Flying Monday Evening

Flying Monday evening, taking off just before sunset, under cloudy skies, I was disappointed to find that we were immediately in the clouds not even having left the airport grounds to fly over suburban Virginia before we were in the clouds. The cloud cover turned out to be uniform and thin, so we were quickly skimming over a pristine White Sea with dark thunderheads in the distance. It put me mind of Pocco Rosso’s misery at not being to fly forever above the clouds.

As the sun finally set it became apparent that the cloud cover was neither uniform nor thick, as where lights were concentrated, the clouds glowed from below in shades of white or yellow depending on whatever lights are predominant below them and the occasional pinpoint light unhindered by cloud cover. As we flew over individual lights, each shows a bright pinpoint like a search light seeking through fog before disappearing rapidly back into a mere glow.