Catching Up

Well its been a busy week or so. I apologize for the lack of posts lately. We made it up to Rochester, NY in time for the Senior PGA Championship at Oak Hill. I received my first taste of flying for a TV event on Thursday for the Golf Channel coverage and then again on Saturday for the NBC coverage of the event. If you saw the "Best Shot in Golf" documentary a couple weeks ago on CBS, you have an idea of all the effort that goes into providing aerial coverage for golf events. It is every bit the challenge I expected it to be and more. Its a delicate balance trying to maneuver the airship to where the camera man can get the shots he needs, when he needs them, while trying not to distract the golfers below. It requires a lot of concentration and situational awareness to ensure you remain where you need to be. It comes as a surprise to a lot of people, but flying golf events is probably the most difficult kind of flying we do. I'm look forward to continuing to improve my skills with each event I fly. Since golf events cover most of our summer schedule, I'll have plenty of opportunities to do so. Our next event is The Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio near Columbus.

Flying Over Baltimore

I flew some exposure over the Baltimore area yesterday for a few hours. I spent most of my time flying over downtown Baltimore. On my way I stopped over the site of this weekend's Preakness Stakes to take a look at the site. As you can see, preparation for the big event is well underway. Some other highlights of downtown include the baseball and football stadiums, the waterfront area and Johns Hopkins Hospital. We're not in town long enough to head up there to check out the city from the ground, but hopefully I'll get a chance the next time we roll through the area. I hear the waterfront is a great place to hang out.

Transit to Baltimore

We finished the two day transit to the Baltimore area today. I passed through Richmond, VA on my way north and then around the Washington area. Funny how life comes full circle sometimes. Last year at this time, I was planning on moving to Richmond for my job with a regional airline. I must say I'm glad that things ended up working out as they did. I would have never had that kind of view of the city from a regional jet!

Speedway From Above

During my last day of flying exposure over the Charlotte area, I was able to make it up to Concord, NC just northeast of Charlotte. As you may recall from my previous post, it is home of the Lowe's Motor Speedway. I took a few pictures of the speedway from the air while I was up there. After seeing it from the ground the other day, I'm glad I had a chance to fly around it while we were still in Charlotte.

NASCAR Country

I took advantage of my day off today and went up to Concord, NC, home of Lowe's Motor Speedway. Unfortunately there weren't any tours going on today, but I was able to take a few pictures of the Nascar track. It is really an impressive structure. I can only imagine what it will be like there in a couple weeks when they host the Coca Cola 600. Keeping with my Nascar theme today, I then went to Hendrick Motorsports which is located near the track. Hendrick Motorsports employs such superstar drivers as Jeff Godron, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhart Jr. They had a huge museum and gift shop that showcased some of the team's most monumental cars. Across the street, there are two huge buildings that are where they actually assemble the race cars for the team. Really a cool experience to see the history of the racing team and then watch as they work on cars that may go on to be future winners.