Port Allen, Hawaii.

A favorite coffee mug, a streak of sunlight coming through the bedroom window, roosters that “sound off at 5 AM”. All of these are reminders of a new day, suggests Cheri Lucas Rowlands in this week’s photo challenge, Morning. You can read the entire challenge post here. Lately, I’ve had some busy Fridays, so I have delayed thy entry in the challenge until Saturday. This week’s delay, however, came from the challenge itself. I have many favorite sunrise photos, all of which would be a great contender for a “Morning” photo challenge, except for one thing… the last sentence in the challenge reads in part, “…bonus points to those who think beyond the usual sunrise photo!”

It took me awhile to think through an entry that says “Morning” to me. I went to bed and slept on it. I awoke early this morning and in the early morning light, the idea came to me. Some of my favorite aviation activities happen early in the morning. This small gallery features images of those early morning flights. The opening image features an early morning flight, a lesson in flying weight-shift aircraft over the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Technically, I didn’t take this photo. It is from a GoPro camera mounted on the apex of the delta-wing aircraft, automatically capturing images during the flight. This image is a “selfie”, that’s me in the rear seat of this powered glider.

One of my friends owns a Piper Cub that spends most of the summer on floats. Flying out of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, I have accompanied him on what literally are joyrides over the northern Minnesota countryside. One of my greatest aviation pleasures is landing the Cub on a Minnesota lake.

My final image was taken in 2002 at a family reunion outing in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Our family arranged an early morning balloon flight. It was my first flight in a lighter-than-air craft and I am looking forward to the 2017 reunion which will again be in Albuquerque. After attending the balloon festival last year, I know I will have to partake in another balloon flight. Click on an image in the gallery to enlarge it and to scroll through the photos.

John