The View From Above

Last weekend, I had the good fortune of taking a BiPlane ride over Atlanta.  My wife bought a tour for two with BiPlane Adventures for my birthday last year and we just got around to using it.  After a couple of failed attempts in the past couple months due to logistics getting to the right airport and bad weather, we were finally able to get into the air.  We flew out of McCollum Airfield in Kennesaw and went south to downtown and back.  

First, if you've never experienced flight in a small airplane, it is nerve wracking, cozy and amazing all wrapped into one.  The open cockpit experience just adds to the enjoyment.  But getting hit by constant category 1 hurricane strength winds when you are trying to take pictures can be a bit of a challenge.  Our air speed was pretty much a constant 80mph.  

I went into it thinking about having fun but also thinking about what I could put on my blog.  The first thing I wanted to look at was the sprawling subdivisions that permeate the Atlanta landscape.  It's much more impactful to see them from above.  Most subdivisions, shopping plazas and business parks that have been built in the past 20-30 years wipe out vast swaths of real estate and look like homogenous blobs on the landscape.  It's much easier to notice from a biplane than it is when you are flying into Hartsfield on a commercial airliner.  

Watching the density of the development from Kennesaw to downtown was very interesting.  The thing that really becomes noticeable is the amount of tree canopy that many of the better designed/historic neighborhoods have versus that of the newer suburban developments.  Obviously, there is something to be said about the age of the trees but something tells me that crape myrtles aren't going to cover up much of anything.

The last thing I'll hit on is Tyler Perry's house.  What in the world is that guy thinking?  Who needs all of that?  His house is the last picture below.

Here are some pictures...

One Swath of Sprawl Looking East into Cobb County

This wouldn't be a tough Target to hit...

Completely unnecessary... and he just bought a place in Johns Creek that will end up being bigger.  Yikes!