Mountains beyond mountains!

It’s been awhile since I’ve last posted! This past semester I was so busy with school work that I did not get many opportunities to fly. I have not taken lessons since I got my pilot’s license last June (2011) but I have been accumulating cross country hours (requirement= 50 nautical miles for one leg of the journey). 

[1 nautical mile= 1.15 miles]

After school ended, I picked up the pace with getting hours and went on several flights around Kentucky. For the past two weeks I was in Colorado visiting my sister and brother in law and enjoying the mountains! I got to run 2 races there (the Color Run 5k and Bolder Boulder 10k) and hike up a “fourteener” (mountains with summits above 14,000 ft elevation). I didn’t have too much trouble with the elevation and oxygen. While I was running and hiking it was a bit tougher.

Else (sister) and I after the Color Run in Denver, CO

Else and I after the Bolder Boulder 10k in Boulder, CO

Mount Bierstadt 14,065 feet (4,287 m)- the peak on the right

The best thing I got to do was fly in the mountains! The first day I had scheduled a flight with an instructor the winds were around 30 knots which is quite dangerous when you are in the mountains. [1 knot = 1.15 mph] We ended up rescheduling for the next Friday which was a perfect clear calm day! We went for a morning flight around 9 am and headed out to the mountains. I got to fly for part of the flight as well as take pictures while my instructor flew the airplane. It was magnificent to see how big the mountains really are and how awesome God has made the different parts of the earth! I could just sit in the mountains for hours on end looking at the beauty all around me! It was neat to fly at 12,000 ft and have mountain tops above us!

Flying over the Rockies

Valleys and mountain peaks

        

We planned on going to Leadville, CO (the highest airport in the US- ~10,000ft). However, since the winds were 11 knots crosswind and gusting at 21 knots it was safer not to land. We flew up the valley and circled around Leadville and then went back and landed at Buena Vista airport (10-15 miles down the valley). We sat in the sun for about 15 minutes and just enjoyed the scenery then flew back to Denver. I loved flying in the mountains because you get to see what everything looks like from above. 

The peaks were higher than we were!

 

Amos 4:13 He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth — the Lord God Almighty is his name. 

 

View from Buena Vista airport.

Fly with Christ, 

Helen