Margaret (SP fan) Wrote:
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> I think it is
> absolutely amazing that your flight went
> right over the steam shops!

This airplane (a Cessna 172) goes where I point it -- most of the time, anyway! :) We were actually a mile or so north of the yard; if we were right over it we wouldn't be able to see it through the floor of the airplane.

We were flying from Sidney NE to Rock Springs WY, by way of Cheyenne to stay reasonably close to the highway. These photos weren't pre-planned; it occurred to me as we neared Cheyenne that there might be an opportunity for some train photos there. I'd never been to Cheyenne before but it was easy to spot the UP facilities -- I recognized the twin viaducts over the yard from old Pentrex videos.

> And your plane
> was so low -- you could never have gotten
> those great photos at 34,000 feet!

We were cruising at 10,500' MSL; the elevation of Cheyenne is 6,160', so we were only a little more than 4,000' above the terrain. The telephoto lens helped a lot.

From Cheyenne we turned northwest toward Medicine Bow. We could have continued west toward Laramie by way of Sherman Hill, but that would have taken us closer to the high mountains west of Laramie, and perhaps rougher air.