the 312 hole

Sunset Cessna Flight – Chicago – 6/29/10 from Jeff Trost on Vimeo.

Earlier this week, I was fortunate enough to ride shotgun in a Cessna 172 with one of my buddies. The night couldn’t have been better – gorgeous sunset, clear skies and little wind. We took off around 7:45PM and were airborne for the duration of the sunset. We cruised about two miles out over the lake at around 1,000 feet (still below the Willis Tower). Once we made it to Gary, Indiana, we did a couple landings and headed back north past the skyline again. By this time, the sun was down and the city was pretty lit up. Unfortunately, it’s pretty difficult to get good night shots in a bumpy Cessna at night, but we did our best. On our way back, we could see the lights on at Wrigley for the game, but couldn’t get too close because they shut down a big chunk of the airspace during games. Back at the airport, we did a couple touch-and-gos, which were pretty fun in the little plane. All around, it was an amazing experience.

I also made a little 5 minute video with some footage of the takeoff, touch-and-go and landing. You can check it out here on Vimeo.

A few of my favorites are below, and there are a handful of others over on Flickr. I can’t say it’s easy to shoot through the windows on the Cessna, but I think we managed to snap some solid shots.