The Damned Flood

   
  
  
  
Remember your childhood backyard?  You knew where every tree was – the guava in the corner, the macopa near the poso, three kaimito dominating the center.  The dwarf lived under the culvert, and the sweetest aratilis grew over the neighbor’s wall.
  
  
  
  
Carlo and I learned to fly over Central Luzon.  In the lazy summer [...]

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Houston, We Have Reached Orbit

Easter.  Hot, blistering day.  The kind of scorching Luzon summer day where the air shimmers incandescently over parched brown fields.  It’s so hot that the shade in the tree line feels like airconditioning.
  
  
Baguio, 5,000 feet up in the Cordilleras, is an hour away by Cessna 152.  Too hot to plan or pack for that.  Still, staying indoors in frigid airconditioning misses the entire [...]

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A Three Hour Tour, A Three Hour Tour

There are actually 124 islets (one less at high tide).  Long associated with Alaminos, Pangasinan, the Hundred Islands are actually reached by boat from the coastal town of Lucap.
You can also fly over them.    
  
  
  
    
After our flight over the Hermana Sisters, we went feet dry near the beach resorts at Tambobong, [...]

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Above Central Luzon in a Flying Soda Can

Last June 6th we wrote about touring Nueva Ecija in a flying soda can – a mysterious lake and a World War II airstrip.  Earlier, we shared pictures and stories flying over northern Pangasinan — Lingayen Gulf, the Hundred Islands, and the power plant attacked by the killer salabay.
We now tour Central Luzon, best seen low and slow.  Our ‘backyard’ is big enough to play in, small enough so that [...]

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Aerial Voyeurism

Our last Adventure article introduced a visual treat — touring Central Luzon in a flying soda can. We continue our aerial Backyard Tour.  An emergency airstrip, and a mysterious lake. 
  
  
East of Lingayen Gulf are the Cordilleras, and the Cordillera Autonomous Region.  Baguio, Sagada, and Banaue all lie in that direction, as does the highest peak in Luzon, Mt. Pulog. 
The Bued [...]

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Visual Therapy — Touring Our Backyard in a Flying Soda Can

No, there are no more flying pictures of Angelina Jolie in this article!  But we’ve had three pieces now on instrument flying.  We do need some visual relief.
    
   
In May, Carlo and I flew VFR around Central Luzon.  Carlo calls this area, “Our backyard.”  Carlo and I have flown over the great plain so often, on the way to Baguio, La Union, [...]

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The Cross Country Carlo

I was 6,000 miles away in San Francisco when Carlo did his first solo cross-country in the Philippines, a month ago today.  He called me before setting off from Omni Aviation at Clark Field in Pampanga.  I gave him some encouraging words that were really meant to calm my nerves.
This is the second-clumsiest person I know, who [...]

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