A Beautiful Sunset Flight Home

It seems that so many posts of mine start out with a stunning picture of the airplane that I fly for a living. But I honestly can’t help myself. Look at this thing!

On Sunday afternoon, it was time to bring a few people back to Scottsdale from Bremerton. I didn’t mind, because it meant a whole two nights home before I was gone for a solid two weeks on the road.

Have you ever seen Mount St. Helens? Now you have! Look how she blew her top! And you can still see the ash and smoke marks! Just incredible! And a little creepy.

El Capitan went in back to check on his kid, so it was just Gladys and me for a few minutes. Girl time!

I think this is the first photo proof of me and Gladys in flight. Man, I’m slow. I just feel silly taking pictures of myself when other people are watching. With just me in the cockpit, I took advantage with my camera lens.

The best part of the flight was the gorgeous view. Can you believe that this is what I see outside of my office window?

As we got closer to home, we flew right over the Grand Canyon. It is so beautiful from the air. And, with the setting sun to only bring out the colors more, it was bright orange. For some reason, my camera can never capture the true beauty all around me.

Hmmm. Is this yet another subliminal message that I should get a fancy-pants camera?! So I can take killer pictures at work?!

Though we were able to avoid the bulk of the thunderstorms in the Convective SIGMET that extended all the way from Idaho to Arizona, we descended through a few puffs of non-dangerous clouds as we got ready to land at home.

This picture was taken just a few hundred feet above entering the clouds. It’s always so fun to go through clouds because it really shows how fast we are going.

I’m actually in love with all of these pictures from tonight’s flight. Look how barren this desert looks! Aren’t those clouds so pretty with the sun disappearing to the right? The lighting was just awesome as I flew further towards home.

We are certainly getting closer to habitation. This is the northern side of Phoenix. People actually live this far out and commute into the city, over an hour-and-a-half drive. It only took about eight minutes in Gladys. Man!

Sheesh. Maybe I will just frame all of these!

My camera clicked into “sunset mode” to take this picture, and I’m so glad. It really draws out the orange and reds in the mountains while showcasing the clouds above.

I really like this picture, too. It almost makes me forget that it is 110 degrees down below. Almost.

I hope that I don’t sound cocky about these shots, but I absolutely love them! I just lucked out with the lighting during the flight, and the pictures turned out well because of that lighting. This is our final approach to land on Runway 21 at home.

We’ve only been gone three days, but it has been busy. And oh-so-fun.

An airplane and a sunset. We’re all happy now, right?

This might be my favorite shot of the night, though it’s hard to pick.

Full-body shot of Gladys in the setting sun. Aren’t those clouds gargeous?

My camera couldn’t quite show it, but these clouds were bright purple and orange. It was a stunning backdrop for my Phenom 300’s tail.

I like how the reflection of the sunset can even be seen in her black paint.

Home for a whole day. It will be a fun two weeks.

Which is your favorite picture?

By the way, as you read this, I am hopefully hanging upside-down on a killer roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain. And having a ball, no-doubt. This is my job!?