I first flew in an aeroplane the summer after I turned ten. And I did it with bells on, as an unaccompanied minor between Aberdeen and Birmingham on my way to spend the summer with my grandfather. It was a day of firsts; the second first came during the flight stopover at Edinburgh airport when the air hostess (we call them cabin crew these days) took me off the plane and bought me my first taste of Edinburgh Rock. The third first was when I was invited into the cockpit, and the pilot allowed me to ‘press the button that landed the plane’.
It was years before I realised that planes don’t have such a button, but in that moment, I had never felt more important.
I have flown countless times since and the thrill of that first flight has never been replicated. There was a certain frisson when I touched down on the beach on Barra – that most famous of landings, in which a Twin Otter (little more than a minibus with wings) lands on the golden expanse of Traigh Mhor beach. But my excitement levels were high again a couple of Saturdays ago, when I managed to wangle myself a seat in the cockpit for Loganair’s regular scheduled flights between the Highland Capital and the Northern and Western Isles.
Captain Tim Curwen and First Officer Kristy Evans beside their Loganair Saab340, The Spirit of Islay.
Invited to shadow Captain Tim Curwen and First Officer Kristy Evans on their eight-hour shift, I jumped at the chance. I took a fully charged phone and a portable charger, and even with unkind weather (Kristy, our straight-talking 29-year-old Aussie born First Officer, officially declared it as ‘pish’) I took so many photos that I drained both batteries.
First, the science bit. We were on a Saab 340, a 33-seater twin-prop plane with a top speed of 300 mph. Covering around 700 miles in a flying time of just over three hours, and with a maximum cruising altitude of 14000 feet, a total of 108 passengers (who ordered a modest 43 cups of tea but ate 46 Caramel Wafers) were transported using 1425 kilos of aviation fuel.
Our itinerary involved an early morning departure from Inverness to Kirkwall, then onto Shetland. That route was reversed, giving us time for a quick coffee and sandwich back in Inverness airport before a return flight across the Minch to Stornoway. That’s six take-offs and six landings. Despite the number of times I witnessed exactly the same procedures being followed, and despite the patient explanations I got of what was happening at each juncture, I couldn’t even begin to work out which of the 300-odd buttons needed to be pressed, and in which order.
With 300 buttons, two pilots and two identical sets of flight controls there’s hardly room for another person in the cockpit. My seat for the day was the ‘jump-seat’; a folding chair which sits in front of the door to the cockpit behind the pilots. With a headset I was invited to join in and ask questions, but it was clear that there was little time for interruptions; there was a serious amount of work to be done.
The level of communication was impressive; between Captain and First Officer, and between the cockpit and the local and national air traffic control centres, ground staff, weather services, the radar centre and cabin crew. Nothing was assumed. Every check was carried out and confirmed and every decision discussed and agreed. With over 100 pilots flying Saab 340s around the Loganair flight network, and with complicated shift patterns which include both passenger and mail planes, pilots who have never met may find themselves flying together. The systems and safety checks are the same each time, no matter who is on board. It’s reassuring to know that no short-cuts are taken.
Rain and poor visibility couldn’t dampen my spirits, and the glimpses I caught of the Highlands and Islands through the mist gave me a hint of what it could have been like. Rubbing it in, Tim and Kristy told me the sights they have seen from Loganair cockpits; sunsets, golden beaches, azure seas, whales, aurora and shooting stars. They’ll need to send me photos…
Next time I fly I won’t be in the cockpit, I’ll be in the body of the plane where I belong. But having had that insight, my image of flight has changed forever. Despite Captain Curwen refusing to let me press the button to land the plane…
This post first appeared in Seven Days, published by SPP and issued with The Inverness Courier, The Northern Scot and four other titles across the north of Scotland, week ended 6th July 2018.
Tags: Best Cinematic Destination, Flight, flying, Highlands and Islands, Inverness Airports, Jumpseat, Kirkwall Airport, Loganair, Scotland, Stornoway Airport, Sumburgh Airport
As many of you know, I frequently volunteer my photo services to Portland-based nonprofit, Portland Fruit Tree Project (PFTP). They may be a small team—three coordinators covering programs and communications, and one executive director—but PFTP manages to host 100+ harvesting events each year at the homes of registered tree owners and at their five community orchards. On top of this, they also organize monthly hands-on educational events at each of these orchards, specializing in the instruction and practice of a variety of topics related to organic fruit tree care: pruning, pollinators, pest prevention, disease management, irrigation, soil health, and more.
All orchards’ educational series wraps in October/November of each calendar year with a final session on winter orchard prep. In the case of Fruits of Diversity Community Orchard (FoD), nestled in the Portsmouth neighborhood of North Portland, this year’s session was unique indeed. To the delight of many, it included the harvest of a hardy late season fruit that thrives in the Northwest: quince!
The very word may conjure a big fat blank for you—and you’re not alone! That’s why everyone who signed up for this work session gathered ’round for a brief introduction and a few pointers on quince and winter orchard prep by PFTP’s Orchard Programs Coordinator, April Jamison.
It was a sunny day, especially for October in the Northwest, so volunteers circled up in the back of the orchard in the shade of the very trees there were destined to harvest. April, featured at center below, gave a great intro to this curious quince fruit, starting with a history, followed by some culinary traditions from around the world, and harvesting tips.
I studied abroad in Spain, so I was familiar with membrillo, the wine-colored paste that is often paired with a hard Manchego cheese. But what I didn’t know, was that quince formed the base for it. Membrillo basically quince cooked with sugar for a couple hours. Another fun fact from this brief meditation on quince, was its use in savory dishes. Evidently, it’s quite tasty when cooked down with a saltier partner, like pork shoulder.
The quince at Fruits of Diversity Community Orchard takes on a apple-esque shape. It’s a big more squat and more vibrantly yellow than any Golden Delicious I’ve ever set eyes on. Nevertheless, you harvest quince much like you do apples: either by hand or with the use of harvesting poles and ladders.
Quince trees can vary in height from 10 to 20 feet, depending on the varietal, the environment and its care. For branches in arm’s reach, you can simply lift and twist the fruit to remove it from the tree. Hannah, one of Portland Fruit Tree Project’s vital interns featured above, focuses on the these branches.
More adventurous harvesters can use something called a harvesting pole or picking pole to reach higher fruit. The basket attached to the top of this telescoping pole has unwoven wires at the top that form teeth that effectively grip the fruit at the stem, helping to wiggle them free from the branch. The piece of foam at the base of the basket provides some cushioning so that the fruit doesn’t bruise upon release. This is less of an issue for hard-bodied fruit like quince, but a very important consideration for softer-bodied fruit, like plums.
Fruit picking poles are especially useful because fruit at the top of a tree generally receives the most sun, and is frequently the location of the tree’s best crop (or the most overripe crop, if you harvest late! Hopefully you don’t!).
One of the most enjoyable aspects of a community orchard work session, is that of the the team. Harvesting fruit is hard work when you have more than one tree, and especially when those trees are loaded with fruit. Nonetheless, with the dozen volunteers at this work session, this group was able to strip 3+ quince trees clean in just an hour. There were even a few late season figs on the opposite end of the orchard that they were able to pick.
PFTP is a largely volunteer-run organization. They even have volunteers who sew harvesting aprons, like the one you see on the volunteer pictured at left above. These colorful aprons have big pockets in front and zippers on one side that allow harvesters to conveniently store multiple pieces of fruit until they are ready to empty them out into milk crates for weighing and storage. This way, they don’t have to constantly make trips back and forth from the tree to the crate to drop just a few pieces of fruit.
As you can see above, this work session easily yielded more than 100 pounds of quince. In line with PFTP’s tradition, each volunteer was awarded a share of the fruit to take home, and the remaining high-caliber produce was donated to a local food pantry.
I spent ten years of my life in California, so when I think of an orchard, I see rows of trees. Followed by more rows of trees. And a few more rows of trees (for good measure).
But the great thing about Portland Fruit Tree Project’s orchards is that they are whole system, whole community spaces, that are meant for both people and plants alike. Part of that philosophy means that they carefully cultivate understory plants. What’s that? Think of it as all the plants growing beneath the trees (the “tree canopy”). When smartly chosen, they can send up valuable minerals from deep in the soil, attract predatory insects that will attack pests, and fix nitrogen—the most important nutrient for healthy, happy plants.
But like the orchard’s fruit trees, the understory and ground floor require regular care. That’s what the second half of this Fruits of Diversity work session was about…
Applying mulch to the base of fruit trees in late fall helps protect them from the winter cold. It’s like giving your trees a warm down jacket instead of a lightweight windbreaker. The key to mulching is removing the weeds around the base of the tree before shaping the mulch around it in the shape of a ring. If you’ve ever mulched, then you know how handy a rake can be in moving that organic matter in place. This smiling volunteer made a good choice to save her back with that rake!
Weeding is always an ever-important task in the orchard and garden alike. When winter sets in, the ground gets harder, making it particularly difficult to remove these organic squatters, so it’s best to give the orchard a good weeding before “putting it to bed” for the winter.
Ideally you remove a weed roots and all, which an often be tricky by hand. That’s why Wasingolo, pictured above, has decided to enlist the help of a digging shovel. By the looks of his face, I think he got it in the end.
Judging by the amount of debris this strong-armed volunteer is hefting away, Wasingolo wasn’t the only one!
Though it’s frequently unnecessary, some newly planted trees may need a shoulder to lean on during the winters months of the year. Factors that help determine this are 1) how much wind they will be exposed to, 2) if the tree is already bending quite a bit without support, and 3) if the root system is rather small relative to the tree. If you’re worried about someone making off with your tree, staking it might also be a reasonable deterrent.
As I mentioned above, the community orchard program at Portland Fruit Tree Project is not just about spreading the word of holistic orchard care; it’s about bringing people together in a space that welcomes different interests, abilities, ages and backgrounds.
The orchards bring together emerging leaders in the community, such as the two fall interns pictured at left, as well as partners focused on doing similar work.
One of the pillars of Fruits of Diversity is its partner, Village Gardens. A project of Janus Youth Programs, Village Gardens works to grow economic and leadership development through food. In addition to their support of FoD, they offer 80 garden plots to affordable housing residents in North Portland, support a children’s garden program, sponsor a summer farmers market, and much, much more. The three smiling faces below are from the Village Gardens network.
Though there was one family that had to leave early, I was able to snag an almost complete group photo of 18 of the volunteers, and PFTP staff and interns, who contributed to the day’s work.
Judging by the tree height behind them, can you fathom that this orchard was planted in April of 2013, not even four year ago?