Surprise flight

This morning I was at Olean Airport delivering a computer system I had rebuilt and installed Ubuntu 7.04 on. I decided to wait until the gentleman who donated the computer arrived from his home. After Bill O’Connell arrived he invited me to fly with him in his Cessna 172 Skyhawk. He wanted to get some pictures of the St. Bonaventure University campus as part of a pictorial feature in the Olean Times Herald. I was thrilled to be riding in his aircraft. This morning, though overcast was an exceptionally smooth flight day. We climbed into his plane, taxied and took off on Runway 4. Our climb out took us over the hills and Allegany and Cattaraugus counties. It’s less than ten minutes by air from the airport to the St. Bonaventure University campus. Bill flew and I took pictures. It was a lot of fun. His plane is a 1956 Cessna Skyhawk. It’s one of the first Skyhawks built with the nosewheel. Despite the age of the aircraft it’s well maintained and it was a real treat to be in the air today flying with Mr. O’Connell. This picture was taken while we were making our final approach to landing this morning. It’s a pilot’s eye view.