AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 28

PILOT BRIEFING

30 SWEEPSTAKES

32 YOUTH

34 MILESTONES

36 ACTION

38 EVENTS

39 TEST

40 NEWS

EXTRA

“AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY is the

pursuit of perfect light. Knowledge of rocks and mountains and rivers is critical. It’s important to be aloft when the sun’s light is low and rich. And it’s necessary to be in the driver’s seat because nobody can put the airplane in just the right place better than the photographer himself.” —Michael Collier
SLIDESHOW

An aerial perspective
The art of Michael Collier
B Y D AV E H I R S C H M A N SEEING IMPRESSIVE vistas from the air is a fringe benefit of general aviation flying for most pilots. But for Michael Collier—a geologist, author, physician, photographer, and Cessna 180 owner and pilot— that aerial perspective is the

reason he flies. Collier, a resident of Flagstaff, Arizona, has written more than 15 geology texts and recently completed an iPad app, The Wonders of Geology, which includes some of his best aerial images from three decades flying over the most

wondrous regions of North and Central America. “My original CFI was a geologist and I made my first aerial photographs leaning out the open door of a J–3 Piper Cub,” said Collier, who got his private pilot certificate in 1979. He bought a 1955 Cessna 180 in 1986 and has logged 5,000 flying hours in that airplane, taking it from arctic Alaska to Central America, Maine to Baja California, mostly in pursuit of pictures to illustrate geologic phenomena. The majority of his photography flights over vast and rugged geological

formations are performed alone. He typically camps under the wing of his airplane so that he can be in the air at first light, stays aloft as long as the light is good, and—more often than not—doesn’t know exactly where he’ll land when he takes off. “I go where the light and clouds permit,” he said. “I know where I’m going to land about one flight out of three.” In addition to doing all the photography, he wrote and narrated The Wonders of Geology.
EMAIL dave.hirschman@aopa.org

WEB Visit the website (michaelcollierphoto.com).

IN THE NEWS
In a surprise move, EAA President and CEO Rod Hightower stepped down October 22 and newly elevated EAA Chairman Jack Pelton agreed to run the 175,000-member organization on an interim basis.

HIGHTOWER OUT AT EAA

Hightower was named to the top EAA job in 2010, the third president the Oshkosh-based organization has had since it was formed by Paul H. Poberezny in 1953 to promote amateur-built aircraft. For more on this story, see aopa.org.

28 | AOPA PILOT December 2012


http://www.michaelcollierphoto.com http://www.aopa.org

AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012

AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012
Contents
President’s Position
Visual Approach
Letters
Waypoints
Proficient Pilot
Foundation Focus
License to Learn
Pilot Counsel
Fly Well
An aerial perspective
AOPA Sweepstakes
Youth
Milestones
AOPA Action
Test Pilot
micro.
Jet In a Box
Force From Above
Safety Pilot Landmark Accident: Not So Easy
Desert Delight
Gone West
Ownership
Proficiency
Technique
Avionics
Never Again
Membership
Member Products
State and Local Action
AOPA Foundation
AOPA Insurance Services
Fly by Wire
Pilots
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Cover2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - President’s Position
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 5
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 6
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 7
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 8
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 9
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Visual Approach
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 11
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Letters
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 13
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 14
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 15
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Waypoints
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 17
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Proficient Pilot
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 19
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Foundation Focus
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 21
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - License to Learn
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 23
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Pilot Counsel
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 25
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Fly Well
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 27
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - An aerial perspective
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 29
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - AOPA Sweepstakes
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 31
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Youth
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 33
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Milestones
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 35
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - AOPA Action
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 37
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 38
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Test Pilot
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 40
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 41
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - micro.
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 43
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 44
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 45
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 46
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 47
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 48
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 49
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Jet In a Box
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 51
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 52
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 53
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Force From Above
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 55
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 56
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 57
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 58
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 59
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 60
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 61
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Safety Pilot Landmark Accident: Not So Easy
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 63
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 64
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 65
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Desert Delight
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 67
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 68
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 69
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 70
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 71
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Gone West
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 73
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 74
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 75
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Ownership
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 77
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 78
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 79
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 80
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Proficiency
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 82
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 83
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 84
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 85
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Technique
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 87
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Avionics
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 89
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 90
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 91
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 92
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 93
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Never Again
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 95
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 96
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - I1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - I2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 97
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Membership
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 99
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Member Products
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 101
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - State and Local Action
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 103
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - AOPA Foundation
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 105
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - AOPA Insurance Services
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 107
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Fly by Wire
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 109
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 110
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - 111
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Pilots
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Cover3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2012 - Cover4
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