Aerial Photography in Pure Michigan
Kim said he’d never seen Sault Sainte Marie without snow this late in the year. It was December 29th, that disorienting time at the end of the year before the New Year. He and Johnney were flying from Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan’s upper peninsula, south to Pellston Regional Airport in the lower peninsula. After a thorough pre-flight inspection and a safety briefing, we took to the sky of Sault Ste. Marie in a white Cessna. Sault Ste. Marie is a border town. It sits across the St. Marys River from Canada. American and Canadian cargo ships utilize Sault Sainte Marie’s Soo Locks for transporting materials from Lake Superior to the lower lakes.
Over the headset, I listened to the exchange between the pilots and air traffic controllers as we moved across their zones. We flew over Mackinac Bridge, which connects the upper and lower peninsulas and separates Lake Michigan from Lake Huron. As many times as I’ve crossed via car, I had not ever expected to see it from the sky.
Johnney was accruing flight hours as a student pilot. He and Kim discussed their flight path, emergency contingency plans, and more along the way. Kim explained the feedback from the air traffic controllers. They used both paper and electronic tools. We had a beautiful flight.
