1 December 08: Colors

The time, she flies. That fall just came and went, didn't it? Boom. This year in Philadelphia, we didn't have fall, we had the Phillies. And thank god for that! Fortunately, the hippies among us who need a day or two of immersion under the colorful canopy fall brings have an extra week or two to do that in our low-lying city. This year that window was especially short, as the rain and cold set in and washed the colors away quickly. As the Phillies charged toward the title, I kept my eye on the sky and on the leaves on the trees at Palmer Cemetery, waiting for the perfect clear day and perfectly peak fall foliage, because this year I wanted to take my annual fall photo series to a higher level, 1,500' to be exact. Whattaya know, the first and only perfect marriage of clear & colorful happened the day over a million people packed Broad Street to celebrate that title. Booking a helicopter in advance based on the weather forecast is a total roll of the dice. On top of that, the closest helicopter joyride one can take in Philadelphia is all the way out in Medford, New Jersey. Past Medford, actually, in an office in a hangar on a wing of a tiny airport called the Flying W, which is well past the South Jersey Regional Airport. There's a heliport at Penn's Landing with a flashy mural along Delaware Avenue, yes, but there is no joy(riding) there. It's more Donald Trump Private Charter than Recreational Afternoon Photo Shoot. They used to offer tours -- about six years ago, and for $200 per fifteen minutes. The next time the sky was clear enough to fly, Monday November 10th, the leaves had already begun to drop, but there was still enough color to go for it. I called the candidly named Helicopter Flight Services that morning to see if there were any flights available, and the person I spoke to said he could squeeze me in at 1. Book it. After finding the place, past the farms with Phillies flags and election signs in the front yard, I waited in the Flying W's office decorated with two signed portraits of John McCain, a framed LOLcat and a jukebox with Elvis, Anka and Orbison before someone said that I wasn't in the right building and to just walk all the way to the back of the hangar at the back of the runway. When I got there, the guy who greeted me was also the guy who booked me, also the guy who would be flying me. Rich Sottile, a South Philly pilot no older than me, assured me he'd logged over 700 hours in the air and that he did this for fun. Right on. Once we signed all our proper papers, we rolled out the Schweizer 300 CBI, a lollipop-looking two-seat chopper on a flatbed trailer pulled by a pickup truck. The cockpit has a bubble-shaped window whose doors are detachable, but as cold and windy as it was, we weren't about to detach them. (That said, I apologize for the slight glare that appears in a few of the photos.) It being my first time in a helicopter, I was unaware that there was a proper runway takeoff, since you see so many helicopters just lifting off from their pads on top of hospitals and the like. After taxiing for a minute, up we went, up and over South Jersey on our way to the Philly Skyline. Leaving Medford, we headed across Moorestown, Maple Shade and Cherry Hill before approaching Camden and tuning into FAA traffic. The controller told us there was heavy traffic and to stay around 1,500', but that the space was ours (along with CBS3's chopper). We crossed the Delaware River just below the Ben Franklin Bridge, paying attention to Independence Park, which was probably the most colorful of the city's tree sections. From there, we went north across the Convention Center and headed west above the skyline, above Vine Street and the Parkway. At the Art Museum, we turned south along the Schuylkill River to about South Street, heading back east below the skyline, where the light on the buildings and Rittenhouse Square was magnificent before ducking behind a cloud. We finished the loop back near Independence Park and skirted the Delaware River north to about the Betsy Ross Bridge before finally heading back to the airport along the Rancocas Creek. * * * I see the shapes . . . I remember from maps. There's a lot to see when you're hovering over your city . . . The relationship of Passyunk Avenue to the grid through South Philly. The alarmingly huge amount of surface parking lots, especially on the riverfront(s -- Camden is included here). The way the Appalachians' lowest tree covered foothills dissipate from lower Montgomery County and the Wissahickon with the decreasing elevation on the city's blocks and blocks of rowhomes; the tree cover going from thick in Spruce Hill to almost non-existent in South Philly. Just how huge the Anderson and Conrail Yards on the Port Richmond riverfront are. In three attempts at aerial photography, I've learned that sunny days make for heavy contrasts from shadows on the ground. If you have the perfect reading on what you're focusing on, you can still have washed out backgrounds. And no matter how low the pollution level may seem, there's still a lot of haze to shoot through, even on clear days. I need one of those Monday Night Football HDTV cameras or something. It is what it is, and what it is is Philly Skyline's latest photo essay. Come along for the ride, if you like. There are 100 photos from the flight, in chronological order from liftoff to touchdown. A heads up, this particular essay's photos have watermarks, which I absolutely hate to do, but . . . well, you know. They're not that obtrusive, though, so find some relaxing music -- tis the season, why not Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas -- and see if you can see your house from here. Buckle up, babe. We're going for a ride . . . in the LOVECOPTER! * * * PREVIOUS PHOTO ESSAYS WHILE HIGH: –B Love