Tag: San Francisco Peaks

“Miles and Miles of Sunflowers!” Greg’s latest Fine Art Aerial Photo Metal Print!

Greg's photographs, Well, I'll be!

Hey Friends, thanks to your enthusiastic reception, here’s “Miles and Miles of Sunflowers,” my latest “View from the Flying Carpet” Fine Art Metal Print!

I was returning my wife Jean and her tennis teammate Jenny from a tournament in El Paso. Five long hours round trip by Flying Carpet, and it was too hazy to see anything special… until 15 minutes from home.

There we encountered these vivid, horizon-to-horizon sunflowers sweeping from Lake Mary toward the San Francisco Peaks. Never have we seen anything like this before! This turns out to be Northern Arizona’s most amazing wildflower year in memory, and we’re thrilled to have captured even a tiny fragment of it from aloft.

Nowhere is the power of numbers more boldly reflected than in these fields of sunflowers captured from a speeding airplane thousands of feet in the air!

Like all my Fine Art Metal Prints, “Miles and Miles of Sunflowers,” ready-to-hang pricing starts at just $125, with super-affordable 2-day shipping throughout the Continental US.

Check out all my Views from the Flying Carpet aerials* and Down to Earth terrestrial photos!* (*These pages take a moment to load.)

Many thanks to all who invest in my prints, books, and pilot achievement plaques!

Greg

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Tour Autumn Flaming Aspens & Red-Rock Sedona by “Flying Carpet”

flying adventures, Greg's photographs

So Thursday morning Jean and I decided to take off and check out the amazing autumn “flaming aspens” on Arizona’s San Francisco Peaks, followed by a brief landing at Sedona. Ride along via the following video!

Greg

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“Consolation Prize,” Greg’s November, 2019 Flying Carpet column

flying adventures, Flying Carpet column, Greg's photographs

Our weekend guests Alex and Sabina arrived to unseasonably wet and cold autumn weather.

As with previous visitors, I’d promised Alex a Grand Canyon aerial tour. I mention only Alex because while he and I had flown together before, Sabina had expressed such fear of airplanes that I’d presumptively invited another friend in her place. Saturday, rain confined us indoors. Based on forecast improvement, we designated Monday for hiking and autumn leaf-peeping. That left only Sunday, weather permitting, for flying.

Sunday morning, both Flagstaff Pulliam (KFLG) and Grand Canyon (KGCN) Airports reported scattered clouds at 1,700 feet above ground (AGL), roughly 8,700 feet above sea level (MSL). While that was adequate for the route, the Grand Canyon Special Flight Rules Area requires a 10,000-foot MSL minimum altitude to overfly the Canyon.

Lacking pilot weather reports, I explained that we could safely fly to the Grand Canyon, but depending on arrival-time conditions we might not be able to cross. Alex was predictably game to go. Sabina, however, surprised everyone by volunteering to join us—her sister and friends had told her she’d be nuts to miss the Grand Canyon from above.

Although apprehensive, Sabina took the copilot seat, usually best for nervous passengers. Noting clenched teeth and hands while taxiing out, I offered to turn around, but she insisted we continue. After takeoff, however, she began peering out the window…

**Continue reading Greg’s entire column, “CONSOLATION PRIZE” **. (Mobile-device version.)

Photo: “Inner Basin Aspens: Sunstruck autumn aspens line Arizona’s San Francisco Peaks.  (Available as a Fine Art Metal Print, Pilot Achievement Plaque, and in Art Note Cards.)

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

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