Local pilot shares bird's eye view of eclipse

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- As most of us traveled a few hours up north to catch a glimpse of the eclipse, a local pilot was able to skip all of the traffic. Taking off from the Albany airport in his Cirrus SR-20, pilot David Prescott headed up north toward Schroon Lake so he could be up in the air for the moment of totality and share the moment with his son.

The moment day turned into night, David Prescott could see the darkness approaching. "We couldn't capture at all on film in any way what it was like in real life," Prescott said.

Even with a bird's eye view of totality touching towns in its path, the moment left Prescott speechless as he reached for his phone to remember every second.

"It's like flying at night during totality," Prescott explained.

From his pilot's seat, he not only saw what was was coming but felt it. "It got colder, so we turned the heat up in the airplane a little bit more," he said.

As the moon's shadow fell on the Adirondacks, Prescott tried to keep up. On the ground, totality lasted anywhere from two to three minutes, but Prescott was able to extend his view to about four minutes. But cosmic timing was still too fast to chase the eclipse as he had hoped. The moon's shadow was traveling across New York at an average of 3,000 miles an hour compared to his plane, which was going 150 mph.

"Looking toward Plattsburgh -- as we tried to race toward Plattsburgh to keep with it -- you could see darkness on the ground, it's moving that quickly," Prescott said.

In matter of minutes, the night sky turned to daylight again, leaving Prescott and his passengers with an unforgettable feeling that'll eclipse any photo they'll ever capture.