Taiwan - National Palace Museum, Apartment Buildings / Some Close Calls

Because of the patterns, these guys caught my eye ever since setting foot on the place.  Took this picture while in a higher position overlooking the complex.  Thanks to the 28-300mm lens the Bigger Cahoona was wearing that day, was able to zoom progressively closer for the photos below:

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[continued from yesterday; series started 05/01] 
I'd like to think I was a decent pilot, but any pilot so green is never really good.  And I had my share of surprises in the learning curve.  There was the time I almost ended up in farmer Brown's soybean patch during a crosswind landing.  A time or two I had to go around because of a tendency to approach a bit high on final.  And there were another couple of close calls...

Once it was winter and I had my big brown jacket on, flying solo.  During taxi and run-up the cramped space in that little 150 heated up pretty quick, and by the time I got in the air I was sweating.  I was still lined up nicely on the centerline before my first left pattern turn, and that coat had to come off.  As I swung my arm back, the center of gravity changed in that little bitty plane and the nose came up, bringing me way too close to a stall.  I waited until the longer, more level downwind leg to finish the job.

Another time, before I soloed, Ed and I were flying among some nice, puffy clouds when I wondered aloud what it would be like to go inside one.  I'd done some minimal hood work and he decided to show me.  We punched one right in the middle and Ed let me have the controls, telling me to watch the instruments.  To my surprise, when we emerged from the other side of the cloud we were nearly upside down and falling fast!  Ed would not have taken that chance, I am sure, if we weren't at 5,000' above ground level.