While I am in the mood for a torrid fusillade, the photos will have to speak for themselves. That, and I already wrote a torrid fusillade about this flight for AOPA. Below are the photos that comprise the rest of the story.
Crossing over Carcassonne, France with rather thick morning Mediterranean haze.
Parc Natural Regional du Haut Languedoc. I could smell rich forest scents over this hill.
Montlaur
West of Millau.
Unsurprisingly, Millau.
Tam River Gorge.
Mende.
West of Mont Gerbier de Jonc, flying at almost 5,000 feet above sea level. This is the highest part of the Massif Central that I crossed.
Beginning descent toward Rhône River valley.
Rhône River (right side), north of Valence. It was infernally hot.
Isère River near Le Port.
Lac d’Aiguebelette
Chambéry.
Lac du Bourget.
Parc Natural Regional du Massif des Bauges. “Pre-Alpes.”
East of “Roc des Boeufs” (Beef Rock).
Doussard et Lac d’Annecy. Still in the Pre-Alps.
Pointe de la Beccaz, flying at 5,500 feet.
10,000 feet, west of the Mt. Blanc Massif. Here we finally are, the beginning of the Alps!
The glaciers here are a bit serious.
Up to 12,000 feet now, looking down at piddling 10,000 foot mountains.
Piddling little airplane getting looked down on by big mountains. Mer de Glace, Chamonix, France.
Pointy mountains. A friend noted that it would amusing if I somehow found a way to impale myself on one of these rocks.
Base of Glacier du Tour, looking toward Lac d’Emosson, Switzerland.
Aiguille du Tour with Switzerland to the rear left.
Martigny, Switzerland – birthplace of Swiss banking.
Priory of Sion, Switzerland – you know that whole Knights Templar / holy grail thing that went on for centuries.
Western approach to Aéroport de Sion, where schoolchildren will read in 800 years that Garrett Fisher kept his Piper Cub there for awhile.
