Our Flight with Brian Knight

On October 25, 2015, former colleague at UTRC Brian Knight flew up to the Eastern Slopes Airport in Freyberg with passengers Bob and Deb Haas. This is the plane which he rented for the day. I am not sure what this model is, but it is noted for it’s high tail (which leads to certain instabilities).

Brian has been flying for a long time. I recall when we were at UTRC and Brian suggested that he would fly me on a trip to Penn State. The personnel department frowned on that idea.

Here was the crew for our flight – except that Deb Haas was replaced by Wendy. Deb stayed at the airport as we took our one-hour flight.

Bob and Wendy climbed in the rear cabin, then Brian got in the pilot’s seat and I was the co-pilot. There is only one door on this plane. To say that the quarters were cramped would be an understatement.

We all buckeled up and were given head-phones so we could talk to one another over the engine noise.

The flight to Jackson took only 5 minutes. Brian circled the town at 5000 ft three times so we could take pictures. Here is the Top of Tyrol (at least the populated part) with High Meadow at the bottom of the picture.

This is a picture of Wildflower Lane with High Meadow at the top and the Gray’s (formerly the Prinnz’s and Shield’s) house at the bottom.

We then followed Route 16 up to Mount Washington. – elevation 6288 feet. I suggested to Brian that he might want to gain a little altitude. No problem, said Brian, and he took us up to 7500 feet.

We circled the mountain several times. Here is the Cog Railway which goes up the western side. The Cog was not running as the season was over, but we did see a train (not shown here) which suggested they were workin’ on the railroad.

Here is a view of the Great Gulf with the Ridge of the Caps trail going up the near side. The weather was perfect. I think if there had been hikers on the trail we could have spotted them.

This looks like Huntington Ravine. At the top you can spot the Auto Road. Just above the ravine you can see a trail to the summit.

Here is the summit with the parking lots to the left. Again, the Auto road was closed, but there are people at the Mount Washington Observatory. You can hike up the mountain at any time, but you can’t buy a meal at the summit except in the summertime.

Across from Mt. Washington is Wildcat Mountain. You can see that they have been making snow on the Lynx Trail. We can see the top of the chairlift from our deck – notable because of the white color.

On the way back to Fryeberg we passed over Corn Maze at Sherman Farm.

Back to the Easter Slopes Airport. Thank you, Bob Haas, for all the wonderful photos. (Wendy’s camera lost battery power at takeoff.) And thank you Brain Knight for a soft landing. And thank you, Deb Hass, for prying me out of my seat.