Sasha was been bugging me a little bit because I posted a story that Leon wrote. Sasha, on the other hand (I mean “paw”), is not very literary. Sasha would rather do “it” than write about “it”. That means although Sasha have been involved in an action-packed adventure or two, very few people (and dogs) know about them because she does not write them up.
At her request, I have combined some photographs with a few notes that Sasha has made. The results are in this post.
The adventure described is about a recent flight that Sasha made. Now, this is a little tricky because the FAA generally frowns upon dogs flying. But she received special dispensation and has a limited pilot license. Sasha can only fly during the day in single engine airplanes. She can only fly VFR (Visual Flight Rules) and not IFR (Instrument Flight Rules), but that is just as well because Sasha cannot play the clarinet.
Surely. (And don’t call me … you know. )
Sasha’s Flight
This is Sasha at Albany International Airport ALB). She is in the pilots seat of a Cessna 172 that she has rented. Her allowance does not support the purchase of such an airplane. You can see an airliner in the background.
Here is a closeup of Sasha in the Cessna 172. We can see here that she has completed the pre-flight check and is getting ready to start the engine.
We rigged up a GoPro in the back seat of the Cessna 172 so we could see Sasha flying. This picture was taken shortly after take-off. You will notice that she is flying a “round dial” Cessna. Pilots will recognize that term. Sasha, like most dogs, does not like “glass” controls because they are too hard to operate with paws.
This is a very cool picture that Sasha snapped as she flew over Crossgates Mall. You can see the mall clearly and observe that there are a lot of cars there. Just “above” Crossgates is Stuyvesant Plaza. And you can see the freeway and other neat things.
Before turning around and flying back to ALB, Sasha flew over Thacher State Park. What a view! The park is one of Sasha’s favorite places for an outing, so I am not surprised that she took an areal tour there.
After Sasha’s flight over Crossagates Mall and Thacher State Park she returned to the airport and landed safely. The ground controllers had her taxi over to one of the “short gates” because the airplane was scheduled to be used for a flight to Syracuse by somebody else. When Sasha hopped out of the airplane the ground crew was very surprised to see a dog flying an airplane, and solo, too.
Well, it is Albany, and you never know what you will see around here. I suspect that after a couple more flights, the ground handlers will get used to Sasha’s activities on the field.