Author: Greg Brown

Greg writes the "Flying Carpet" column in AOPA Flight Training magazine, and books about flying and pilots. He's also a noted photographer.

UPDATED: “Inner Basin Aspens,” Greg’s latest “View from the Flying Carpet” Fine Art Photography Metal Print

Greg's photographs

Inner Basin Flaming Aspens!

Recently I flew out-of-town visitors over the Grand Canyon. As always it was amazing, but I found myself dodging clouds so we returned early.

On our way back, however, sun pierced clouds over flaming autumn aspens lining the Inner Basin of Arizona’s San Francisco Peaks, and… Wow, one of my most amazing aerial sights ever! (Click on photo to see a larger image.)

“Inner Basin Flaming Aspens” Fine Art Metal Print sizes and pricing* in ready-to-hang frameless floating wall mounts (pictured at my Fine Art Metal Prints page):

11″x17,” $125
12″x18,” $145
16″x24,” $195
20″x30,” $295
24″x36,” $395
30″x40,” $495
*Prices include standard shipping within Continental US. (Contact me for pricing of custom sizes and framing options.)

Order your “Inner Basin Aspens” Fine Art Metal Prints HERE.

Check out my other available Views from the Flying Carpet aerial photographs, and Down to Earth terrestrial photographs.

Many thanks for the amazing response to this particular photo, and to all who have invested to date in my Fine Art Metal Prints and Pilot Achievement Plaques.

Greg

“Routine Flight,” Greg’s November, 2018 Flying Carpet column

Flying Carpet column, Greg's piloting tips
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“For once,” said Jean, “a routine flight.” We cruised homeward through cool, calm skies thanks to a high overcast filtering New Mexico’s high-desert summertime sun.

Driving from Flagstaff to Alamogordo takes eight hours each way. Going commercially requires two airline legs plus ninety minutes’ drive from El Paso. So general aviation truly offers the fastest way to get there, circumstances permitting, and this weekend was proving to be such an occasion.

But what is a routine flight, anyway? Piloting light airplanes turns out to be more about anomaly than routine. However often we travel a given route, every flight is different. Most aviators learn to appreciate that variety as adventure, but anyone expecting uneventful aerial “auto trips” is doomed to disappointment…

**Read Greg’s entire column, “ROUTINE FLIGHT“**

Photo: Thunderstorms threaten Alamogordo White Sands Regional Airport, New Mexico (KALM) from the Sacramento Mountains. (Available as a Fine Art Metal Print.)

(This column first appeared in AOPA Flight Training magazine.)

Greg

©2018 Gregory N. Brown

If you enjoyed this story, you’ll love Greg’s book, Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane. Autographed copies available!

Sunflower addiction: Greg’s latest “Down to Earth” Fine Art Photography Metal Print

Greg's photographs

Sunflower Sunset

Here’s my latest Down to Earth terrestrial Fine Art Metal Print offering, “Sunflower Sunset,” photographed at Kachina Wetlands south of Flagstaff, Arizona.

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This summer has been one of the best in memory for wild sunflowers blooming in Northern Arizona’s meadows and mountains.

Every time I go out, my camera insists on capturing more perspectives, and each time I post one I’m encouraged by audience response to take more. So thanks, everyone, for enabling my camera’s sunflower addiction! 

See all my latest “Down to Earth” terrestrial and “Views from the Flying Carpet” aerial photography Fine Art Metal Prints.

As always, thanks to all who have invested in my photography to date, including Fine Art Metal Prints, and Pilot Achievement Plaques.

Greg

“Time Warp,” Greg’s October, 2018 Flying Carpet column

Flying Carpet column

The weekend had long been planned.

Jean and I would fly from Flagstaff to Phoenix, soak up sun at a tony resort, and attend a late-afternoon wedding in nearby Tempe.

Shortly before the wedding, however, Navajo friends invited us to a same-day high school graduation luncheon in Gallup, New Mexico, an hour in the other direction.

For days Jean and I calculated and recalculated how we might attend both events, but the timing was too tight—even an embarrassingly-brief Gallup stop might make us late for the wedding. How disappointing, that two celebrations involving treasured friends should land so far apart on the same day.

“We’d need a time warp to make both events,” lamented Jean as she RSVP’d regrets to Gallup.

But “time warp” triggered an epiphany…

**Read Greg’s entire column, “TIME WARP“** (Mobile Link HERE)

Photo: Gallup Municipal Airport sign, New Mexico.

(This column first appeared in AOPA Flight Training magazine.)

Greg

©2018 Gregory N. Brown

If you enjoyed this story, you’ll love Greg’s book, Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane. Autographed copies available!

Greg’s latest “Down to Earth” Fine Art Photography Metal Print

Greg's photographs

Mountain Sunflowers!

Here’s my latest “Down to Earth” terrestrial Fine Art Metal Print, “Mountain Sunflowers,” photographed at Kachina Wetlands south of Flagstaff, Arizona.

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This summer has been one of the best in memory for wild sunflowers blooming in the meadows and mountains of Northern Arizona. Just the other day I captured this image of the San Francisco Peaks framed by sunflowers at Kachina Wetlands.

See all my latest “Down to Earth” terrestrial and “Views from the Flying Carpet” aerial photography Fine Art Metal Prints.

c2014GregBrown_SphinxMothWithThistles_4312-bb12x12Smw1200In other photography news, I’m pleased to have just donated two other terrestrial Fine Art Metal Prints prints to the Association of Nature Center Administrators (ANCA) for their upcoming Summit and fundraiser at Quinta Mazatlan Birding Center in McAllen, Texas:

c2015GregBrown_Sunflowers_1983-8bitSmw1200“Sphinx Moth with Thistles,” (right) for their silent auction, and yes, more “Sunflowers!” (left) for their live auction. Coincidentally both of these were shot in previous years at Kachina Wetlands. Best of success to ANCA at their fundraiser!

Many thanks to all who have invested in my photography to date, including Fine Art Metal Prints, and Pilot Achievement Plaques.

Greg

“Sports Car for a Day,” Greg’s September, 2018 Flying Carpet column

Flying Carpet column

Unlike most teens of my era, I favored old autos and sports cars over tire-squealing muscle cars. So I bought a ’39 Chevy before heading off to the University of Wisconsin.

After two years of worthy adventures, however, the old car’s 55mph maximum speed became tiresome. Then one day the rear axle bearings seized in a cloud of smoke on Interstate 94, and finding replacements took weeks.

GregBrownFT918_1967VolvoP1800SeSm1200So I sold my beloved Chevy and set my heart on an idiosyncratic Volvo P1800S sports car like that driven by Roger Moore in television’s The Saint.

After much searching I found a fire-engine-red ’67 coupe in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, with four-speed transmission, overdrive, and a claimed 60,000 miles. 

My younger brother Alan and his high-school buddy Paul Cowdrey were already private pilots, so I hitchhiked home to Chicago and Paul flew me to Sheboygan in a Grumman Traveler.

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This was my first time sharing a cockpit with a peer. I’d aviated since childhood with my dad, but although enjoying our destinations had developed little piloting passion since we kids were mostly relegated to the back seat. And while having recently earned my own pilot wings, I’d barely begun overcoming the training traumas to appreciate future aerial adventure.

But tracing the sparkling Lake Michigan shoreline under Paul’s command on such an exciting mission changed all that…

**Read Greg’s entire column, “SPORTS CAR FOR A DAY“** (Mobile version HERE)

Top photo: 1967 Volvo P1800S coupe. Lower photo: Paul Cowdrey at KDPA, circa 1972.

(This column first appeared in AOPA Flight Training magazine.)

Greg

©2018 Gregory N. Brown

If you enjoyed this story, you’ll love Greg’s book, Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane. Autographed copies available!

“Powerless,” Greg’s July, 2018 Flying Carpet column

Flying Carpet column, Greg's piloting tips, Greg’s flight instructor tips

“Hey Greg! I’ve just experienced my first two engine failures—in one trip!”

Flight instructor Jim Pitman had just ferried a 1946 Ercoupe from Wisconsin to Arizona, and wanted to brainstorm what might have caused the power losses.

Okay Folks, this is one column you don’t want to miss, about pilot Jim Pitman who suffered two engine failures in one trip. FIRST watch this cockpit video all the way through and THEN read the following column to learn the details.

Greg

**Now Read Greg’s column, “POWERLESS“** (Mobile-friendly version here.)

Cover Photo: Jim Pitman, with the 1946 Ercoupe.

(This column first appeared in AOPA Flight Training magazine.)

©2018, 2023 Gregory N. Brown

If you enjoyed this story, you’ll love Greg’s book, Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane. Autographed copies available!

Greg’s latest “View from the Flying Carpet,” and “Down to Earth” Fine Art Photography Metal Prints

Greg's photographs

Tahoe Reflections!

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I photographed “Tahoe Reflections” from over the Nevada Desert just east of Lake Tahoe. Read the background story in my Flying Carpet column, “Sky Islands.”
See also “Tahoe Chalice” taken on that same aerial journey, and all my available Views from the Flying Carpet aerial Fine Art Metal Prints.

Sunset Lenticular Clouds

And here’s my latest “Down to Earth” terrestrial Fine Art Metal Print, “Sunset Lenticulars,” photographed at Kachina Wetlands south of Flagstaff, Arizona.

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Lens-shaped “lenticular clouds” commonly form downwind of mountains—in this case, Arizona’s San Francisco Peaks—during periods of strong winds aloft. See all my latest “Down to Earth” terrestrial Fine Art Metal Prints.

Many thanks to all who have invested in my photography products to date, including Fine Art Metal Prints, and Pilot Achievement Plaques.

Greg

“Sworn to Secrecy,” Greg’s June, 2018 Flying Carpet column

Flying Carpet column, Greg's piloting tips

“Shed-hunting”—I first heard the expression when an acquaintance briefed me on a favorite pastime.

Collecting shed elk and deer antlers sends him hiking the great outdoors; it’s good exercise, and can even generate a few bucks from people seeking home and garden decor. Knowing my passion for flight, he asked about scouting his favorite shed-hunting area from the air.

“Of course you’d have to keep the location secret,” he added. Whether gathering blueberries, mushrooms, or antlers, nobody wants to reveal their private motherlode.

My first reaction was, “Sure!” Like most pilots, I thrill to exploring Earth from above. Jean and I often note back roads to drive, and countless of our passengers have scouted sites pertaining to their own favorite diversions—mountain biking, hiking, cross-country skiing, and wilderness camping.

Obviously, identifying even the largest antlers from the air would be impossible, so I asked for details. It turned out my friend’s interest was not in spotting antlers per se, nor even animals. Rather he sought the lay of the land: identifying established back roads, hiking-access points, and wildlife trails and water sources where shedding animals might congregate. All these could be assessed with binoculars from a prudent altitude.

This fellow knew as little about aviation as I do about antlers, so he asked the legalities of aerial spotting. Obviously, FAA regulations define minimum flight altitudes in given environments, and we’d need to avoid charted conservation areas.

Upon investigating wildlife conservation rules, however, I learned that my friend’s seemingly benign mission was more complicated than it sounded…

**Read Greg’s entire column, “SWORN TO SECRECY“**

Photo: Bull elk, near Flagstaff, Arizona.

(This column first appeared in AOPA Flight Training magazine.)

Greg

©2018 Gregory N. Brown

If you enjoyed this story, you’ll love Greg’s book, Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane. Autographed copies available!

“‘Gotcha’ Switch,” Greg’s May, 2018 Flying Carpet column

Flying Carpet column, Greg's piloting tips

Every pilot experiences a bit of pucker factor when descending through clouds on an instrument approach. Am I really where I think I am, safely separated from the ground?

I was reminded of the stakes when my friend Mark phoned after landing at Colorado Springs with his wife and another couple.

“After clear weather through the mountains, we encountered an inversion east of the Rockies,” he said. “Colorado Springs was reporting 1000 broken, 1500 overcast, so I requested the ILS Runway 17L approach. The vectoring and intercept seemed fine, but we broke out of the clouds just above the trees while still several miles from the runway. It was quite a scare, and I want to determine the cause so it never happens again.”

For you VFR pilots: an instrument landing system (ILS) consists of two intersecting perpendicular radio signals projected from the ground. By centering the associated vertical (localizer) and horizontal (glideslope) needles, pilots are guided to the runway.

Mark wondered if the problem was with glideslope signal or receiver, or if he’d made some serious error in executing the approach. The approach plate showed terrain 1,000 feet above field elevation north of the airport, so I suggested he might feel low breaking out there. That didn’t satisfy Mark, however…

**Read Greg’s entire column, “‘GOTCHA’ SWITCH“**

Photo: Mark, with his Bonanza.

(This column first appeared in AOPA Flight Training magazine.)

Greg

©2018 Gregory N. Brown

If you enjoyed this story, you’ll love Greg’s book, Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane. Autographed copies available!