Flying is fun. Economy, first class, hang-gliders, personal light aircraft, helicopters, biplanes, even in a house attached to balloons — all can be a blast! At least to us poor little old wingless humans. In fact one of the things included on the ultimate Travel Bloggers’ Bucket List is to test out my ironclad travelers’ stomach aboard NASA’s Vomit Comet. Anyone else want to chip in on chartering the plane?
Moving on, not long ago I had the pleasure of an aerial photography flight over Ohio’s Hocking Hills with several of my travel bloggin’ buddies, including Will @WakeAndWonder and Kristen @HTGlobe, among others.
More Photos After The Video! Skip To ‘Em
We took off from the single-lane Vinton County Airport but actually didn’t even use runway. No, apparently it had some cracks and potholes and was awaiting repair. So instead we just used the nearby field!
Know what the best part about small airports is? If you’re lucky, you may even get the chance to fly the plane. Such was the case for Kristen, who was in the front seat shooting video for her blog. Of course she couldn’t film herself flying, so I made sure to capture it as best I could from the backseat.
Our Rocky Off-Road Airplane Takeoff Followed By Kristen Flying The Plane
Over the next 20 minutes we were treated to an aerial tour of the land we had been exploring the last few days. While our pilot had plenty of well-rehearsed jokes ready on queue, he also had a few tricks up his sleeve. No, unfortunately not any barrel-rolls. But he did mimic the Vomet Comet and fly us up-down-up-down in quick succession, so as to mimic weightlessness and cause anything unrestrained to go flying between the ceiling and the floor. Fun stuff! Oh and somewhere in between I managed to snap a few photos.
Here Is The Full Photo Gallery
Click Any Photo To Instantly View The Full-Size Pic
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Once our flight was over I decided to explore the airport building and control tower. Turns out the control tower was built in the 1970’s but never even used once. In fact no radar or communication equipment of any kind was ever installed but rather the tower just left it empty and collecting spiderwebs. It was determined after construction that the airport would never going to draw enough regular traffic to justify all that expensive equipment. But regardless, the airport has persevered and is still alive and kicking today!
I went up into the control town and wiped the condensation off a couple of windows to shoot some extra video of the airplane taking off and landing. Not only did the old and dirty glass fog up the videos, but I never even thought about having someone else get a picture of me IN the control tower…pictured here:
Darn, that really would have been a great pic with me up in the tower…
For more information, check out the official Hocking Hills Scenic Air Tours web site
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I love going up in these tiny aircraft or even a helicopter. The views you get are amazing.
Yup, totally! Plus it’s a much more intimate type of flying than being crammed on a jumbo jet like just another sardine 😉