I made a new plan. We texted Grigory and Kaitrin and loaded the folding bikes in the plane.

Tyson and I flew formation up to Mountain View. Maintaining a constant distance from another airplane is challenging. I can match speed. But I haven’t figured out cues to gage lateral distance. The human brain makes far away objects look as big as close ones.

At the fly in, we ate lunch with Mike, Leo, and Jerry from Brookline. I found Tom Ford from the SuperCub.org crew. After a lunch of pasta salad, burgers, and pot luck brownies, we left the pilots behind.

Emilie towing Isaac back up to Mountain View

Kaitrin and Grigory brought little Colin to the fly in for his first airplane ride. Colin handled it well. He got wide eyed when the ground fell away. He didn’t like the headset. Then, the motor hum lulled him to sleep. Meanwhile, Isaac wanted to bicycle. So I hitched his trailer to my folding bike. We bicycled a loop around the airport on some steep hills. I had to get off and walk twice. Isaac and I arrived back at the airport a few minutes after Tyson and crew landed.

Kaitrin and Grigory have made good use of the baby outdoor gear we gave them. They towed the pulk all winter. This spring they introduced the backpack carrier. Mostly, it works for them. But they have the same complaint as we did — there’s no good head rest for the kid to fall asleep. Maybe I should write the manufacturer.

After the flight, Colin needed a proper nap at home. Tyson, Isaac and I bicycled down to the beach. Grigory and Kaitrin said they might catch up with us after Colin had rested.