4th of July night flight over Seattle v1.1

Since getting my pilot's license, I've developed a tradition of going up to watch the fireworks from the air. This time, we brought along a video camera. Be forewarned, the sound is unaltered, so all you're going to hear is the droning of the engine. You may want to turn the volume down.

What you'll see is our takeoff from Paine Field in Everett, headed north, followed by a turn to the west past the sunset, then south. Then, we head down to Seattle, and fly a sort of L-shaped pattern east-west over Ballard, Fremont and Wallingford, with a leg south over Lake Washington, past downtown, then back.

The small lake with the big fireworks is Lake Union, which we're generally north of. Beyond the Space Needle, you can see downtown Seattle and Elliott Bay, where the other big fireworks display is running.

If you listen carefully at the end, you can hear me say, "That was a *terrible* landing!"

This video is a repost, in order to improve video quality; the content is the same as the previous version.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• seattle
• night
• flight
• cessna
• 152
• fireworks
• july
• 4th

[LDSfaithAndLogic]

0:45 are those the northern lights? I didn't know we got them up here!

[IanJSeattle]

@LDSfaithAndLogic No, those are reflections of the radio display in the window.

[IanJSeattle]

There was a fair bit of traffic up there. I don't think I'd fly that route again, it was too crowded for comfort. Flying out of BFI, you're well set to deal with lots of traffic, though.

[elebeu]

Reminds me of Schweinfurt in '44.

[Tokorai]

Absolutely gorgeous. Thank you for uploading this. I'm moving there soon and this makes me want to head up there early just to see the show. If only I could afford to fly up here for the evening. =/ 

[HHS76]

The mountains & 500'+ hills make the fireworks look shorter!

[HHS76]

PS - you might want to add some tags to get more hits - like neighborhood and landmark names... Montlake, Portage Bay, Lake Union, Elliot Bay, Ballard Locks, Wallingford, Capitol hill, Queen Anne, Gasworks Park, I-5, Boats, Houseboats, Olympic Mountians...

[HHS76]

Very Cool! I was watching it from the walking bridge over 15th NE & NE Campus Parkway at UW - seeing all the air traffic, I was thinking the same thing about needing to watch for "cars" up there! In I-5 the troopers need to drive up and down threatening to give tickets to "watchers"...

I just posted a video response from that same day. I did a time-lapse of all the boats going to Lk Union & 520 - I took the feed from UWTV, and towards the end you can see the fringe of the Bellevue fireworks...

[mgf130]

thats awesome! i am really suprised though...from the ground I would've thought that the fireworks went alot higher than that!....man thats soooo cooooooooooool

[laosthaxgsr]

wow that was a mazing!!! even though fireworks were banned from seattle along time ago.. i live in rainier beach and the whole area was like a war zone on the 4th! i remember the police dept and fire dept parading up and down beacon to beach and there was way to much happening for them to stop and catch ppls setting off firworks lol great vid though

[4yall]

Taht was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I especially love the part after takeoff when you can see all the fireworks going off in the sky :D. looks just like that on a Fourth of July here in Miami