Pilot – June 2018

52 | Pilot June 2018 | pilotweb.aero

I

often defer to Rinker Buck,

who co-piloted a PA-11 across

America in the 1960s as a

teenager, for the following

wisdom: ‘naïveté is the mother

of adventure’. While I would love

to summarise my undertakings

with one single, reckless motivator,

for this little adventure I shall be

forced to add boredom coupled

with a peculiar interest in

mathematical aberrations as

co-conspirators.

It all started with a nagging

sense of dread regarding a

forthcoming Mediterranean

summer. While safely ensconced in

my separatist mountain hideout,

I was aware that the mortal

enemy of aerial photography−

haze−was a regular fixture in

summer. I then happened to

stumble across information that

cameras converted to the infrared

spectrum, via a specialised internal

optics replacement, effectively

see through haze, albeit stripping

the image of colour while seeing

the world as though it were the

surface of the moon. Be that as

it may, I had a weapon against

this metaphorical Iberian Satan,

and so I sent off the camera for

conversion.

The outfit back in the USA

wasn’t too forthcoming about how

exactly the camera might work

after they were done with its organ

transplant. Focus may or may not

work, the meter can be used...

wait, somewhere in the FAQs it

said that everything becomes

manual. When the shiny optical

mutant cleared the flamenco

dance of customs, I had to figure

it out, which meant some back-to-

back flights. I had no choice but to

randomly turn some selectors, take

pictures, land, download them to

the computer, and determine the

suitability of the result.

I liked what I saw, to my

surprise, which then meant

advancing to stage two: probing

Flying Adventure: a personal record