Friday Photo: chasing the rainbow

Every pilot has spent time in an FBO waiting out weather. For a lucky few, that patience is rewarded with a beautiful view. That's what happened to Rick Kennett as he climbed out of St. Louis in his Cessna 340. The stormy clouds supplied the perfect rainbow, which he followed on his way home.

Friday Photo: Indonesia airstrip

For Caravan pilot Peter Santana, simple grass or dirt strips are nothing new. In fact, such challenging airports are just part of the job. But while many are challenging to land on, there's something very beautiful about strips like the remote Koropun airstrip in Papua, Indonesia. It's certainly not flat and there are tall cliffs off the end, but it's an essential lifeline for villagers there.
172 over Argentina

Friday Photo: a GoPro view of Argentina

Pilot and aviation enthusiast Agustin Rubiños describes it as, "vuelos divertidos en Skyhawk." As this week's Friday Photo shows, he does indeed have a lot of fun flying around Argentina. In this photo, taken from his wing-mounted GoPro, he's soaring over the vast plains in his Cessna 172M.

Friday Photo: the plains of New Mexico

What a spectacular sight. The plains of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico seem to go on forever and with the vibrant blue of the sky contrasted by the white of the puffy cloud, well it was a picture worth putting in the family photo book.

Friday Photo: sunset over a grass strip

Words cannot express the feeling that comes over you as you leave the earth and look around at God's creation. As the sun begins to disappear on the horizon, and the shadows begin to stretch across the ground, for the moment, the earth seems to be calm and peaceful.

Friday Photo: pancake ice formation

Goetz A. Giessler captured a unique perspective from the cockpit of his Zlin Savage Cub as he did some ground reference maneuvers above the Rappbodetalsperre in the Harz Mountain Range, Germany. He remembers "the fine lines of pancake ice crust formation in a freshwater lake, painted in contrasting colors and shadows beneath cool calm air."

Friday Photo: Badlands off the wingtip

As a corporate pilot, Duane Mader is usually working when he's in the cockpit. That doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy the view from the left seat. In this stunning photo, he shares the view over the left wing of his CJ2, with the Badlands of South Dakota under some puffy clouds. The light didn't last long, but it's saved forever in his memorable shot.

Friday Photo: solar eclipse over Chile

Photos don't get much better than this. Diego Errazuriz took this breathtaking picture of a total solar eclipse from the cockpit of his Cessna R182, as he cruised over Chile on July 2, 2019. The lights below and the Pacific Ocean frame the beautiful colors in the sky and the utterly unique view of the sun.

Friday Photo: Gold Coast, Australia

Australia's Gold Coast in Queensland is a beautiful place to fly, as this photo from Ross Clarke shows. He was on his way to maintenance in his Jabiru J170 when he took this shot of the towering buildings and golden beaches below. It's a famous tourist destination, but we think it looks better from the air.

Friday Photo: Laurel Lake

The sun reflecting off a lake is a wonderful sight, but it's even better when you're learning to fly, as John Wesley Collins was in this case. There's a twist: "His dad got to be in the plane with him and take these beautiful photos. Both sons are working on their private pilot lessons and their dad gets to live his lifelong dream of flying with them."

Friday Photo: snowy French Alps

The Alps never cease to amaze, as this week's Friday Photo proves. Nicolas George captured this stunning vista from the cockpit of his ICP Savannah. The Chartreuse range is covered in snow, which brought back a lot of fond memories for George. The entire experience was the result of a short climb in a light airplane.

Friday Photo: California sunset

Sunsets never get old, especially when there's a high cloud layer to frame it just right. As King Air pilot Ron Pogatchnik says, "After 24,000 hours of flying time, I am still absolutely dumbstruck at some of the things I get to see."

Friday Photo: dreaming of flights to come

Fathers and sons have been bonding over airplanes for over 100 years. In this special Father's Day edition of the Friday Photo, Robert Bready shares a wonderful picture of a very young but enthusiastic pilot trying out the left seat of an S35 Bonanza.

Friday Photo: early morning lava

On this particular early morning trip I was a passenger on a Lear 45 business flight when I witnessed the most amazing sunrise. We were somewhere over Illinois, headed to Boston from Wichita. As the sun began to shine, it illuminated the cloud layer from below and reminded me of a lava field. Sometimes, a guy is just blessed to have such a great view from his office window.

Friday Photo: turns around Padres Butte

Lake Powell offers some of the most incredible views of anywhere in the southwestern United States, and Richard Garnett capture one such view in this Friday Photo. He was on a training flight with Jeniffer Kiraly in a Piper Archer when he snapped this photo of Padres Butte rising up out of the water.

Friday Photo: New York City at night

My sister and her husband were visiting for a short trip and we started talking about airplanes. It was evening but the weather was perfect and the next two days looked terrible so we spontaneously decided to go right then and there. They had a phenomenal time and were enchanted by the beauty of NYC at night. It was my first time through the VFR corridor at night as well, and the views didn’t disappoint.

Friday Photo: snowy Teton

Grand Teton National Park never disappoints, with soaring peaks and a flat valley floor below. Even better is when the mountains are draped in snow. That's the view Charlie Tillett had from his Piper Meridian recently, as he shares in this Friday Photo. From 20,000 feet it looks peaceful and majestic. From the ground it might look cold.

Friday Photo: wilderness camping

Flying is usually about the journey, not the destination, but this Friday Photo might be an exception. Jim Mateski shares a photo of his campsite at the Shearer wilderness airstrip in Idaho, complete with a hammock and a Piper Super Cruiser. As he says, the plan was, "Solitude, hammock sleeping, a good book, and great native cutthroat fly fishing."

Friday Photo: Ohio sunset from a 172

I am so fortunate to be able to see and do things like this. When I took this picture the only thing I could think about was that the people I am flying above right now will probably never see what my two eyes are seeing right now at this very moment. It is such an honor and a privilege to be able to see views like this from an airplane.

Friday Photo: frontal passage

This photograph was taken just after a cold front associated with a low pressure system passed over the field. The system's passage was preceded by a pulse of moisture with intense precipitation and a dramatic shift in wind. Twenty minutes later the leading edge of the front spawned a tornado - unusual in central California.