I’m working now on my commercial rating, and so I took the Arrow this afternoon to practice commercial maneuvers. I flew NW from my home airport KBED, and arrived at the area we call “the practice area”.

It was a bit hazy. The horizon was blurry.  Not a perfect day for Chandelles or for 55° turns, but not the worst day either.  As I cleared to the right at 3000′, I saw a Cessna about 1/2 mile away.  I waited for it to pass, then cleared again and saw a Warrior.

Getting too crowded.  I called Boston and asked for VFR advisories.  The controller started to bombard me with advisories.  And here’s the thing: whenever there was traffic, it was in the direction of the sun.  And it always was 500′ to 1000′ below me, no matter how high I climbed, no matter where I was relative to restricted area 4102 (which obviously had to be active).

Whenever I gazed at the sun and replied “negative contact”, the giggly controller would tell me “ah, and there’s additional traffic” and would then describe a plane which she is not talking to, at my 6 o’clock.

It occurred to me that stealth bombers are invisible to radar but visible to the eye, and here I am in a situation which is exactly the reverse.

It was a useful hour, all in all, and enjoyable too.  I was done practicing, heading back to KBED, musing about the differences between GA planes and stealth bombers, and looking for the Falcon I had to follow as number three for landing.  I am not sure exactly when, but sometime before landing it occurred to me that today is the day I will start the CloudAhoy blog.