The one where WMAP gets all smushy!

The thing that stands out from today’s flight was just how easy it actually was. I was totally and utterly in control for the entire flight. I was ahead of the plane and on top of my game. The visibility was better than I’ve seen it in a long time. The hot summer sun burning off any morning haze. It was stupidly easy to spot my navigation landmarks. So much so that I found myself second guessing my position, surely Frenchman’s Bay couldn’t be that easy to spot?

I barely needed my chart; I lazily flew along the shoreline, marvelling at the colour of the lake. The air was still and stable, so perfect. I stayed at 2500ft, content just to follow the shoreline along. I kept up my instrument scan, parroting “Aviate, Navigate, Communicate,” just as Bob has taught me. All the time keeping on top of what I needed to do.

As I approached Pickering power station, I made another position call announcing my intention to start heading north. On the way I negotiated with a couple of other aircraft and staked out my little piece of sky.  As soon as I was over land, the plane started to react, a little summer warming of the land gently shaking me. I’m not particularly a fan of that and I had the whole sky above me, let’s climb and see if we can find some more stable air.

Sure enough above 3000ft JES and I settled down and took stock of our surroundings.

It was so beautiful it defies description.

You simply don’t see landscape like that in the UK. The UK is small and green. All tight curves, winding roads and small spaces, rolling hills and houses dotted along twisty country lanes.

Below me were vast fields, straight lines, flat open spaces,so many colours, suburbia popping up from vast empty nothing. The oh so blue lake to the south, boats and sails dotted along the shore, empty beaches, open parks and away to the west, the ultimate symbol of Toronto poking above the skyline, clearly visible in the bright summer sun.

Below me was the sum total of my new home personified, an entire country mine to view. It was so profound, it hurt. I’m not ashamed to say I got a little sentimental up there. I almost cried. To be in this position, to have achieved this much to enable me to fly out there solo and drink in this view. It’s just incredible.

And then I remembered I was meant to be doing steep turns!

Oops. Time to come back I think.