As above so below, with Dan Wolf

We all scurry about, occupied and preoccupied. Then, an eye-opening change of perspective.

From Skaket Beach parking lot (right), what’s not apparent is the emerald panorama of submerged tidal flats beyond Little Namskaket Creek’s sinewy, ever-altering path.

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Dan Wolf was our State House Senator for six years, at the time the largest vote-getter for the office in Cape history. That alone would generate some fame.

He already was well-known for founding Cape Air in 1989 with one plane, six employees and one route (Provincetown-Boston). He parlayed Cape Air into the largest regional airline in the country, at one point 1200 employees with $120 million annual gross, serving as far as Micronesia and the Caribbean, yet always based in Hyannis and a major philanthropic force.

It didn’t hurt his reputation when he turned Cape Air into an ESOP company, forming an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Translation: Employees became owners of much of the business.

That said, one thing Dan Wolf has always been:

A pilot.

It’s 48 years since he first took that left-side seat. He managed Chatham airport before moving to Hyannis to get Cape Air off the ground, staying “current” and hands-on for decades, joining frontline pilots plying the seminal Boston-Ptown route summer Saturdays, a great way to remain in touch with runway realities and regular customers.

His Cape Air role now is much less, his love of flying undiminished. So when my cellphone blew up on a beautiful early spring morning, Dan looking to scarf a single-engine Cessna in Chatham, sightsee while leaves were still off the trees, execute multiple touch-and-goes at the Ptown airport to be sure his feathering remains delicate, for sure I was along for the ride:

A Cessna 172 Skyhawk, built around 1969

What he’s been doing for 48 years, among other things.

Now that’s a barrier, “North Beach” protecting Pleasant Bay.

Those are not great white sharks lurking in shallows off First Encounter Beach in Eastham. Those are aquaculture farms.

Wellfleet’s Uncle Tim’s Bridge, subject of so many groundlevel photos and paintings. And where’s Waldo, aka Seth’s house? In the frame … somewhere.

Pamet River, bay side. “Pamet” means “two mouths” in Wampanoag. The other mouth, with much less dentistry, opens to the ocean.

Provincetown’s hook; the low straight road that separates bay from Pilgrim Lake was built in the 1800s to mainline the railroad.

Two airports in this country operate within a National Park (or Seashore). One is Provincetown. The other? Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Eastham to Orleans ocean side, looking south toward Nauset Light and Harbor

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