Tuesday, August 15, 2006
A view of USI from above
 It took LaVerne Jones ’05 about 20 minutes to drive from USI to Tri-State Aero and five minutes to fly back. This summer, the News and Information photographer got a perspective of USI’s growing campus few get to see – a view from above. Jones took a “photo hop” aboard a Cessna 172, a small four-seater piloted by Jeff Culligan of Tri-State Aero, in order to take aerial shots of the USI campus. Jones has flown to Mexico, Central America, and Europe through travel study opportunities offered by College of Liberal Arts faculty, but had never been in a plane that small. “I was nervous,” she said. “When the planes are bigger you don’t feel all the motion and turbulence.” She arrived at Tri-State Aero armed with mints to combat motion sickness, but after the plane took to the air, she soon forgot herself as she set to work photographing campus. “It was jumpy and jerky but I never got motion sickness. After I got through the nervousness the rest was just fun.” Shooting in the cramped space was challenging. She had limited mobility and had to avoid shooting the wings and struts of the plane itself. Culligan allowed her to loosen the shoulder strap on her seatbelt after they were in the air. The first thing that struck her looking down at USI was the light. She chose a day when there was little haze for better visibility. “The clouds were creating shadows on the ground so you could see light striking different parts of the campus,” she said. The bright white roof of the new David L. Rice Library stood out from other buildings on campus. According to Gary Burgdorf, construction administrator in the Physical Plant, the white color absorbs less solar energy and makes the library more efficient to cool. Jones said another noticeable feature was the emergence of the quadrangle. “You can see how the buildings are starting to develop together; the quad will tie all of them in,” she said. Culligan flew around campus eight to 10 times at 800 feet. The whole trip took about 30 minutes. Jones said that when she stepped foot back on sold ground, she still felt “high.” |
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