Birds Or Squirrels ?

Stepped outside a little past 12:30pm today and it felt like a day in April. It was 42° and April is still four months away. The day was still nice and with a jacket and hat on, it was nice to sit out on the patio and enjoy the sunshine.

An Airport?? Really??

I wish I knew how to draw circles in this picture, around things of interest because there is a funny one and a warning. To the right notice the sign "Congested Area" ... where is the congestion? Is it traffic congestion or people congestion? Trucks? What? That sign looks permanent and not just something they planted for road construction, road closures, a festival, a Harley convention, a rock concert in one of the local cornfields .. no ... it says "Congested Area". I'll drive safely.

You are really going to have to have your eyes focused on the 'warning' I am going to show you. A little information to add before I point him out. That highway behind me is a 55mph speed zone for about eight miles of highway. People are usually flying by my house 65-75 mph because it's flat, nice wide highway and I know that because the times I have flown by my house in the past I was also doing 65-75 mph. As you get closer to town it moves to 50 mph but right as you cross a bridge and your are in this business area ... it's 40 mph in a blink of an eye. You better get there no matter how fast you were going on the highway ... because .... If you look just left of that white/silver SUV is waiting to pull out is a car facing our direction.

Do you see the left headlight on the edge of that bush? Well there sits the city's finest just waiting to catch someone, anyone going faster than 40 mph. He catches them coming from either direction ... He will chase you outside the city limits if he has too. The County Treasurer Department is always looking for voluntary donations ... even if that guy in the hidden car has to help you fill out the paperwork.  :)


Just past those woods is a major river running north to south in the state. That is also my source for 'city' water. This little pump house is part of the water department a little ways outside of town. What is interesting is the reason WHY that house and that other fixture is elevated. In June 2008 a few days before I was hit with straight-line winds, there was so much rain in the lower half of the state, the river overflowed the banks from Indianapolis to the southern state line 150 miles away. In our area there was so much water that three out of four highways going into the city were closed because they were completely underwater.

Of course, curious me, I had to see it first hand. Since I lived on the only road open to town I drove as far as I could, so I could see the damage. I didn't get far after turning left downtown. In fact I didn't get past the edge of town ... the highway through here was one huge lake.  It took a few days for the waterline to recede, before they could reopen the highway. I could get a closer view at 'my' water system. The green roof and the top part of the pole on the right was all that was visible, everything else was a nice lake. I was never so happy to have that pump built so high because during those flood conditions I always had clean clear water ... while many didn't have any water at all.

Nothing recent ... I have not lived here long enough to know it's history. That is on the river I talked about in the above paragraph. The woods is just right of the picture.

Where are we going today? What is this? or What is that and those buildings? Those are hangars for small private aircraft and somewhere out there is a runway. Yes, they fly airplanes out of one of the busiest airports in the world. Can't you see all the traffic I am behind as I stepped outside my car to get this picture. Remember this is January, not July. Business might ... might be a little slow this time of year ... since the holidays are over.

As I turned in behind those hangars I wanted to show you the wide open skies these daredevils fly in. Whereas in San Diego, those pilots have to start their decent over some small mountains west of the city, clear residential neighborhoods then city buildings ... catching the runway just in time or ending up in the San Diego Bay. Here the only danger is missing the corn fields or soybean fields that border their landing approach.

When I saw one car parked I thought there might be a chance for me to get up in the control tower as a tourist or maybe find a tour to sign up for. Everything was locked up tighter than a drum. It looks like a fairly new wind sock and a good set of windows ... business must be good.

Runway lights??

The "Fuel Pits"

The runway is just right of the soybean field. To me it looks like they have plenty of room to land. What would I know, I am just a Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 Professional pilot. I also did quite well on the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 ... but that's when I had a PC. I'd love to have one of those simulators on my Mac.

As you can see air traffic was pretty congested above the airport but by the looks of their flight paths, neither is requesting permission to land here.

This is just a sample of how hectic life can be living near the city. From "Congested Areas" to "The Busiest Airport In The World", it's probably best the hounds and I stay secluded out on the farm away from all the stress.

You can fly if you want, into 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.