Clouds

Clouds look beautiful from the ground, especially those big cumulus clouds that billow upward, sometimes seemingly forever, as they reach to the heavens. But clouds are even more majestic when flying above them, or through canyons of clouds. They seem alive as they get blown by the wind, and raised by the warm air beneath them. Constantly changing shapes but remaining bright white. I see a canyon of clouds and aim for it. But this is not ordinary canyon. It is constantly changing and could close on me with little notice, but today it does not. In fact, it seems to twist and turn but always provide me with a path through it, kind of saying to me, "I can envelop you when I please young grasshopper, but today I provide passage for you". We fly through the canyon with beautiful formations at each gentle turn. I talk to Oakland Center to make sure that nobody is near me since my visibility is limited here in the clouds. On the flight out beneath the clouds, it was choppy and sometimes turbulent (pilots call it continuous Light Chop with occasional moderate turbulence, but my wife calls it uncomfortable). Above the clouds on the return flight, it was smooth as silk. Because we could not see the ground beneath us, the return flight was unearthly. The ride was smooth and even our Mooney airplane seemed to be enjoying it. At times like this, I think our airplane is a woman, enjoying the finer things in life and letting everyone know when she's happy. N5722Q was happy this sunny cloudy afternoon. As we approached Paso Robles we had climbed to more than 10,000 feet and only had 20 miles before landing. Oakland Center called to ensure that we intended to land at Paso Robles, since we were so high. I told her that we were staying above the cloud layer, enjoying our flight, and would begin our descent shortly. She knew our situation, and simply said, "22Q, Enjoy, and maintain VFR". VFR is Visual Flight Rules and that means stay out of the clouds. We did, of course, mostly because clouds are much more beautiful when seen from above, and less beautiful once you enter them. After we landed, we looked up to see the cloud layer getting blown over the airport. We had not heard or seen any other small planes flying that afternoon over the mountains over the clouds. We were lucky to have this journey all to ourselves this day.