We took to the air around lunchtime today. There was a bit of wind, so the plane wanted to fly, pulling up in response to the gusts as soon as we rolled it from the hangar. The wind also created somewhat nauseating turbulence in flight, but the combination of wind and the thermals off of unevenly warming ground and frozen lakes brought out soaring birds. We saw more birds on this trip than I’ve ever seen, including a bald eagle.
The eagle was below us, at maybe 2000 feet, its black wings and white tail fan outstretched and immobile – in full soar. It was big, even from far away. No, it isn’t my photograph, but the words of the post seemed insufficient without the image. Imagine inverting the photo and seeing the eagle from above, it was farther away than this, but the wings seemed just as wide and even darker.
(photo credit: Eagles 2 050, originally uploaded to Flickr by FadderUri.)
Hi there! This is Lisa. Have you ever gone up in a glider? I took my first glider flights last year, and it was a blast. It’s utterly silent (except for the wind and the vario) and feels almost weightless, like being suspended in air. I wrote about it here: http://www.kitchenchick.com/2006/09/gliding_and_blu.html