This flight set my record for maximum photographs taken in one day: 5,102. Cycling between three time-synced cameras, it was a quite a dance in the cockpit all day, flying down to Reus, refueling, then to the Delta, back to Reus for fuel, and then home. I had the joy of flying over five miles out to sea to avoid restricted airspace (I don’t like overflight of water), and had a cornucopia of microclimates: mountain waves and turbulence leaving the Pyrenees, pleasant temps in the rolling Mediterranean hills and forests, followed by an inferno on the ground in Reus. Föhn winds were in full force, which then collided with the sea breeze over the Delta itself, causing temps to come down again, followed by a literal wallop into the land air mass when I impacted the convergence point near the shoreline again. On the way home, the coastal air mass interacted with the Pyrenees, creating a massive wall of clouds towering into the sky, though I was able to sneak through a hole at 9,000 feet over Cadí-Moixeró and wedge home.
For the perceptively gifted, one may note that the images were taken in summer. “Is this schmuck that far behind?” August and later September snowfall upset my workflow, and then there was that whole referendum thing in October. I am recouping key flights that I missed in between these noteworthy events so I can, I don’t know, get on some sort of compulsively precise schedule.
Mountain waves – La Cerdanya
Montserrat, infrared.
Mediterranean hills between Montserrat and Reus
Parc Natural Els Ports – fresh up here, hell on the left horizon.
Descending toward the coast.
Reus Airport – hotter than hell and all of the staff could care less about refueling. Lovely jet in the background.
Mediterranean, infrared. Kind of bleak looking.
Visible spectrum. Costa Daurada (“Gold Coast”).
Won’t be landing on the beach if the engine quits. Why do people pay premium prices to vacation like sardines? Prison is cheaper.
Heading out to sea to avoid nuke plant. Not particularly thrilled.
Fish farms.
Approaching the Delta de l’Ebre.
Mussel farms.
Rice farms on the delta. In would be hilarious if the locals shared cultural characteristics with Louisiana bayou dwellers, though I doubt it.
More mussel farms, west side of Delta.
Infrared salt evaporation ponds.
Salt evaporation ponds.
More rice nonsense.
Sod farm with rice and the Ebro River behind it.
Ebro meets the Mediterranean, infrared.
Right here I smacked into the land air mass, resulting in a rapid 300 foot ascent.
Tarragona port facilities, infrared.
Tarragona
Windsurfer.
Tarragona.
Tree.
En route home.
Cars. This is literally practically in the middle of nowhere.
Entering the Pyrenees.
Oh, that wall of clouds…
Sneaking over Cadí-Moixeró.
