π
2017-08-20 01:01
in Flying, Nflying, Ntrips, Trips
After a longish flight from Palo Alto in a slow C172, we arrived at Madras Airport, smack in the middle of the path of totality for the eclipse, the first total eclipse in the US since the 1970's. Needless to say that everything on the path of the eclipse, was packed, and so was the airport, as well as camping sites nearby.
Solartown, north of the airport
the rest of the year, Madras has a small racetrack and drag racing strip
when we landed on sunday morning, a few planes were there already, but many more arrived
I was able to negotiate a parking spot closer to the exit for the next morning, and we setup our camp
some amount of vendors at the airport
We then took our foldable bikes and biked to Solarfest, a few miles south:
Madras was ready for visitors
and their money :)
Nasa had a display room, but hard to get into due to crowds
lots of vendors
I then went to Solartown to meet Arturo and Louis at their RV:
It was then time to get back to the airport for sunset pictures:
We then tried to sleep in our tent, and I very much appreciated the jet that landed at 05:02 and stayed idling close to our tent for a good 5mn :)
people getting ready early
I packed up our camp and turned the plane around in the direction of 'get the f out of here' :)
I was one plane away from the last taxiway to the runway
Tim, one of my many coworkers who went to the event
In case the sun disappearance brought a big flood, some were ready :)
And then, it started:
this lucky guy landed 1mn before the runway closed
getting closer
that little sun left, is still very bright
without a filter, it was still super bright
almost there, but still way too bright to look with naked eyes
and finally!
the corona of hot plasma around the sun, only visible during an eclipse
mercury became visible
So, it's hard to explain, but it does get quite dark, and cold. The cold was really noticeable, which is surprising how quickly it changed in just a portion of a minute:
and then, after barely 2mn, it was over
Just to give a feel for what it looked like, here are 4mn starting just before totality:
Those 2mn were as cool as they went by quickly. As soon as totality was over, we rushed to the plane, and went in line for the runway, got the first spot and I was the first person to take off when the runway re-opened. While waiting over 30mn, I took a few more pictures from inside the plane before finally being able to take off:
in the 40mn I waited before taking off, the roads were filled up already
jets were the only ones allowed to take off for about 1h after I left
solarfest
a long road home
And one last shot of the partial eclipse still going on while we were flying to Klammath Falls:
We had a great time, definitely an at least once in a lifetime experience.
