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The view: Sunrise over Hampton Roads, Virginia
The pilot: Tom Dorl
The airplane: 1979 Cessna 172N
The mission: Captured a nice sunrise ahead of a beautiful day
The memory: Early morning always reminds me of a fresh start, a new day, and a chance to learn and gain experience(s) as a pilot. While crawling out of bed seems less than desirable at 0500, views like this are rare, priceless, and worth every effort to capture aviation moments in time like this.
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Tom Dorl grew up in New Jersey and learned to fly at a young age. His father was an A&P and engineer and he remembers taking flights with him at a young age. Tom learned to fly at McGuire AFB, NJ, and attended college in Ohio, majoring in aerospace technology. He was commissioned into the USAF as a 2LT and attended pilot training at Vance AFB, OK. Tom went on to fly combat search and rescue missions in the HH-60G Pavehawk, deploying to numerous combat operations and saving many lives. Tom retired from the USAF after 25 years of service and continues to fly, instruct and serve as a board member for NAFI. Tom has accumulated over 4000 hours of flying fixed and rotary wing aircraft with over 1450 hours of dual given. He is an active CFI/I and Check Airman at a Virginia part 141 flight school.
Latest posts by Thomas Dorl (see all)
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I’m moving to Chesapeake next month. At what airport was the photo taken? I’m based at KSFQ and I’ll probably focus my initial flights to local airports to get familiar with the area.
My best flight ever took me from Florida to Virginia in a Piper Archer in october 2013. After a huge and fast front passed, I flew under a flawless orange sky as the golden light touched the high overcast from below. Thank you for sharing, and yes, I’m not a fan of waking uo early either, but the view is quite something, and the opportunity of a fresh start is priceless.
This was taken out of KPHF. SFQ is great .. good BBQ and check out all the local airports. Welcome to the area ..