Northern exposure: indulging in an obsession with Alaska

In the November wing, I listed the sad story about how my wife, Al -Fajr, finally, on our planned journey north in Stinson 108, just to break the rock arm on the old Franklin engine on the second day. By the time we ran on the rare part of the northern British Columbia and our technically hunting to install it, most of our time has disappeared and confiscated in the engine, and we overcome the retreat in the south, and we pledge to repeat the attempt in 2025. Flying Issue 954/January 2025).

However, my focus on Alaska throughout the summer remained, because I was flying there a lot in my role in the airline. Despite only 10 years of life in the current employer, it has become unexpectedly senior, currently 23 percent of the top of the Captain Seattle 737 menu. This gives me a good amount of control over the days of vacation, the types of trips in which I work, and where I lie down. During the northwest of the Pacific Ocean, this tends to be sunny places such as Phoenix, Kabo San Lucas, Mexico. In the summer, though, I find myself the oldest of the marina, as well as the occasional Fairbanks of diversity and Juno Nader when I can keep it.

I love Alaska energy in the summer. The sun rises 22 hours a day, and it seems that everyone is determined to take advantage of every glorious minute. The city of Anchorage itself is not something that it writes about at home (think about Des Moines with more tape shopping centers), but the beautiful oceans, the immediate proximity to the unpleasant wild, and the various activities available make it really attractive. Cycling, long -distance walking, fishing, driving, rowing, crab lunch meals and calmness in fermenting the forty -ninth state, and midnight places with new friends in Darwin’s theory – I have never felt bored in the African National Congress Party. Then there is a flight scene. Flying permeates every aspect of Alaska’s life like any other place on earth, with a proportional air movement. Planelspotting is always entertaining and constant in everything except the worst weather.

In the week before BC Misadventure, I was particularly a beautiful marina when I decided that the 93th airspace is worth an introduction. The ground aircraft and the sea in the Merrill Field (PAMR) was happy to lend me Cessna 172 and a coach for an hour, and I found the experience very useful. It seems that the airspace and the bases are hard in the first blush, but once you see the features and feel the relationship of airports with each other, you understand how the rules separate the various departures and arrival currents. Of course, I did not get there at Stinson, but it was very easy to finish the full exit C172 after a few weeks with 45 minutes of air and landing. And such, I was free to wander along the last border where I dared – bearing in mind that the employer would be somewhat upset if they were cut off from the marina.

In fact, half of the other scales stopped before working well. Last summer was unusually cloudy and rainy in a marina, and my stops seemed always coincided with marginal weather, and I was not interested in pressing my luck as a new coming with a basic understanding of local meteorological patterns only. I was also at first trying to fly on the Kenai Peninsula to the PAWD, which is almost impossible in the consistent southeastern flow that we were facing.

TAFS looked on August 29, but when I arrived at Merrill Field that morning, there was once again a broken marginal layer, and the Kenai’s pass cameras appeared to be dark. The first officer of the week, Breen May, came. We sat around the Earth and the sea for half an hour, we discuss the weather and chat with covered CFIS. “Why don’t you go to Talketna?” Suggest one. “It looks much better in this way.” Why not, in reality? I spent some time in Talketna (PATK) on a motorcycle trip for years and dug the adventure. It was a somewhat easy journey 80 miles with a little possibility of ways. While the Mat-Su Valley and the Susitna River in a complex in some rugged bone in East Kenai, they were beautifully cheerful in the golden aspects of Alaska.

The journey did not disappoint. The broken layer was dispersed shortly after our Schoolna across the cooking entrance, and as soon as the Air Force Elendorf (PAED) is overwhelmed, we went up over a swollen scattered Tarshum. There we got an unexpected treatment for Denali to the northwest. On our right, the cute slopes of the Talketna group were reckless with the color of the fall, and the upper heights carried the first of the snow. In Talkeetna, a continuous stream of stol equipped with a well -equipped STOL planes to the heels well to the ice landing near the Denali, but a quick conversation with the local FSS found a landing break for us. This left Brain and I am a good hour to walk to the city and wander around it and get coffee. The journey was wonderful and positive, although it was with the slight opposite wind, and we fell in Merrill with 30 seconds of the seized journey opening. Ah, the joys of the leasing.

Three weeks later, the dawn came to another berth overnight. Now it was mid -September, and it is a curse near the winter. This time there were no illusions to make it to Siur, but the weather actually proved better than the expectations about Anchorage, with 6000 feet roofs and sprayed spray. It was good enough to allow a fairly ambitious local trip to enjoy some wonderful landscapes

From Merrill, we headed to the northeast to the Knik arm to Palmer and then entered the acute Knik River Valley in the walls, and is still drawn late in the fall. The wide stones family here forms a real Super Cub Wonderland game. This is where every potential Bush pilot in the region is rising to raise the OffIPORT game and puts AB31S in the test. We have discovered many extinguishing who play much less than our 2,500 -feet wine bumper, which still feels very low under the tall terrain of the Chigach group. He turned south, through the coarse face of KNIK ice rivers and on the inner of the Cloes Cloes, to conduct a low examination of the George Lake and the very slope colony george.

She felt somewhat naked despite nearby gravel bars, near civilization, and radio gossip in the CTAF region. The ceilings were less, and the sky was greatly rained in the temperatures near the freezing, and I had to use carbohydrates every two minutes. Although the scene was greatly great, I breathed a sigh of relief when we retreated to the bottom of the valley to head to the Paaq Polmore Airport (PaQ) to get a bunch throughout the city. I dunno, people. It may be some of this age, and some of them may be natural airlines for natural risks. But my experience with my piston individuals in the old Stinson and Paceer has clearly left me volatile. I may finally give the possibilities that are not described as their right respect throughout these years.

The time increased in rent only 172 of my desire to get Stinson at the end to Alaska this year. But our plan to do this always depended on putting more time on the engine and rebuilding our confidence in it. Unfortunately, on our leg from Minnesota, we have seen another emergency inside the trip, which led to a series of adventures that shattered our confidence in PowerPlant for good. This, however, is a story of my next pillar.

This column first appeared in the February 955 issue of the aviation edition.