The End of Summer

 Well here we are and it is well into Autumn.

I can say I'm not ready for this... actually I will say I'm not ready for this.

It's always a bittersweet time. I do like the crispness, the colors, the spooky Halloween atmosphere. However I don't like the cold, and the snow.

I hate having to put my motorcycle away for another season.

It has been a challenging year... again. For a number of reasons, many personal and family related.

I'll miss the evenings tooling around on the bike and enjoying the feeling of the air.

This morning it was a crisp 37 degrees when I went out for the sunrise.

One thing was for certain I was not disappointed in the show!

Just as the sun was peaking over the mountains of Vermont train 252 came rumbling through Plattsburgh and made a fantastic sight crossing the river and running by the historic 1886 D&H station.

The sun's tendrils reaching out and just touching the skyline of Plattsburgh was just great.

This winter I waited for two weeks for just the right time to get a sunrise, and today it all happened to work out at random.

Flying Around History

Spring and Summer approaching the North Country is always refreshing.

After the long and cold winters it's really great getting to where being outside is enjoyable... I guess unless you like the winter, than I guess that's enjoyable to those people.

Anyway with the coming nice weather has been a coming of events again. As more and more people get vaccinated it is nice to see events being held again. This past Saturday was a big craft brew festival on the base. I was there to see them setting up. Meanwhile volunteers from the Plattsburgh Aircraft Restoration group were busy working on the B47E Pride of the
Adirondacks.

Today I ventured West to Madrid, NY to the St. Lawrence Power and Equipment Museum to volunteer at Fort Tribute. Fort Tribute is a replica frontier/ Civil War fort being used for education programs about the American Civil War.

Being able to see a place like that from the air really has a new perspective.

Of Supermoons and Mexican Railroad Locomotives

Yesterday was quite a day. The railroad, the former D&H owned by the Canadian Pacific in North Eastern  New York had a special visitor. FXE 4054 an engine from the Mexican railroad Ferromex that passed through on an ethanol train. It had to travel from Mexico into the US end up part of an ethanol train heading through Canada and back into the US on its way to the port of Albany.

So part of the day was spent chasing that amidst our grand Adirondack scenery.

To close out the day I went to see the pink supermoon as it rose over Lake Champlain, while taking in the breathtaking sunset opposite.

While watching the sunset I struck up a conversation with another spectator about drones and photography. We ended up being joined by another person I knew and talked for quite awhile in the fading light. It was almost like the old times.

A Snowy Spring Day!

Plattsburgh Barracks Veterans Park

Original Barracks Flagpole

 The first day of Spring was a few weeks ago... but our unpredictable North Country weather didn't know that.

Not two weeks ago we had a day where temperatures were in the 70's, over the last week there was a sharp decline which led to some snow over the course of a couple days, with yesterday being a cold, blustery and snowy day.

US Oval

Still this amounted to just a real dusting and by today it was mostly gone. Last night I drove by the cemetery in Saranac and most of the snow was gone.

Gazebo on US Oval

Today it is a sunny, bright still blustery, but much warmer day.

US Fort Brown

Clyde Lewis Air Park

Clyde Lewis Air Park

Saranac Indepence Cemetery

Saranac Independence Cemetery

Documenting history as it fades away...

 So an aspect I appreciate about being a remote pilot is being able to document things before they disappear.

While the building pictured looks like trash, it is because it has gotten to be trash. However this unassuming building is around 170 years old and the oldest surviving industrial building in Plattsburgh, NY.

Thanks for all the research by the

Greater Adirondack Ghost and Tour Company (Plattsburgh, NY)

who helped bring to light the extensive history of this industrial building. (Head over there to read his extensive write up about the history of the structure.) This unassuming structure stood off Green Street in Plattsburgh adjacent to the railroad

I heard about the upcoming demolition and went out to the site on Green Street last Saturday to take a number of pictures to document the end of what was once the Plattsburgh Iron Foundry.

By Tuesday it was a pile of rubble they were cleaning up this morning.

I'd like to think I was able to be able to save a little bit of my town's history from a vantage point most wouldn't get to see.

I took a number of photos a few days ago before demolition began and now as of Wednesday March 17th 2021, it is a pile of rubble.

A Strange Aerial Visitor

BETA Technologies - Alia

Over the past few days residents in the area may have seen a strange aircraft being chased by a helicopter.

No this isn't a fugitive from Area 51... this is a state of the art electric vertical aircraft (EVA) from BETA Technologies in Burlington, VT.

This is the Alia. It represents a new breed of vertical take off and landing aircraft.

The machine works much like the quadcopter I use to take the aerial photos I post on here.

It is a small airframe with quad rotors to provide vertical lift with 50 foot wings and a pusher prop for thrust.

The aircraft will be capable of flights up to 250 miles and be able to fully charge in under an hour.

It was designed and built in Vermont after years of design and transported to Plattsburgh due to the less congested airspace in the area.

The move itself was epic with the aircraft being under slung a transport helicopter to its base at the Plattsburgh International Airport.

This is is some really revolutionary stuff. We've seen how flight technology has developed in the last decade in terms of quadcopter technology. 

Now we're seeing some of those same concepts being converted into vehicles that will be moving people and cargo. A vehicle that is much easier to build, maintain and could be much safer than a traditional rotorcraft.

It is very cool to see Plattsburgh playing a part in the future of aviation.

Unfortunately for me I was caught without any better camera than my cellphone as this awesome aircraft was performing a test flight nearby.

Anyway these are the pictures I was able to get where you can sort of make out the aircraft.

Also included is a link to the BETA Technologies website where you can see better pictures of this incredible machine.

https://www.beta.team/