News in Progress

During a flight lesson today, a house caught fire while we were airborne and burned down right before our eyes. The zoomed-in picture was taken when the flames were at their worst. My pictures were on TV during the evening news.

(click pictures to enlarge)

Connect the Dots

Above & left: Here's just a small sampling of the dozens if not hundreds of ice shanties on Lake Poygan. I'm not sure if I've ever seen so many there.

Below: Lake Winnebago. This lake has race tracks, ice roads, countless ice shanties, and at least one giant crack to watch out for.

Unreal Sunset

Apparently I dream in color.




This was one of those "why I fly" moments, and the best part was I had two people onboard who were there to learn what flying is all about. Thanks Eric for the pictures while I was landing at Oshkosh.

Out of the Deep Freeze and Into the Sky

After a week of being battered by temperatures stuck in the sub-zero range and 40-below wind chills, things have finally improved. I got up in the air today for a discovery flight and two lessons. Rather than try to land on our very slippery runway, I moved the plane to Oshkosh and flew from there. Their runway 27 was not much better but at least I had 150 feet to work with.

A big thanks goes out to Dale and Dan for plowing today, because otherwise I wouldn't even have been able to get the planes out of the hangar.


The weather today ranged from clear and beautiful to very hazy with flurries coming out of nowhere. Later in the afternoon, I couldn't venture far to the west because we faced a white wall of snow. (Stayed away from that... yikes.)

I got a good zoomed-in picture of one of the many windmills scattered all over in the Fond du Lac area. Later when the sky clouded over, these things became quite camouflaged against the white background.


The rail yard in Fond du Lac was full of multicolored train cars that stood out against the snow.


The conditions today were a little challenging but I'll take what I can get! At least the air was smooth and temps were well above zero. It was neat to see a lot of snowmobiles, ice fishing shanties, an ice road crossing Lake Winnebago, and race tracks on the lake. We Wisconsinites try to have as much fun with winter as we can. Now I wish I had a skiplane.

The Airport Ice Rink

This is why I can't fly at Brennand Airport right now. You could speed skate down the runway. I called in a NOTAM today on behalf of the airport manager, to close runway 18/36 until further notice.

Skidding Around

The lakes are full of ice shanties, our blanket of snow is coated with ice, and the most dangerous part of flying lately is walking on the ramp. I flew from Green Bay today and upon first glance thought their parking areas were in great shape. Nope, what looked like pavement was just tons of sand on top of the glare ice. We had to hunt for a place to stop and do a runup.

I flew a nice long instrument lesson today in the sunny sky and found a 40-knot wind aloft. We made sure to avoid heading toward the sun today, because the ice glaze over the snow reflected like a mirror. Even though the sun was out, it wasn't melting the ice at all because temperatures were only in the teens.

I'm glad to have a new instrument student because it offers me a nice change of pace. I haven't taught instruments in a while. It is a good learning experience for me to review these things myself.