Journey to the Volcano- Mt Kanlaon, Philippines

Hello to the #hive. Today there was an earthquake measuring 4.4 on the richter scale in the vicinity of Mt Kanlaon, a volcano on the neighbouring island of Negros. As I looked over towards it I was reminded of the journey Hive account@iamyohann and myself took there.

I'd flown in Hive account@iamyohann's Gyrocopter before and after one particular flight we were chatting and I was interested in what kind of range it had. He said it depended on the load ( weight of passenger) and the amount of fuel aboard. I asked if it was possible to reach Mt Kanlaon over on Negros, as its visible to us here in Moalboal on a clear day. After looking at the distance on a map, doing some fuel consumption calculations and then some take off runs with both of us and the required fuel load we made a plan.

An extremely early start was required as the Volcano is usually covered in cloud in the afternoon and winds also pick up around it as the day warms up. We arrived at the hangar before dawn.

It looked very cloudy as we took off and we could not even see past a huge bank of clouds over on Negros . We felt a little deflated and didn't think we would be able to complete our plan as it was so cloudy. But seeing as how we had made the effort to get up so early we decided to do a bit of a fly around just for fun.

While we were up there we noticed little breaks in the clouds and glimpses of colour, blue sky on the other side. We chatted briefly about whether we thought it would be worth taking a chance on it.

We decided to go for it and our gloomy mood lifted almost immediately as through a break in the clouds we found on the other side it was completely clear sky. With massive grins and more than a little laughter we continued getting more excited at the prospect of flying around a Volcano.

Almost immediately we could see Kanlaon in the distance. We realised more cloud was coming down from the north and would start to wash over the mountainside like a huge wave. We hoped we would get there before it was completely covered.

We arrived just in the nick of time. Clouds were starting to pour over the Volcano like a huge ocean wave breaking in slow motion over its sides. Being up there at over 8000ft in the sky watching the clouds move over the Volcano was breathtakingly beautiful. Something I will never forget.

We made several passes over and around it feeling elated at what we were experiencing. Just the two of us in the sky over a Volcano. It's just not something you do every say but it is something we both wish to do again.

And then we had to turn around and head back. Both lost in our own thoughts for the majority of the flight back, thinking about what we had just experienced.

We still speak of it often. Being in an open cockpit exposed to the elements at over 8000ft over an active Volcano. Not a bad day out really, I've had worse